Keeping Pigs where you want them

Hi all. I just read about people in the goat forum using that Invisible Fencing product, you know, the one with the stationary radiotransmitter and the shock collars, and I was wondering if anyone had tried them on pigs. I could see it making pig pasturing much easier if it worked. That's all. Just putting it out there. I'd love to get feedback either way, though...

-CK

My opinion is that pigs are...well, too "pig headed".

They seem to do as they damned well please.

Granted, and too smart by half for my liking, and if they get loose and unchecked they can cause real problems, as folks in the southern states can attest, but they taste so good, especially double-smoked!

So I guess my refined question might be, in light of the fact that conventional electric fencing seems to be the only effective way of containing them in their pre-bacon state, could they be trained to respond to the shock collar in the same way? Just in case the benefits aren't readily apparent, the use of this system boasts facilitated mobility, as in, if you had the transmitter and the solar panel and battery built in to a mobile shelter, all you'd need do is move the shelter to a fresh patch of pasture adjacent to the last one, and you're there. If they react anything like goats, who are also, I will point out, crafty as all hell and again too clever for our own good, they will probably figure it out that if they come back to their shelter for their human, they get their collar off for the night, I think this will be a major motivation for them as well. That makes me think that the collars better be indestructible, though.
I was also thinking, if you could pasture pigs this way, that if there were integrated wheels and an electric motor (that cut out if a collar went off), the whole shelter could creep along a preprogrammed path, if the idea is to keep them moving so as to keep fresh green goodies and easily available forage above ground and reduce rooting behaviour.
A last thought I had just now was that if there was no sonic warning system incorporated into the shock collar, a high-pitched noise just piercing enough to irritate and distract and progressively louder as the limit of the range is approached, then there should be one. If you can teach pigs that a specific kind or arrangement of wires means BAD/SCARY/PAIN to them, I think the same effect can be achieved with a warning that they then associate with the eventual shock. I would even bet that, in the event that this was tried, you would find them pushing their ranging if not to imminent shock range, then to the extent of their aural comfort.

Yes, I think you could rig something up to work and train them to it but is it worth it? The collars are $100 or more each. Pigs would need training to the invisible fence and then you eat them in six months. They grow very rapidly which means you would be changing the collars frequently. The collar needs to shock them in front of the ears - if you shock them behind the ears they move forward which the opposite of what you want. Not worth it in my opinion.

We use electric fencing for pigs - it is highly effective. Most of all, have what they want inside the fence and the scary things outside. We also have livestock guardian herding dogs that put the stray pig back in it's pasture.

Walter hit the magic button..."have what they want on their side of the fence."

If the 'grass is greener on the 'other side', nothing is going to keep them in.
Enjoy your bacon before they figure it out.

They're pig-headed, but they ain't stupid.

Yeah, I think that answered that. So electric fencing. Gotcha.

Thanks,

-CK

yes to what other's said- and -
our neighbor has a black oil sunflower seed feeder out on ground level- two of our pigs found that- try talking them out of wanting to go back with anything less than the bull fence we have

I am reading about fence chargers atm, and from what I understand the collars you are referring to are much lower 'zap' since they are meant for dogs, but for pigs, you will want a good 'zap' since their skin and sensory is so different from a dogs

I have not tried it personally, but that is what I am thinking- pigs are very good at hunting up food so you need to be better at convincing them they have everything they want where you want them -- and NOT ever let them learn about the neighbor's sunflower feeder