Herding pigs

I'd been wanting to move the pigs out to pasture for a while so I can get their pen cleaned and fences moved. There's no reason they should not be out on pasture full time. I hate keeping pigs penned up. We bought several packages of fiberglass posts. A lot of people use these for temporary/moveable fencing. Insulators are bought separately, they are screw on, these are the things that hold the wire. There are plastic and fiberglass posts that already have "insulators" built in but they are more expensive and the plastic one especially don't hold up nearly as long or well as the fiberglass posts.

Rachel and I set to work on pushing the fiberglass posts into the ground last Friday and stringing the electric wire. Saturday I thought it would be nice if the butcher pig could spend her last day on the earth in a pasture instead of a pen so I set out to walk her out there. HA! Yeah, my idea that I was going to use a pig pole to guide a pig straight to the pasture like those show pigs was wishful thinking! The male pig got out first and while they are used to being in a pasture, they did not want to go to the pasture I wanted them in which  meant going through the goat's main pen, around the chicken coup and through a gate. I chased that stupid male pig for an hour! Jeremiah finally came out and we were able to coax him through the gate and into the pasture.

Then came one of the females. Lordy Moses you would have thought we were leading her to her death that day! She ran me over more than a few times and finally once we sweet talked, nudged, and bribed her almost all the way into the pasture, I came behind her with he hot wire fence and post (which when taught serves as the gate out of the pasture) and laid it across her rump for good measure to get her to move her fat butt into the pasture the rest of the way and not to think about backing out. After all was said and done, I laughed about her getting shocked for a good 5 minutes just for the fact that she gave us such a hard time and I wanted to drive the point home the wires were hot and she didn't want to screw with them. She got the point.

Then came Ann and if anyone ever tells you a pig cannot be an equestrian jumper, they'd be dead wrong. That pig jumped with every bit as much grace as an Olympic trained Warmblood over a fallen tree trunk. In the end we tired her out and she went in pretty easily.

After all was said and done, it probably took us a good 2 hours to get those three pigs moved 50 feet, the long way around. The next time they are moved, we'll add to the existing line in the opposite direction, open up the "gate", allow them to move though and close it behind them and remove the previous fence line.

All it takes to keep them in is 2 hot wires placed about 10 inches and 18-24 inches off the ground, depending on how big they are. It makes for cheap moveable fencing that allows us to keep the pigs on new soil tilling, eating and being pigs. It also allows for the kids to get a good laugh watching mom and dad trying to herd pigs like a couple crazy people.