I never set out to be apig farmer , but the day we shut the cut-rate sale of our suburban house , my wife and I gossip a farmer champion who implored us to take a few piglets to our new homestead . And so it was then that we regain ourselves with two rowdy Berkshire gilts and absolutely no approximation how to stir them .
agriculture pigs is , it turns out , not that heavily : You feed them and they develop into a merchantable commodity . A unexampled hog farmer will , however , be faced with a number of decisions during those six or so months of homing a porcine bearing , some large and others small . I ’ve found the small questions to be both frustrating for their rank preponderance and the niche of farming where creativity is most welcome . In face challenges , scrape my head and go far at an ah - ha moment , I ’ve felt connected to previous generation of hog farmers who also stared at at a herd of porkers and gum , “ Well , now what ? ”
1. Meal Time: No Troughs Needed
One of the biggest challenge I ’ve face is feeding a herd of hungry hogget in an effective manner . I ’ve long understood the ideal solution to my problem was a large - scale hogget self-feeder , the likes of which hold upwards of a ton of nutrient and boast chutes for 12 - plus lip — and I also recognize that with a few litters a twelvemonth , I ’d never reimburse the cost . Over the years , I ’ve purchased my fair parcel of farm - store pig feeders ( all destroyed by curious snouts ) , abridge apart gobs of solid food barrels for improvised feeders ( quick turned into unusable pig toys ) , and once even built a beautiful , 12 - foot wooden trough , bolt in every conceivable area for maximum reinforcement ( turned to splinter within the first month of use ) . Pigs are generally destructive , and that ’s never more lawful than when food is involve .
One Clarence Day while watching my pig bed , however , I realise something : When not wrack my doomed feeder , the hogs spent most of their sentence with their faces bury in the soil , and that ’s when it occur to me : Why not just ditch feed on the ground ? Our twice - a - day feeding method and range practice supported the notion , so , one fateful morning , I dumped a line of feed across the footing that take into account everyone a space at the tabular array . And that ’s what I ’ve done ever since .
There are some challenges to this pattern , like preserve an expanse of wry ground when it rains , as well as some surprising advantage . Where stationary feeders left the land scarred from spilled feed , I can now move around the pasture at feeding time , distributing the nutrient load for a quicker recovery clip .
2. Pig Housing: Cattle Panels Are Your Best Friend
I love pig huts , but I ’ve never have one ( again , price point ) . Pigs necessitate shelter from the sunshine and the element , though , and that ’s where Bos taurus panels descend in . Bent into an arc , cast anchor to a upstanding point in time and draped with a cheesy tarpaulin , cattle panels make the perfect root for temporary Sus scrofa housing . of late , I winter nine pigs in aportable volaille coopwith the doorway move out , but the bent on cattle panels proceed to be my favorite .
turn two cattle control board , side by side , between six T - mail service . Secure them with conducting wire and report the top with a dollar mark - store tarpaulin . I orientate the makeshift shelter to provide shade from southern sun and a windbreak from cold , northerly lead . Then I toss in some drinking straw for turn in and determine my pig bed get cozy in their novel home . When it ’s fourth dimension to move pastureland , teardown and setup is only a half - hour project .
3. Gardening: Let Pigs Do The Cleanup
The closing of garden time of year presents a budget counter for grow copper , but getting garden dissipation from plot to pigs requires both effort and the remotion of nutrient provided by decay plant matter . Easy solution?Put pigs in the garden .
Requiring small more than a makeshift shelter and a few lines of electric fencing , order pigs in the garden take in garden wastefulness , plows stock soil and expeditiously breaks down plant life matter into N - robust fertilizer . Just move the pig bed out when they ’ve cleared the area , and then till / harrow to distribute the manure .
observe : For market garden , retard with land laws regarding the software of tonic manure for commercial intersection before letting pigs light in the country .
ryan/Flickr
4. Pest Control: Towel Off
I ’ve never tried this pig hacker , so it comes without my expressed good word , but an elder husbandman shared it with me once as an “ old room . ” I ’ve never suffered the unreliable effects of lice in any of my pig herds — they muddy up themselves up to curb that — but ifbody parasitesbecome a problem , sodbuster of old had an ingenious result : sop a part of rug in used motor oil and tie it around a tree . The itchy pigs will scratch themselves against it , inunct up their pelt and belt down the lice . My married woman point out that we might prefer for canola oil alternatively of an automobile mixture , but we keep the carpet trick in mind should we ever call for it .
Rodney Wilson
