We are now in the “finishing” stage of raising our first batch of hogs. Last spring when the pigs were much smaller we would run them in small paddocks in the woods during the day and then keep them in the barn overnight as shelter from predators. Once they reached the 100lb mark, in mid June, we built a portable pig shelter on skids and moved them out to pasture day and night. By using Pig Quik Fence, by Premier 1 Fencing, we made rectangular paddocks and moved them every 10-15 days, based on rainfall and how quickly they rooted up the pasture.
The acorns began falling around Aug. 28-30th, but we didn’t move the hogs back in to the woods until Sept 10th. The soil in the “forested” areas in more fragile, containing many roots, and a pig will quickly disturb the ground enough that if left too long, they can cause long-term damage. Our logic in waiting for 10 days of acorn drop is that we want them to be preoccupied with eating what is ON the ground more than what is UNDER the ground. As fall continues to rob the warmth from what is left of summer, the acorns will continue to accumulate and help fatten these hogs prior to slaughter.
Using portable electric netting, such as Pig Quick Fence, is very difficult in the woods. The pigs will constantly push downed branches around the ground and inevitably push big branches in to the fence, shorting it out and even damaging it.
Now that the pigs are much larger then their previous Spring-stay in the woods, we ran a single strand of electrified rope about 18″ off the ground and 18″ inside of the Pig Quik Fence. The hogs quickly learned to stay clear of this rope and we hope that this extra barrier in front of the Quick Fence will help keep branches from making their way on to the netting.
Many producers only run a single strand of wire or rope to contain larger hogs. Although we may do that in the future, we still do not have any perimeter fences and the risk of a hog getting out is too great.
Water and Feed required creative solutions to be easily portable, so we made platform on skids that houses a Brower feeder and a 55 gallon plastic drum with a water nipple on it. We built the platform 4ftx6ft to make the footprint large enough that any water dripping from the nipple wouldn’t be used to create a giant wallow and mess right next to the feeder. We use a hose to create a wallow in a different location.
The entire process of moving the pigs from their pasture-paddock to the new forest-paddock took about 3 or 4 hours. We have been free-feeding the hogs since mid-June and thus feed is no longer a tool that can be used to make the pigs move where you want them. But, we trained these hogs beginning last spring to follow us if we “ran and oinked loudly”.
We needed to move the hogs from the pasture to the Quonset hut to spend a few hours while we tore-down the pasture fencing and moved it to the woods. Run, oink! Run Faster!
They followed without issue and were easily occupied in the Quonset with some overgrown squash and blemished tomatoes.
After walking the 1/4 acre in the woods, we used a branch-lopper and gas-powered weedwhacker to clear a path for the electric fence. Thankfully we only had to trim a few small bushes and young saplings and then were able to run the rest of the pasture “around” the woods, through grass and a dirt trail.
We situated the portable hog shelter on this dirt trail with the foresight that we could then encircle the woods on the other side of the trail when the pigs were ready to be moved to a new acorn-buffet. The dirt trail is on the northern-most edge of the current paddock and thus will then be on the southern-most edge of the new paddock when we move the pigs to new ground. Pigs do not soil their bedding, so the shelter can remain in place for 2 separate paddocks, saving time and energy.
To secure the electrified rope we used a combination of lightweight fiberglass posts and nylon rope and tree trunks. The fiberglass posts are used to keep the rope at the proper height and guide it through the trees, and the nylon rope secured to tree trunks allows the electrified rope to be given some tension.
That’s it! Pigs in the woods, eating acorns. Watching them fall asleep with a full belly under the tall oaks and maples makes it all worth while.
