Pigs do they do more harm than good?

[AuntRose53]

I have several hogs and although I love their manure for my garden they sometimes over break out of their pen and eat my tomatoes well and everything. It happened one year to my leading breeder I shot her right then and there she turned into delicious meals I was so angry! Anyway does anyone have any advice on stronger fencing or do I just have a bad batch of hogs?

 

[AuntRose53]

I also meant to include my kids are telling me their manure does more harm than good because they are dirty animals. Is this true?

 

[Chuck]

I have several hogs and although I love their manure for my garden they sometimes over break out of their pen and eat my tomatoes well and everything. It happened one year to my leading breeder I shot her right then and there she turned into delicious meals I was so angry! Anyway does anyone have any advice on stronger fencing or do I just have a bad batch of hogs?

Hogs are really smart. If they want out they will find a way. My nephew has a few of them and at one time or another they have escaped and usually damaged something. He makes his pens out of cattle panels.

 

[Chuck]

I also meant to include my kids are telling me their manure does more harm than good because they are dirty animals. Is this true?

Pig manure is right up there with chicken manure in regards to nitrogen and should be composted before use. An interesting fact about pig manure is that it is very alkaline and can raise already alkaline soils to a possible unacceptable alkaline level. As far as hogs being unclean that is a load of hogwash. Swine are exceptionally clean animals if allowed to be but most folks who raise them keep them in filthy conditions. My nephew keeps his hogs on a concrete pad that has a washdown and they stay about as clean as a dog or cat.

Hogs are omnivores and if fed meat the manure MUST BE WELL AGED AND COMPOSTED, but, if not fed meat the manure can be treated just like any other manure. All manure should be composted before use, but, in the case of hog manure it is more of a case of it must be composted due to its high nitrogen content.

 

[Meadowlark]

AuntRose,

Here in Texas pigs run wild and are so destructive that there is no closed hunting season, no limit, no restriction on methods, and no hunting license is required to hunt them.

They are incredibly destructive...to gardens, to pastures, to hay fields, etc. etc. Thus far, in spite of repeated research, no one has found a way to control them and the damages they wrought on the environment.

As far as fencing, electric fencing with three-to-four-strand electric wire set very hot is very effective. Hog panels with barbed wire on the bottom to discourage rooting is another option.

They are a serious problem here.