# How to coax hog into trailer...



## cferg (Dec 8, 2004)

This is our 4th pig and we've never had a problem getting them to load into the hog trailer....until this one!!

The pen is a big mud puddle thanks to hurricanes in NW Fla. and we have to get her out. She's about 250 and getting mired down in the muck.

We with-held food for a while and have tried all her favorite treats to no avail...marshmellows, sw. potatoes, dog/cat food...

she gets half way up the ramp (wood ramp 2' wide, but no "walls"..no place to keep them up) and just backs down.

any ideas?

thanks Ed


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## tonto (Jul 1, 2004)

I should say right up front that I've never tried this.

However, my sister's neighbor had some hogs he was trying to load and
it just wasn't working. I don't know the details, sorry.

He had quite an audience watching him do this - which I'm sure he loved. :no: 
Anyway, someone in the audience got a big bucket and helped get one
of the hogs turned around so that it's back was toward the trailer. They
put the bucket over the pigs head and the pig kept backing up trying to
get the bucket off. I guess steering the pig was kind of tricky, but it
did eventually work.

Just a thought.

-tonto


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## Lynn &amp; Chuck (Mar 30, 2003)

We lured ours out of their pen this year with food. Had taken the food out the evening before so they were kind of hungry. Once we got them out of the pen and into the run area going to the trailer we blocked them with a sheet of plywood from going back into the pen.

They stepped up into the trailer but didn't seem to like the plywood flooring. It is kind of slippery and unfamiliar so we spread shredded paper and straw on it like I use for their bedding and they hopped right in. Seemed to me the familiar footing was what they were looking for.

Maybe some straw or whatever you use for bedding spread thinly on the ramp will make her comfortable enough to walk on it. Did the trick for us anyway.

Lynn


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## Tango (Aug 19, 2002)

cferg said:


> she gets half way up the ramp (wood ramp 2' wide, but no "walls"..no place to keep them up) and just backs down.
> 
> any ideas?
> 
> thanks Ed


Just one idea: If the ramp or trailer temp is high for a pig it will be hard to coax her in . Try bathing the ramp / trailer in her mud and/or loading her in the cooler times of the day- w/ feed of course. Hay in the trailer as someone suggested is a great idea. The bucket over the head was a method that worked for two 75 lb. gilts we moved a couple of years ago. It was hard with them but we did it. .. can't imagine moving a 250 lb. pig with a bucket on her head up a ramp she doesn't feel like climbing. Best wishes.


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## cferg (Dec 8, 2004)

Still no luck getting her in and we have MORE rain coming. I can tell she's upset...every time she lays down her rump is getting stuck in the mud. Poor thing is hungry and tired......I'm worried this rain will make her sink...there is only one small kinda firm spot in her pen...it's smaller than she is.

Covering the ramp wiht mud.straw sounds like a good idea...the part of ramp she'll go up is covered wiht mud...

Oh mercy...another day of pig mud, in the rain no less. 

thanks for the advice, I'll keep ya posted.

Ed


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## Captg (Dec 9, 2004)

When she starts up the ramp and is headed in the right direction, have someone behind her with a sorting panel to help coax/push her the rest of the way into the trailer.
I made our sorting panels out of 1/2 inch plywood. They measure about 36in wide by 36-48 in tall and have a handhold cut in the top and side. (I used the length/shape of a spray paint can as a template). 
Our sow loves apples so tossing a couple into the trailer helps!


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## RedneckPete (Aug 23, 2004)

Get two strong guys, one on each side.

One guy grabs the ear on his side with both hands. The other guy graps the ear on his side with one hand and the base of the tail with the other.

Don't be timid and pull like there is no tomorrow. I've never heard of anyone ripping the pigs ears off.

It really helps if you are ****ed off at the pig, perhaps because she tipped you into the mud a few times.

Pete


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## Mulefoot (Sep 5, 2002)

First of all make sure she knows that there is some nice tasty feed in the trailer... Then if possible make a narrow chute out of some gates and steel posts, it needs to be narrow enough that she can't turn around and then get her into the chute and stay behind her with a piece of plywood or a hog sorter panel and start pushing her through the chute and onto the trailer. If she tries turning around on you, just lift up her rear end with her tail. That will keep her off balance and moving forward.

I've had to do things like this many times before. It also really helps if you have patience with her and a strong back if you need to lift her.


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## vtfarma (May 6, 2003)

Lots of great ideas here. The one thing we have found on loading any animal is if the ramp is too high they don;t want to go. We have sheets of chip board that we make walls out of for her. Then there is a person who comes behind them with a board so they can't turn around and go back. Drop a little grain on the ramp and put the rest in the trailer. Hay or shavings in the trailer and on the ramp will help. If she is struggling to get out of the muck to the ramp drop one of the boards down for her to come out of the slime. Beyond all that, the person doing the board from behind needs to be strong enough to be sure she does not go backwards. One other trick. Our trailer has a sliding door in the front and when we are having a hard time we leave that one open. When they get in the trailer and are heading for open ground we close it and the gate behind them. 

The suggestion that getting ticked and having super strength is a good one too. We have had times that the only thing that loaded them was shear determination. Now if they could just bottle that!


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## MoBarger (Mar 5, 2003)

Mulefoot has some experience it sounds!
Buckets and feed bags are hard because the pig doesn't usually do the work for you, and their squeals are out of this world when you make them do something they don't want to!
Our best luck has been with leaving the trailer in place a day or so before their date with destiny. Make a chute with extra hog panels, plywood or even pallets and rebar. Put a rubber mat on the trailer ramp and/or cover it with old hay or straw. Place more hay/straw inside trailer along with food and water. Take their food and water out of pen. Apples work good too 
Come nightfall they just might go in there to sleep and eat. Ours always have.
Good luck! Trust me I know how hard and frustrating it is.


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## vtfarma (May 6, 2003)

Come to think of it we do have a rubber mat down on the ramp. It stays there all the time. We keep the good treats for when we know we are loading. Squash, melon rinds, buckets of bread and fruit scraps. When all else fails we have an ACD who is amazing with the pigs and will tweak them just so to get their behinds where we want them!


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## Chuck (Oct 27, 2003)

I had some pigs one time and couldn't get them in the trailer for anything. Got so fed up that I said forget it and left. We'd been trying to coax it up there with food, no dice.

Well, I left a sweet potato pie in the trailer, and five minutes later, the pig smelled it and went right on in.


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## Mulefoot (Sep 5, 2002)

MoBarger said:


> Mulefoot has some experience it sounds!


Yeah, I have a bit of experience, I grew up with having hogs on the farm, worked on a couple of different large hog farms while I was at college and then had a 75 sow farrow to finish operation after college until bad prices got me. Now I just have 5 sows that I 'play' with on the farm after I get done with my off farm job.

When I had the 75 sow operation we had a number of dirt lots and I learned how to move pigs off of them and onto a hog mover. Sometimes the learning curve was steep, dirty, and muddy!


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