Moving pigs long distance

I have a couple questions for anybody who has experience moving pigs 800 meters or more at a time.

Our current context is as follows.

We have 10 pigs currently up by the homestead buildings where they are being trained to electric and getting used to me.
I want to move them to a strand of trees that has become very overgrown. I would be traveling about half way there along a dirt path with boggy water on each side and then strictly through pasture until hitting the trees.


We have lots of portable electric fence we use for cows as well as a little bit of poultry netting as well. I was thinking of stringing a path out to woods but not sure if thats a good idea to try and go that far.

My questions are would it be best to move incrementally or try and go the whole way out? What's the best way to keep them moving along? I have seen it suggested to withhold feed before moving them to encourage them to follow you.

Any thoughts or recommendations welcome thanks in advance.

If you move them in the morning before they're fed, they'll follow you if you're carrying a bucket.

I have to agree with John, the best way to move hogs is to make use of their food motivation.
The night before the move, give them a half ration then move them in the morning with full feed buckets in hand.
Walk fast enough that they can't quite catch you, shaking the feed bucket will get their attention and it will also keep their attention if you shake it every so often on the move.

Thanks! I will give it a shot later this week I think and see how it goes!

My experience with pigs is that they are tremendously bright, and you can't herd them.  But as the guys above have said, you can train them to come for food.

Sooo-eeee pig.  They'll quickly associate your call with food if you do it on a daily basis.  We used to slop the pigs with food scraps carried in a metal bucket.  I'd bang the metal handle against the top of the bucket and when they heard that, they'd come running for the trough.  

I just moved my hogs about 1000 yards.


I constantly and purposely feed my hogs in a different location every feeding.
This way it trains my pigs to follow me instead of running to a fed trough.

I go out and holler for the pigs, shake the feed bucket and they come running.

I feed in the afternoon.  I skipped feeding the night before I moved them.  

First thing that next morning I took all the portable fencing down minus the one section containing the pigs.

Set up all the portable fencing (minus one that contained the pigs.) in the new location.
Leaving an entrance open.

They need to have a pretty clear path to the new location.  I ran into a bit of a snag crossing a creek.  3/4 of my hogs grabbed a drink then kept on following me.  My one lazy hog decided it was nap time and layed down in the creek.

I left her as the others were coming along very well.  

After I got the others to the new location I came back for the lazy one.  She got bored with the water and walked back to the house looking for food  and was pretty confused when she got back and everything was gone water, feed barrels, other hogs, and fence.

I snatched her up (75lbs) and put her in the back seat of my suburban and I just drove her over.
Stressful on her, yes.  But it was 2pm by that time and 94degrees here in AL.  


The new area is a small pond I just had dug.  Running the hogs in there to help ensure the bottom gets properly sealed up.

yes, the pen goes well around the pond.  Instead of focusing on the bottom area.  The weather forecast is calling for 3-4 days of rain.  So there is the possibility of this pond filling up this weekend.
There are well over 300yards of off contour swales catching water from roughly 4 acres.  The pond only being 6ft deep and not much more than 50 yards diameter should fill up fairly quick.

Hopefully, it won't drain out as fast.

Jay - great info, and your pigs are beautiful. What breed are they, if you don't mind me asking?

Christopher Scott wrote:Jay - great info, and your pigs are beautiful. What breed are they, if you don't mind me asking?

All four are kune kune crosses.
Two are IPP which is kune kune X Berkshire cross.
The other two are kune kune X maybe AGH.

A buddy of mine breeds them and I take his culls for cheap.

I use them mainly for land clearing and the meat is just a bonus.

Right now I’m using them to help ensure a proper seal in a newly built stock pond.

Jay thanks for the great info! I ended up moving my pigs. Just not quite as far as I hoped which is okay, but also a bit of a bummer. as they are not in the overgrown strand of trees I had hoped they would put some work in on this year.  I have decided to move them small amounts very frequently in a big loop that will bring them back to my barn which will be the best place to load them up for processing. So I think it all will work out in the end. I think my mistake was not withholding feed for long enough? Also all they want to do when they get to new grass is munch. They didn't seem interested in following me or the feed bag/bins.  

Jay Grace wrote:I just moved my hogs about 1000 yards.


I constantly and purposely feed my hogs in a different location every feeding.
This way it trains my pigs to follow me instead of running to a fed trough.

I go out and holler for the pigs, shake the feed bucket and they come running.

I feed in the afternoon.  I skipped feeding the night before I moved them.  

First thing that next morning I took all the portable fencing down minus the one section containing the pigs.

Set up all the portable fencing (minus one that contained the pigs.) in the new location.
Leaving an entrance open.

They need to have a pretty clear path to the new location.  I ran into a bit of a snag crossing a creek.  3/4 of my hogs grabbed a drink then kept on following me.  My one lazy hog decided it was nap time and layed down in the creek.

I left her as the others were coming along very well.  

After I got the others to the new location I came back for the lazy one.  She got bored with the water and walked back to the house looking for food  and was pretty confused when she got back and everything was gone water, feed barrels, other hogs, and fence.

I snatched her up (75lbs) and put her in the back seat of my suburban and I just drove her over.
Stressful on her, yes.  But it was 2pm by that time and 94degrees here in AL.  


The new area is a small pond I just had dug.  Running the hogs in there to help ensure the bottom gets properly sealed up.

yes, the pen goes well around the pond.  Instead of focusing on the bottom area.  The weather forecast is calling for 3-4 days of rain.  So there is the possibility of this pond filling up this weekend.
There are well over 300yards of off contour swales catching water from roughly 4 acres.  The pond only being 6ft deep and not much more than 50 yards diameter should fill up fairly quick.

Hopefully, it won't drain out as fast.

Jay I just moved them using some fence like you have and it went great! We kept the fences super close together forming a good run.  My wife 'led' the pigs and I followed behind them 'encouraging' the slowpokes to keep up! We moved them halfway out to the woods and will bring them the rest of the way today. I am pretty happy as they were really doing a number on the pasture as we have had lots of rain the last week or so.

Thanks again!

Joshua Fryc wrote:

Jay Grace wrote:I just moved my hogs about 1000 yards.


I constantly and purposely feed my hogs in a different location every feeding.
This way it trains my pigs to follow me instead of running to a fed trough.

I go out and holler for the pigs, shake the feed bucket and they come running.

I feed in the afternoon.  I skipped feeding the night before I moved them.  

First thing that next morning I took all the portable fencing down minus the one section containing the pigs.

Set up all the portable fencing (minus one that contained the pigs.) in the new location.
Leaving an entrance open.

They need to have a pretty clear path to the new location.  I ran into a bit of a snag crossing a creek.  3/4 of my hogs grabbed a drink then kept on following me.  My one lazy hog decided it was nap time and layed down in the creek.

I left her as the others were coming along very well.  

After I got the others to the new location I came back for the lazy one.  She got bored with the water and walked back to the house looking for food  and was pretty confused when she got back and everything was gone water, feed barrels, other hogs, and fence.

I snatched her up (75lbs) and put her in the back seat of my suburban and I just drove her over.
Stressful on her, yes.  But it was 2pm by that time and 94degrees here in AL.  


The new area is a small pond I just had dug.  Running the hogs in there to help ensure the bottom gets properly sealed up.

yes, the pen goes well around the pond.  Instead of focusing on the bottom area.  The weather forecast is calling for 3-4 days of rain.  So there is the possibility of this pond filling up this weekend.
There are well over 300yards of off contour swales catching water from roughly 4 acres.  The pond only being 6ft deep and not much more than 50 yards diameter should fill up fairly quick.

Hopefully, it won't drain out as fast.

Jay I just moved them using some fence like you have and it went great! We kept the fences super close together forming a good run.  My wife 'led' the pigs and I followed behind them 'encouraging' the slowpokes to keep up! We moved them halfway out to the woods and will bring them the rest of the way today. I am pretty happy as they were really doing a number on the pasture as we have had lots of rain the last week or so.

Thanks again!

Josh im glad everything worked out.  That premier1 portable fencing is pretty good I’ve had mine for a few years.  (There may be better elsewhere but this is the first I’ve bought and don’t have any real complaints) I moved my pigs like that all winter long around the woods so they could eat acorns.