Homesteading Multipart Series Part V – Fencing Hogs

 

When I was a kid the hog lot was a wooden structure about 16 feet by 16 feet square. It had sides that came up about 4 feet and a roof about 3 feet above the sides covered in corrugated tin roofing and a wooden floor. At one end was a trough made of just two boards and fastened to the floor. There was a shoot that lead from outside the pen into the trough so no one had to walk up and pour the food over the pen. The back wall was removable for that fateful day but it was fastened shut for the full life of those hogs.

This was the way it was done in Appalachia. Even as a kid I thought this was cruel but it was not what I was doing so I didn’t dwell on it much. But as an adult I see it for what it was. It was the cheapest way that homesteaders could put meat on the table with the least work. The pigs never escaped nor did they see anything but the sides of that pen, not even the homesteader, except for us kids who used to climb up on the side and look down at them at feeding time. They lived this way for 6 to 8 months wallowing in their own filth. It was a terrible cruel way to exist. Today we don’t have to nor should we raise them this way.  

Fencing has come a long way since the 1960’s. There are several options for raising pigs that don’t involve the cruel Appalachian Techniques of yesteryear. Today there are options like Hog Panels, Field Fencing, and Electric. Let’s talk about these different ways of housing hogs.

A hog is a tough little animal. Most of the time, a full grown black bear could be bluffed by a full size porker. They are tough animals and with their head always looking down they are ready to push right through anything just like a little tractor. I knew some folks who tried to contain pigs with chain link fence. This fencing can’t be stretched tight enough to not flex at the bottom. Without a solid bottom to attach the fence to the pigs will push right under. Welded wire is just too flimsy. So what are the best fences for pigs.

 

Hog Panels

Hog panels are just as suggested, they are strong fencing made of heavy gauge wire, 4 or 5 gauge. Remember the lower the number the larger the wire. The rectangles at the bottom are smaller than the rectangles on top. Most hog panels are only 3 feet tall up to 50 inches. Pigs just are not jumpers. The panels are put in with t-posts and can be moved relatively easy. They come in various lengths from 8 to 16 feet and are relatively inexpensive – I think the recent price at tractor supply for a 50” x 16’ panel is $36. So for each 100 feet of fencing the cost is around $320 with a t-post every 5 feet. This investment is reusable from year to year. So over the 15 or so years your cost per pig goes way down once you have made that first investment.

The pros and cons of this are that hogs are way smarter than the average person would give them credit. They will eventually keep working at the fence in order to get to where they want to go. They will push against it just scratching and work at its base to tunnel out. Also, there is the ground. Pigs love to push around the dirt and get grubs and roots. They will root the ground up fairly quickly and if you don’t move them or if the area they have is too small it will turn into a smelly mud hole. Pigs on ample pasture do not smell! Pigs on too small a space stink!

 

Electric Fence

Electric fencing is a great way to contain hogs. However, pigs have to be taught to the fencing. You cannot put a young pig in a pasture with an electric fence and expect them to be there in the morning. In the beginning when pigs are learning about electric fences they need a true barrier so that they can’t just barrel through the electric fence. Hog panels and electric fence inside of them are the best training method. Pigs are smart and will learn very quickly that that little wire hurts when they touch it. A small 16’x32’ pen with a double strand of electric about 6” off the ground and the 2^nd about 16” off the ground and those pigs will learn to respect the electric in just a couple of days. The first few days will be alive with squeals but very quickly they will get it figured out. After two or three weeks they will never touch that wire.

This is when you can expand their pen without the need for additional hog panels. Once trained to electric fence a pig with ample pasture, food and water will not put pressure on the fences. Also, unlike the pigs of Appalachia they become used to the homesteader and are happy to see you with some treats for them each day and will come running to see you. This does cause some homesteaders a dilemma because they begin to see these smarter than dogs animals as pets and have problems come fall. Never forget these are for food. I recommend never naming your pigs but if you must, name them as food items. Porkchop, Lardo, Tater Peel, Tenderloin, etc. are all acceptable names for your porcine friends.

There are only a couple of drawbacks to electric fencing. Predator Pressure: Once full grown pigs, for the most part, can protect themselves. But as shoats they need the protection of the hog panels. Also, the electric fence requires it to be hot so you have to have a consistent electric source. You also have to check the fence daily as simple things like weeds and tree limbs can cause the fence to malfunction. Trust me the pigs will know when the fence is not working. A battery powered fence with a solar charger is sufficient for this type of fencing.

Pigs vs hogs – I use that term interchangeably. When I was a kid, a pig was called a shoat. A shoat is a pig that is still suckling or is just weaned. We called shoats pigs. Once they got to say 100 pounds we stopped calling them pigs and started calling them hogs. A hog in Appalachia ready to slaughter when I was a kid was anything from 300 to 600 pounds.  Today most people want a leaner hog at about 250-300 lbs. Based on food intake on modern bought feed that is the optimum feed to meat ratio. But in Appalachia they were fed on more locally grown food stuffs and generally ate what the family ate. So they let them grow much larger.

I hope this finds you well. Send up a prayer for us and we will send one up for you. Hogs are one of the most fun animals on the farm to rear in true homesteader fashion. I mean that they are bought as feeder pigs and raised for only 6 or 8 months and then slaughtered. Given enough space they are a joy to raise and not a smelly mess and boy do they taste good. Pigs like that slow easy pace of life. They are not the big, dumb, lazy animals that you see on TV. They are intelligent and capable creatures who know that Life, like Homesteading, is a Marathon Not a Sprint – Slow Down and Enjoy the Ride! 

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