The Short Answer for a Berkshire Pig
A Berkshire pig stays in because the fence is strong at snout level, not because it is tall. Set hog panels or tight woven wire roughly three feet high on well-set posts, keep the bottom edge tight to the ground, and add a trained electric strand inside at nose height. A grown Berkshire carries a lot of weight behind a determined head, so a flimsy tall fence fails sooner than a lower fence built to resist pushing, rubbing and lifting from below.
Why Berkshires Test the Bottom, Not the Top
A Berkshire tests a fence with its snout and shoulders rather than by jumping. Rooting is this breed's daily work, and a gap under a bottom wire is an invitation to excavate until the opening fits a whole pig. Mud softens the ground along a busy fence line, feed spilled near the boundary draws rooting to exactly the wrong place, and a loose panel corner gives a clever Berkshire a lever. Height above the back matters little once the lower third is immovable and unrewarding to investigate.
Building the Berkshire Line
Build the Berkshire line in this order. Set posts deep and close enough that panels cannot flex when a pig rubs an itchy shoulder along them. Fasten panels so the smallest openings sit low, where piglets and snouts work, and bury or pin the bottom edge so no daylight shows underneath. Run the electric strand on insulators inside the panels at the height of a rooting nose, and train Berkshires to it in a small pen before turnout, with the strand visible and the lesson calm. Keep gates as strong as the line itself, latched at a height curious snouts cannot nudge open, because a Berkshire explores a gate seam as patiently as any other weak point.
Corners, Feeders and Mud Management
Corners decide whether a Berkshire fence lasts. Brace corner posts properly, since panel tension pulls hardest there and a leaning corner slackens the whole run. Move feeders, water and wallows away from the boundary so heavy traffic and rooting do not churn the fence line into a ramp of mud. After heavy rain, walk the Berkshire paddock looking for fresh digging along the wire, hoof-deepened dips at gates, and soil piled against the bottom edge. Filling a small scrape the day it appears is far easier than recovering a pig that spent a week enlarging it.
When a Berkshire Still Gets Out
A Berkshire escape almost always points to one named failure: a dead electric strand, a lifted bottom edge, an unlatched gate, or a corner that finally gave. Catch the pig calmly with feed in a secure pen, then repair the actual failure before returning it, because a Berkshire remembers a successful exit route and will test that spot first. Check feet and skin for scrapes from the breakout, and watch herd mates for a copycat dig at the same place. Note the weak spot, the fix and the strand position in KinsLe with Family Sharing, so the next person feeding the Berkshires knows exactly which corner to inspect.