Pannage Season

It’s nearly pannage time in The New Forest! As if we aren’t spoilt enough in the New Forest with beautiful sights and roaming wildlife, once a year we have pannage season. Pannage is the practice of releasing pigs into the forest, there will be up to 600 pigs and piglets working their way through the forest eating the acorns and nuts from the forest floor. It is the only time of year that the pigs are allowed to ‘roam’ the open forest. The pigs clear up acorns and other nuts that are poisonous to our other New Forest wildlife.

The pannage season this year will be from Monday 16th September to Friday 22nd November 2024.

Please remember, if you see the pigs out in the forest, you must follow the New Forest Code. https://www.newforestnpa.gov.uk/visiting/help-care-for-the-forest/new-forest-code/

For their safety and your own please do not touch the animals - although owned and cared for by local people called commoners, they are unpredictable and best treated as wild. Please keep your distance, do not feed, or pet them; there is plenty of natural food and it is best that they do not come to rely on human attention. Animals here may look friendly, but they can bite.

Kind regards,

Ian Colverson, Park Supervisor