We use Premier electronet fencing from Wellscroft Fence Co. in New Hampshire for our hogs. They ship anywhere and have the same prices as the company that makes the fence. We like the people at the company. It isn’t a huge outfit and they have smart staff people who answer all our questions via email or telephone. They also get orders out very fast. This is especially important for supplies for our cattle fence, because you don’t want the fence down for long when you have large animals.
Electronet fences must be energized in order to give a shock when it is touched. You need to buy a charger with a solar panel if the fence is used away from electric sources. Or, you can use a charger that plugs in, if an electric source is nearby. You can also attach the electronet to another electric fence for an energy source. We don’t use a separate electric charger, also called an energizer, for the fence since we just snap it onto a wire from our cattle fence. The cattle fence serves to bring the power for the fence out to the pig area of the pasture all the way from the barn. 
We use the moveable electronet fencing because even though hog panels can be very secure, they are also costly, roughly $150 for 100 feet, and you still have to buy and sink poles. The electronet is roughly $100 for 166 feet. Of course, if you don’t have an egnergizer for the fence, you still have to buy that too and it can be $50 and up. In that case, the costs are comparable.
We chose the electronet fence because we wanted it to be portable and for us it was cheaper. We wanted to move the hogs all over the inside of the cow fencing throughout the summer, including a wooded, rocky area. These areas had rough pasture or weeds that the hogs rototilled, and then fertilized for us after . We kept them on these areas of the pasture for a couple of weeks, and then moved them, and seeded the areas. The result is new beautiful pasture and grassy woods for the cows.
Electric fences have drawbacks with swine, since they are one of the few animals that charge forward when they are shocked, instead of shrinking back. Unfortunately hogs also regularly forget all about the shock they just got from the fence. While our cows probably got shocked once each over the last 2 years, the pigs get shocked several times a week. We did have a little piglet escape because once he got shocked, he ran forward right through the fence.
Twice the hogs inadvertently pushed their rubber feed buckets onto the fence. Once the fence was pushed down flat, they all escaped. We’ll fix this issue by building a more solid trough for the hog feed that won’t creep. This wouldn’t have happened with fixed hog panel fencing.
So, if you plan to move the pigs around the field and already have an electric fence to energize it, electronet fencing may be the way to go. If you have a fixed area for the pigs, or if the pen is in a field away from electricity, you might wish to go with the hog panels. Our field is fairly rocky, making sinking poles difficult, and we already have the fencing, so we’ll stick to electronet and work to make sure the animals can’t get out.
You should train all animals to electric fencing before you simply let them go running around inside it. Build a sturdy pen with three sides of plywood, and place the electronet on one side, with a fourth piece of plywood just behind it. Let the pigs or cows get used to the fencing before you remove the pen, so they will recognize it as a source of discomfort, to be avoided.
Tags: electric fences