Greg and I spent some time during our farm tour a few weeks ago sharing about how we’ve tweaked our fencing systems and how grateful we are that they’re working so well for us now. And in typical farm fashion, just two weeks later, we had an “incident” where the pig fence failed and all hell broke loose.
Before we tell you what happened, we should say first that during this time of year, we’re rotating our pig herd onto fresh pasture at least once a week. We use portable light-weight fiberglass posts. And then we thread just 2 strands of electrified wire around them.
On moving day, we open up a little segment of fencing and the pigs, who are always eager for fresh grass, walk themselves over to the new paddock. Once they’re in, they know the fence is hot and believe it or not, it’s usually more than enough to keep the pigs put.
Except, as we learned this past week, on a day where the pasture’s apparently sooo good that the pigs can’t stop eating it and turning it up and over on top of the fence – thereby burying it and making it invisible. And on the day that we also, coincidentally, forgot to include checking the pig fence on the morning rounds.
So this was exactly where we found ourselves last weekend: Greg and I were quietly harvesting one of the last rows of ginger from the high tunnel when 8 of our adventurous pigs came bouldering out of their paddock, through the hedgerow, and scampered up around the upper field. This is literally a farmer’s nightmare.
Things we learned:
1. Always, and I mean always, check the fence. A few minutes a day can spare us hours and hours of frustrating work later.
2. The pigs trust us. With a little patience, most of the pigs were happy to follow us down the hill, through the trees and across the pasture to get back into their paddock. Thank god!
3. There will always be a couple of pigs that want to test us in situations like this. They’ll hop back and forth into and out of the paddock, or just bolt in the opposite direction. Eventually though, if we’re patient enough, they find their way back home, too.
Your Farmers,
Jenney and Greg