Why pigs go under, not over
Most livestock test a fence at its top rail or its weakest gate. Pigs test it at the soil line, because rooting is what a snout is for: a pig explores the world by levering its nose under things and lifting, and it can apply astonishing force doing it. Worms, roots and cool damp earth all concentrate exactly where fence meets ground, so a pig working a fence line is not even trying to escape at first — it is feeding. The escape happens when the exploratory lifting finds a gap, daylight appears, and the pig learns the most rewarding lesson on the farm. Every part of a pig-proof fence is designed to make sure that first lesson is never taught.
The two layers: a barrier and a teacher
The physical layer must be strong at the bottom, not just at the top. Stock panels, close-boarded rails or tight wire fencing on stout posts all work, provided the bottom edge is pinned to the ground with no liftable slack; a fence that hums tight at head height but billows at the base is an invitation. Behind that barrier, lay a skirt of welded mesh flat on the ground running inward from the fence line, pegged firmly and left to turf over, so a snout that starts lifting at the boundary meets wire under its feet rather than a soft edge to work on. The second layer is the teacher: a single electric strand on offset insulators inside the fence, run low — at the height of an investigating nose. Pigs are quick, clever learners, and one or two contacts convert the whole fence line into a boundary they police themselves, which is why the electric strand protects even the parts of the physical fence you could not make perfect.
Training pigs to the low strand
The strand only teaches if the first meeting happens on your terms. Introduce pigs to the paddock with the strand live from the first hour, in a small, secure section where an investigative touch is inevitable and an escape is not — a pig that first meets the wire while loose in a huge paddock may bolt forward through it instead of back from it. Weaners and new arrivals deserve a day or two in a training corner with the strand clearly visible against a solid background before they meet the full paddock. Keep the strand clear of straw, mud and vegetation, because a shorted line is just string, and pigs check. Walk the perimeter yourself at pig height, looking for the dip, the raised board, the soft corner by the water trough where rooting is most rewarding — that corner is where reinforcement belongs before it is needed.
Cut the motivation as well as the opportunity
A pig with a job roots where you want it to. Give the paddock a designated digging area — a patch of softer ground, refreshed with scattered feed, straw or logs to turn over — and much of the snout pressure on the fence line simply moves house. Keep feeders and water away from the boundary so the busiest, most competitive ground in the paddock is not the strip along the wire, and rotate or rest sections of the paddock before the fence line turns to churned mud, because mud is both the easiest rooting and the fastest way to bury and short a low strand. The fence walk then becomes a short weekly habit rather than a repair project: in KinsLe Care Teams, that perimeter check can be set as a recurring duty for the pigs, timestamped as each week's walk is completed, so a quietly failing corner is spotted by the record as well as by the eye.