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  • From: Barking Cat Farm <barkingcatfarm AT mindspring.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Digging Dogs and Feral Hogs, Anyone?
  • Date: Sat, 23 Feb 2013 19:14:11 -0600

We're baacckkk.

After submitting our query to this list and several others, we've hit another
snag in this seemingly never-ending challenge. Immediately below is the
original question we posted, followed by shortened versions of the responses,
the newly arisen problem, and some new questions. Thank you all for your
time and patience. We've been struggling with this one for a long time, and
your help has been invaluable.


ORIGINAL POST:
------------------------
On Feb 1, 2013, at 11:23 AMFeb/1/13, Barking Cat Farm wrote:

> Hello,
>
> We're embarking on a project to reinforce our farm's perimeter fence. It
> is currently 4' field fence, which has worked well on coyotes and other
> non-deer larger mammals. However, we have a problem with digging,
> particularly from the local pack of vicious dogs. We need to find a way to
> keep them out, and since I'm modifying the fence anyway, we want to also
> exclude feral hogs. We don't have them yet, but they've been spotted in
> the vicinity, so it's only a matter of time until they find us. What
> damaging behaviors and solutions have you experienced with respect to feral
> hogs?
>
>
> More detail: Our perimeter has a variety of micro-environments, so it may
> be a hybrid design works the best.
> - Some areas are heavily vegetative. We don't plan to modify these areas at
> this time, as the vegetation is doing a good job of exclusion and we say if
> it's not broken don't fix it.;
>
> - in other areas we have purposely planted rose bushes and other low
> growing plants which will do a good job of exclusion once they are more
> mature. In these areas we might need to do some chicken wire "elled" at the
> bottom of the field fence and extended out a few inches and stapled down to
> prevent digging until roses and other plants mature, hot wire not a good
> idea due to vegetative load.;
>
> - and in other areas we have bare ground where vegetation is not growing
> due to heavy forest shade, for example. In these areas, not quite sure
> whether a hot wire or a barrier mesh similar to above is a better solution.
> We know mesh works against digging dogs, but not sure about hogs.
> Thoughts?
>
> My question to those who have dealt with feral hogs and fencing is how,
> specifically, they damage and/or breech fencing? Do they ram and break it,
> do they dig under it, or what?
>
> Note: please don't suggest poisoning, shooting, or trapping. We have
> thoughtfully considered and ruled all three out for a variety of reasons.
> We feel that exclusion is our best option and are looking for guidance on
> that specifically.

SUMMARY OF RESPONSES:
--------------------------------------
- Re: feral hog behavior, join the HomesteadHogs Yahoo! group - DONE, thank
you!
- Hog panels nailed down so they cannot be lifted by the hogs (or dogs).
- One or more hot wires near the bottom of existing field fence.
- There was a debate about trapping and/or shooting the hogs, which was
beyond the scope of what I was asking.
- Rosebushes alone cannot be counted on as a deterrent, animals will find
their way through the thorns.
- Put down the dogs -- they are being picked off by the neighbors in a
piecemeal fashion as opportunity presents itself. They have killed or
injured many goats in the area, have killed at least one deer, and have been
observed chasing horses. We're all for putting them down - distasteful as it
is - as these dogs are not hungry, just uncared for and vicious and allowed
to inbreed and multiply at will. Even if they were all put down tomorrow,
though, we need a solution to exclude them and any future roaming dogs and
hogs from the property.
- Investigate the (apparently burgeoning) demand overseas for feral pig meat.
Turns out there is a local man who will buy all the feral pig you bring him.
We don't yet have feral hogs. This solution we're now working through is
specifically for roaming dogs, figured we don't want to do it again when the
hogs find us, so let's do both at once.


NEW SET OF PROBLEMS / QUESTIONS:
-----------------------------------------------------
Our fence that we're trying to fortify is set ON the property line, not
inside of it (not our choice, there when we bought the land). The fence is
attached on the inside of a variety of post types including t-posts mostly
with some 2"+ heavy duty tubing and a few 5" wooden posts.

On the front, whose outside we have control over and where the now immature
vegetation is planted, we pulled back the mulch, fastened 2' galvanized
chicken wire 1' up the field fence, elled it at the bottom out 1', stapled it
down within an inch of its life, and replaced the mulch. Somebody on the
list said 2' was better, and we believe them, but we couldn't go much more
than 1' without getting in the way of the frontage and ditch maintenance.
Our main threat on the front is dogs.

On the sides, we decided to run a hot wire 6-7" up on each existing post. We
weren't really thrilled with this design, as we couldn't be sure all the
neighbors could/would avoid it. So we were worried about post insulator and
conductor damage and, more importantly, little kids and such getting shocked.
But it seemed like the most feasible (time wise and cost wise) solution we
could come up with. We okayed it with the one neighbor who shares most of
the fence line with us, ordered all the parts, birds were singing and flowers
were blooming, yadda yadda. Got all the parts in and the neighbor decides
they don't want anything protruding onto their side, not even 1". Even
though legally we probably COULD do it without their blessing, we don't want
to be constantly fixing the fence on that neighbor's side, and like I said
earlier we really didn't like the design that much anyway.

So, what we've decided to do, even though it'll take longer and cost more, is
to bury cattle panels 1' or so and attach another 1' or so to the existing
fence. We'll like take 1 4' cattle panel and make 2 X 2' sections out of it.
We may end up using hog panels depending on pricing and dimensions needed,
but same idea.

Question to all of you is what kind of tool is there that we can use close to
an existing fence to dig a pretty narrow channel that is 1-1.5' deep to bury
the panels? It can be hand-operated, self-powered, or PTO-driven -- although
the space we're working in is not that wide, we could probably get our
tractor in there. The main thing is to keep it out of our perfectly good
almost-brand-new field fence. Thoughts?

Of course each of the posts is cemented in, so we'll have to cut the panels
where there is concrete.

We really, really appreciate all of your input. We are not trying to fortify
hundred of acres, the fence line in question is only a little over a mile.

Best Regards,
Laurie
Barking Cat Farm









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