Creating an Entrance

[Bird]

When I was a kid raising hogs, we used the hog wire and added one strand of barbed wire along the bottom of it. I guess the barbs got their attention because they sometimes dug close to the fence, but never under it.

 

[EddieWalker]

Having never done this before, I'm going off of a plan that I came up with years ago for a couple of longhorns. Oscar wasn't expected, but to my thinking, this should work for him too. From what I've been told, if the animals have enough room and no reason to leave, the fence becomes a natural boundry for them and they wont even mess with it once they learn it's boundries. People have told me about their animals staying in a pasture even when a tree or a storm has taken out a fair amount of their fencing because the animals never bothered to to wonder out once it was opened up.

Oscar is going to test it, but once he gets hit by the electricity in the wire a few times, I think he'll stay clear of the fence. If it comes to having to put up hog pannels, which I think will look ugly, or finding a different home for Oscar, then Oscar is going to have to move. That fence is a HUGE part of my curb appeal and happy thoughts when coming into my place. What it looks like is way more important then what's in there.

Eddie

 

[jinman]

I understand exactly what you are saying Eddie, and I don't blame you. From my experience with cattle, they tend to break down fences due to trying to graze the grass just outside the fence. They push and push until the fence collapses. If they have plenty to eat inside the fence and you keep the area outside the fence trimmed very low, then your cattle are far more likely to stay in. A bull will jump or push down a fence to go have a date with some cows, but cows and steers generally won't be fence jumpers unless it's food they are after.

 

[dirtydan]

When I was a kid back in the 60's my uncle raised hogs and they were kept in with a single strand of electric wire I'm guessing 8" to12" from the ground. It works.
Dan