Red Wattle Pigs

[ClinchValley86]

Anyone deal with pigs? I've not yet. But have an opportunity to get a young red wattle female. Have a friend with a red wattle boar. I'm considering starting some.

We've got about 30 acres of woods in back of our farm. It's unfenced and was cut for timber in the late 90's.

Can I run them in the woods? I've been reading about pigs that are trained to hot wire. Anyone have experience with that?

They're wanting to trade me the 200 pound pig towards some beef. I've wanted to try pigs since I got here in 2016. I could sell pork no problem. Just know nothing on raising them.

Also, I cannot stand to see animals in mud. I suspect that'll be a conflict.

 

[Hpacres440p]

My dad talks about hot wire for their pigs when he was a kid. They'd hit it with their nose and get 12" shorter. Easier maybe since they don't jump?

 

[BFE]

We ran hundreds of hogs behind a hot wire. They respect it, but they're smart and there's always one that'll test it every day or two. If one knows it's down, they all know it seems.

Ring them to cut down on the rooting, but it's nearly impossible to stop it completely. You have hogs, you'll have hog wallers.

 

[Logan52]

I raised Duroc Hogs in the late1970s and kept them in with a 6 volt Parmac solar fencer. It worked pretty well except for one thing. We fed ear corn back in this days and the hogs learned to push the cobs into piles and short out the fence with the piles of cobs.
A recurring bad dream back then was the hogs were out, I could not find them. and unfortunately they kept returning over the next six months.

There is money in selling pork direct but it is a mess and a lot of work.

 

[Twisted]

Hogs have very small and few sweat glands. They cool there bodies in hot temperatures by wallowing in mud.

I've raised a lot of hogs through the years but never considered myself a hog farmer. The most I've ever kept at one time was about 30, but I've helped take care of others who had lots more.

Most all were in what we called "lots" or small pastures. I always had a ferring house and a small shed the pigs could get under out of the weather.

I sold direct to consumer and slaughtered on the farm if we had many to do to justify me paying a few other guys to help. I made sure the customer lined up their own butcher and I would deliver the carcass to them or a lot of people picked them up.

There were a couple of butchers who also slaughtered within 20 miles or so and if a customer didn't want to wait until I had several to do at once, I would recommend they take the hog to them or I would deliver it there.

I had one concrete pen where I would put the pigs up and feed them ground corn and milo for a couple of weeks before slaughter. Some people these days don't want that, they want completely free range. I've not had any hogs in about 10 years, so haven't experienced that, but I have a place now that I'm wanting to turn into a hog pasture, if I can convince my wife that we can't survive without it. So far she hasn't been won over with the idea.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Anyone deal with pigs? I've not yet. But have an opportunity to get a young red wattle female. Have a friend with a red wattle boar. I'm considering starting some.

We've got about 30 acres of woods in back of our farm. It's unfenced and was cut for timber in the late 90's.

Can I run them in the woods? I've been reading about pigs that are trained to hot wire. Anyone have experience with that?

They're wanting to trade me the 200 pound pig towards some beef. I've wanted to try pigs since I got here in 2016. I could sell pork no problem. Just know nothing on raising them.

Also, I cannot stand to see animals in mud. I suspect that'll be a conflict.

My neighbor has a big red wattle boar.

 

[Travlr]

We've got about 30 acres of woods in back of our farm.

Can I run them in the woods? I've been reading about pigs that are trained to hot wire. Anyone have experience with that?

Me personally... I would never depend on a hot wire to contain my pigs and I wouldn't let them run wild in the woods. I don't want to add to the feral hog problems.

I built a good sized pen out of pallets and T posts, and never had an escape. Pigs require a tight fence.

 

[chaded]

I have no experience but always wanted to 'dabble' with them. Neighbor down the road has them and they respect the hot wire. Pigs are going to be pigs and will root from what I have seen. I would think if there was a way to keep them moving and not concentrated on one area for too long the damage would be minimal in comparison.

 

[Hogfarmer10]

Easy to keep them in a hot wire. Be sure to train them to it. I have a pen surrounded by hog panels with an electric fence set about 16" inside. When learning the electric fence, they will almost always run through the fence instead of backing away from it. It usually takes about a week for them to learn it. If you're going to only have a few pigs on such a big acreage, I don't think you'll have to worry as much about mud and rooting, although they still will root and make a mud hole to lay in. Some breeds perform better on pasture vs confinement, but in this area, it's common to find a combination of both- on pasture but still getting a full ration of grain. I'm not far from you and I'm glad to answer any questions you have

 

[MurraysMutts]

"Pigs don't jump"
I had to laugh at that!!

That dumb lil pig I had for a while would jump out of a 2 foot tall stock tank like it was nothing!

 

[Ky hills]

"Pigs don't jump"
I had to laugh at that!!

That dumb lil pig I had for a while would jump out of a 2 foot tall stock tank like it was nothing!

Yeah, I was at a sheep and hog sale at the old Lexington stockyards location downtown one day. As I was walking back to my truck from unloading some lambs I noticed some good sized feeder pigs being unloaded. One of them jumped over several of the stalls and ended up in one in front of me. If it would have come out of that stall it would have been loose and no fence around the yards.
Some of the people that worked at the yards back then were pretty crappy attitudes on a good day, when I was trying to get their attention while trying to block that hog from jumping over again they were like shut up and get out of here. I lost my temper and hollered get your sorry tails over here and help me if you don't want a darn hog loose in the streets of Lexington. I paraphrased what I said as I don't want to type the exact words. It wasn't my hog and not my problem I was trying to avert a bigger problem

 

[BFE]

"Pigs don't jump"
I had to laugh at that!!

That dumb lil pig I had for a while would jump out of a 2 foot tall stock tank like it was nothing!

We had some York boars that could jump like deer, couldn't have anything in a mile you didn't want bred.