# What do you use for hog fencing??



## Arielle (Feb 20, 2013)

I'm curious as to what has worked for fencing. I hear electric won't keep a pig in if it is solar. If not electric, what else is an option. 

--Wannabe pig owner


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## richmond1273 (Oct 4, 2011)

i currently only use cattle/hog panels. i am hoping to train them to electric wire in the cattle panels and then let them loose out into the pasture with field fence and electric wire.


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## larryfoster (May 15, 2009)

I'd be interested in the question on solar, too.
My soon to be built hog pen is pretty far from my electric


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## cooper101 (Sep 13, 2010)

Arielle said:


> I hear electric won't keep a pig in if it is solar.


Not true. A solar charger that runs out of juice doesn't work well, but if it's functioning, it's fine. AC is more reliable, but any functioning electric fence works great.

I start them in the smaller pen made of hog panel with one strand of electric around the inside. Once they're in the 80 pound range and know what the fence is, I let them out into a pasture with a 3 strand wire fence. 8, 16, and 24 inches high. I zip-tie a 2 foot high plastic snow fence on the outside of the wire. It gives them a visible boundary. Haven't lost any. Electric works great. I have a neighbor who used to have some pigs. He marvels that I never lose any. "We tried everything," he says. He can't believe they stay in that little fence I have. Electric works. It's also the cheapest way to enclose a large area. 

I currently have 3 in a garden pen that has 3 strands of wire using a little 4 D-cell charger, "up to 0.25 joules." They respect it just fine. My main charger is 2.5 joules. They really respect that one. 

The key is training them in a smaller, sturdy pen. Search the forum; there are a lot of posts about using electric.


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## cooper101 (Sep 13, 2010)

Unless you're thousands of feet from electric, I'd recommend putting an AC charger next to your last outlet and then running wire to the fence. You can use insulated wire or just run electric fence wire out to the fence.

AC chargers are just less hassle. I use my little battery one as a backup or if I'm moving pens around.


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## Fire-Man (Apr 30, 2005)

I use a DC fence charger that I have hooked to my own solar panel and I promice you it gets the hogs attention if they test it and mine too if I happen to touch it. Its a 1 Joule. 

My neighbor has a 6 Joule and I crossed his fence to water his cows and I bumped the wire. It about cause me to pass out--I had to stand there and allow my brain to catch back up----LOL, that is one bad feeling. I would never want to find out what a 15 to 20 Joule would do---It would probably kill you if you got 100% grounded and touched it.

You do need to train a pig/hog to the fence before you let them into a fenced in area.


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## gerold (Jul 18, 2011)

Arielle said:


> I'm curious as to what has worked for fencing. I hear electric won't keep a pig in if it is solar. If not electric, what else is an option.
> 
> --Wannabe pig owner


First i run field wire around 4 - 5 ac. lots with steel post. I ran one elec. wire approx. 6 inchs off the ground and inside the field wire and connected to the steel posts with plastic elec. wire insulators. 

Mod.# 440 solar-shock, 4v battery,Fi-shock inc.
This charger is around 15 years old so i don't know if the company is still making them. 

Put a new battery in it two years ago. Works very well for my pigs,sows,boars.
I have Yorkshire pigs. I have elec. sure-shock charger also but haven't used it for the pigs.


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## cooper101 (Sep 13, 2010)

If you're fencing in a few acres or less, 2 joules is plenty. I've been zapped by my 2.5 joule charger a couple times and I don't think I could force myself to touch it again. It hurts. The pigs scream when they hit it. One good zap works a lot better than several light ones, so a good charger is key. I'm used to them squealing when they touch it (pretty rare) and it doesn't startle me. I had a buyer come out to see the pigs once and one hit the fence and screamed and my customer about wet her pants. They don't like the voodoo.

The keys are to train them in a sturdy small pen and make sure they know where the fence is in their new big pen. Their eyesight is not great. A visible boundary helps a lot.


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## secuono (Sep 28, 2011)

If you get blackouts, AC is worthless and will get you into a heap of trouble. 
My pigs are too smart, or maybe too stupid, to be electric trained...So I'm forced to use stock panels and a lot of tposts close together.


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## arnie (Apr 26, 2012)

My hog lot is made of field fence it worked well but as age has weeknd it I ran 1 strand of electric wire about 1 fot above the ground with a cheep solar charger from tractor supply and no worrys one or two touches on the wire and they learn to stay away . I had a giant sow when we went to butcher shewould not croos where the fence was leading to a long morning of pushing pulling and fighting .I kept my new piglet in a chian link dog kennel because it was so small and it was easyer to keep warm in the little dog box as it grew it became an excape expert pushing on the gate and bottom wire to get out and play with the dogs and cows I even just let it stay loose a few days as it just stayed close never hitting the woods .when it followed meup to the cow barn I led her into the hoglot with a bucket of feed closed this expert rooter and gate pushing little pig in and fliped the electric on .as I milked I heard the first squeel and acouple hours later another as I continued my chores but that's it no more trying to excape .hogs being the smartest of our livestock learn the fastest makeing them the easyest to train to the hot wire unlike horses n cows with there thick coats the pigs always lead with there wet noses .


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

It all depends on what the motivations are, how large the space and the predator pressures. If the neighbors are far, you don't have much in the way of predators and lots of field space for the pigs then fencing can be very minimal. Otherwise I would strongly suggest electric. You can setup the energizer at the house and then run wire out to the fences either underground or up on fence posts. We have many miles of fencing around our perimeter which then powers the interfield and paddock fences.

I would suggest a minimum of 2.5 joules. Most solar energizers are smaller than that although I've seen some new ones that are that strong. You could, in a pinch, setup an inverter and deep cycle batteries with a regular AC fencer.

Most of our fences are wire over a stone wall. The stone wall is low in most cases and actuals as a visual boundary with the hot wire to four acting as the psychological boundary.

In some cases we've just used netting or even just the stone walls. Geographic features can make good fences. Note that we don't have near neighbors, have large fields and do have lots of predator pressure. Our livestock guardian herding dogs take care of the predators and backup the fences. If animals get out the dogs put them back in.

Animals do need to be trained to the electric to be most effective. It is very important to have the things the animals want inside the fence and the scary things outside the fence. We find that pigs are quite easy to fence.

Cheers,

-Walter Jeffries
Sugar Mountain Farm
Pastured Pigs, Sheep & Kids
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/


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## Arielle (Feb 20, 2013)

Thank you EVERYONE !!! 

Electric fence needs a visual cue for the pigs. I think I need some help with understanding the best options for that. Can the hogs "see" netting? THree strands of wire---an eye rail? Like for horses, a pole set at the top?


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## Arielle (Feb 20, 2013)

Thank you EVERYONE !!! 

Electric fence needs a visual cue for the pigs. I think I need some help with understanding the best options for that. 

Can the hogs "see" netting? 

Or if THree strands of wire---an eye rail? Like for horses, a pole set at the top?


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## cooper101 (Sep 13, 2010)

I have a pen in an old garden with a small rock boundary, not even a wall and just that helps a lot.

For my big pens, I have 3 strands of wire with snow fence zip tied to it. That works great. I've come to like the snowfence because it's pretty cheap, it makes it really easy to visually check the fenceline from a distance, it works, and it gives the neighbor's tractors something to avoid. 

Just wire alone does work, but it works best if you can teach them where it is. If you have wire on their starter pen, they'll learn it's bad. Then when you let them out, you need them to like you enough by that point to want to follow you around. I give them a little "tour" by slowly walking the perimeter. They follow me and they actually seem to take note of where the fence is. I go slowly enough and stop often, so they can look around, see the fence. Once they know where it is, the visible thing isn't so important. Many people use one strand of electric wire and that's it. If the good stuff (food, shelter, girls/boys, etc.) is on the inside and they know what the wire is and where it is, they'll stay inside of it.

It just has to be visible and consistent with what they were trained with so they always associate that thing with the boundary and getting zapped. Pigs do see some color (I've read) so even just a strip of yellow caution tape or something like that that shimmers in a breeze will tip them off that the boundary is where ever they see that tape. And they'll remember that when they got too curious about the yellow tape, they got the voodoo.

Don't overthink it too much.

If you still need to buy everything you'll use for fencing, electronet is a good whole-life solution. When they're little and you're first training them, they aren't as physically able to go through the fence. In a couple days, they'll be trained, and as they get bigger, even though they could physically just go right through the netting, they're scared to death of the electric. It's also easy to set up and move around on open ground. Not so easy in rougher terrain.


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## Fire-Man (Apr 30, 2005)

Arielle said:


> Thank you EVERYONE !!!
> 
> Electric fence needs a visual cue for the pigs. I think I need some help with understanding the best options for that. Can the hogs "see" netting? THree strands of wire---an eye rail? Like for horses, a pole set at the top?


I trained my pigs to the hot wire when I first got them. The older hogs seem to train the younger pigs. I have moved my hogs into several different area's in the last couple months---every time They are allowed into a new area---they follow the fence all the way around--till they get back to the starting point, then over the next few weeks--anywhere that is soft enough to root---they root up a mound all the way under the wire---sometimes this mound of soil gets on the bottom strand of wire and I have to clear the wire. Hogs are Smart!


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## Arielle (Feb 20, 2013)

Thank you Fireman and Cooper. 

I have some electronetting.


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## cooper101 (Sep 13, 2010)

Arielle said:


> Thank you Fireman and Cooper.
> 
> I have some electronetting.


One suggestion I saw on (I think) Highlands' website is to disconnect the bottom couple conductors on the netting. For whatever reason, maybe as a protest against the fence, they will root up along the entire fenceline and often bury the bottom of the fence. You don't really need electric right down to the ground, so disconnecting the bottom couple will help it not ground out all the time.


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## Arielle (Feb 20, 2013)

cooper101 said:


> One suggestion I saw on (I think) Highlands' website is to disconnect the bottom couple conductors on the netting. For whatever reason, maybe as a protest against the fence, they will root up along the entire fenceline and often bury the bottom of the fence. You don't really need electric right down to the ground, so disconnecting the bottom couple will help it not ground out all the time.


Thanks for the reminder. In the past I have used it only for sheep and mowed a path to place the stakes. Even in grass it can ground out. 

Suggestion on smallest possible area? My first plan is to promote rooting in the garden area.


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## cooper101 (Sep 13, 2010)

You don't have to promote rooting. They'll do it. For 2 pigs something like 40 x 40 will be rooted up within a couple weeks. You have to keep an eye on it. Once rooted, they trample it down until it's hard as rock. You have to rotate them before they then compact it.


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## ErikaMay (Feb 28, 2013)

Keeping you pigs happy is a huge part of keeping them in. A happy, satified pig will not challege the fence like an angry pig. 

My Rosie was happy in her little pen for 3 months until the rain started and it turned to mud. She kept saying "I NEED SOMETHING BETTER! You've got 2 weeks!" I tried to build her a shelter in the barn connecting to her pen. It worked for a few days, but it wasn't enough. She was very clear with me, but our perimeter fences were no good. Finally she got mad and started tearing through the cattle panel. I spent a whole weekend corraling her back to the farm while the ex made a fence. Heck, she even punched some holes in the barn when I tried to lock her in there for "safe keeping." In the end she got to free range on our 10 acres and we put up a terrible, flimsy electric fence with a 5 foot tall brush pile behind it. But you know what? Rosie is happy now and so she has no reason to leave. We've been working on the fences and had them completely DOWN, like, on the ground electric off, and she stays in! But if she gets mad again? all bets are off.


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## FarmboyBill (Aug 19, 2005)

IF hogs aare hungry. No electric will hold them. I bought once a solor charger. It wasnt worth bringing home.

The quality of fencing needed goes into relationship with how big a hog lot is.

Ivegot a hog lot thats 100X300, and it was origionally built out of slatted pallets, and did fine for 25yrs. NOW ive got a SOLID pallet wall around the same area as the origional pallets finally rotted out.
The lot has 5 inner lots in it plus a small 30ft pond thereabouts. SO< IF they ever got out of one lot, they were likely still in another. The pond was on one end of the 300. So, they liked to lay in/out of the pond and then at feeding time they would have to walk to near the other end to feed.


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## wischicken (Oct 8, 2011)

Im thinking of raising a few feeders up this year. I want to try them on a small pasture. Do the posts need to be the steel T posts or can you use the round steel posts? What kind of wire or can poly rope/tape be used?


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## agmantoo (May 23, 2003)

Electric chargers will contain hogs. As with any animals that are to be confined with electric fence as the perimeter fence it is necessary to have a good high output fence charger. Chargers that work off the "mains" utility supplied power work the best. Expect to buy a charger in the 6 joules range or up and expect to pay $125 up for such a charger. ParMak is a USA company that makes decent chargers. Use the 12 1/2 gauge high tensile grade 3 galvanized wire and install proper grounds. Once hogs get conditioned to an electric fence they are easy to contain. I also suggest buying a Stafix fence compass. This tool is used to verify the condition of the output of the charger and as an aid should you have a fault in the fence circuit.


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## Copperhead (Sep 12, 2011)

Very Loudly Second the idea of the Stafix Fence Compass!!!:soap:


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## larryfoster (May 15, 2009)

How long do the batteries last in the battery chargers?
For example, I saw one on Amazon
Zareba B10LI Battery Operated Low Impedance 10 Mile Fence Charger
Can't find the joules rating on the site


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## gerold (Jul 18, 2011)

larryfoster said:


> How long do the batteries last in the battery chargers?
> For example, I saw one on Amazon
> Zareba B10LI Battery Operated Low Impedance 10 Mile Fence Charger
> Can't find the joules rating on the site


If it is battery only operated i don't think i would buy it. I prefer AC or solar. Don't have to worry about recharging or buying a new battery for a long time. 
Its may be around 1/4 Joule. Not very strong at any rate. My battery in my solar charger last for years.


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## cooper101 (Sep 13, 2010)

larryfoster said:


> How long do the batteries last in the battery chargers?
> For example, I saw one on Amazon
> Zareba B10LI Battery Operated Low Impedance 10 Mile Fence Charger
> Can't find the joules rating on the site


They're "up to" .25 joules. I have one. It works fine. The batteries last at least the lifetime of a butcher hog. I put fresh ones in every time I use it. It does work, but I only use it on a little 60x40 pen and as a back up. It's probably best used for a small pen or to power a fence with some sort of a physical boundary. I use it on a pen with a low rock boundary. They seem to not like walking on the rocks, so the rocks slow them down and the electric keeps them inside. They feel it when they touch it and they seem to really not want to touch it again. 10 miles of fence is optimistic and would be best-case, in my opinion.


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## Arielle (Feb 20, 2013)

ErikaMay said:


> Keeping you pigs happy is a huge part of keeping them in. A happy, satified pig will not challege the fence like an angry pig.
> 
> My Rosie was happy in her little pen for 3 months until the rain started and it turned to mud. She kept saying "I NEED SOMETHING BETTER! You've got 2 weeks!" I tried to build her a shelter in the barn connecting to her pen. It worked for a few days, but it wasn't enough. She was very clear with me, but our perimeter fences were no good. Finally she got mad and started tearing through the cattle panel. I spent a whole weekend corraling her back to the farm while the ex made a fence. Heck, she even punched some holes in the barn when I tried to lock her in there for "safe keeping." In the end she got to free range on our 10 acres and we put up a terrible, flimsy electric fence with a 5 foot tall brush pile behind it. But you know what? Rosie is happy now and so she has no reason to leave. We've been working on the fences and had them completely DOWN, like, on the ground electric off, and she stays in! But if she gets mad again? all bets are off.


Thank you for sharing the difficult side of containment. THis is my dread, so I appreciate your input and clearly a lot of thought needs to go into planning to keep a pig happy. :duel: I don't want to be fighting with a pig, I"m sure to lose!!


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## Arielle (Feb 20, 2013)

FarmboyBill said:


> IF hogs aare hungry. No electric will hold them. I bought once a solor charger. It wasnt worth bringing home.
> 
> The quality of fencing needed goes into relationship with how big a hog lot is.
> 
> ...



Oak pallets do last a long time, especially in a dry location. 

Just so I am clear, you abandoned the solar electric, and strictly used the pallets? THey didn't challenge it? How did you support the pallets, as in hold them together: horizontal 2 x 4? Or posts?


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## Arielle (Feb 20, 2013)

larryfoster said:


> How long do the batteries last in the battery chargers?
> For example, I saw one on Amazon
> Zareba B10LI Battery Operated Low Impedance 10 Mile Fence Charger
> Can't find the joules rating on the site


Many, many years ago, I raised 5 hogs in a 40 x 40 section, surrounded by brush and under a old standard apple tree ( which is still there) and I learned that the pigs knew when the battery failed because they were out and all over the place, including the neighbors lawn. Now I felt really bad, but they were nice about it and no real damage done. Just fill in the holes. I built a solid fencing outside the electric and they stayed put until butcher time. 

Years later, in a large pasture, I used a very large solar panel and a car battery and really liked how well it worked keeeping sheep in and predators out. THe netting was easy to use on flat grassland. ( I"m finding it a bit of a challenge in a wooded area with many small sticks to get hung up on.)


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## Wvfarmer (Dec 16, 2011)

We use electro netting with a solar charger. Works great for us and we can move it. We tie 4 hog panels together and run a strand of hot wire around the bottom to train them first. they always learn really fast not to touch it! We Are on our second pair and never had one escape (knock on wood)!


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