andybob said:Been struggling for some time to scan some pictures of the outdoor pigs for a while, have some seasonal help now :wink:
This herd was 1000 sows at 10 to the acre, the sow barn huts take 20 adult sows, and dismantle for moving in 15 mins, the 'tent' type house 24 adults and take 30 mins to dismantle.
They were moved onto ryegrass mix underplanted to barley as soon as the barley is harvested, corn is grown on the field after the pigs are moved.
Soapweed, one of my sheep trained boarder collies, Skip, was an exelent 'pig dog' a big help as only two fulltime workers, with two students on the weekends, ran the whole unit.
Quite a clever and perfect cycle you have.andybob said:The field is well fertilised with the pig manure and straw from the deep litter in the huts which when spread, provides the potash to grow an exelent silage crop for the dairy, the soils are poor and stony, and need regular breaks under livestock to keep the structure maintained for the cropping, rotation.
Northern Rancher said:Are those Yorkshire cross sows? when I was first married we ran quite a few hogs-now when Ty manages to sneak one by his Mom we get the odd sow in the spring. Farrow them out then before it gets too cold sell the pigs off and butcher the dry sow to make deer sausage with. When they used to thresh in this country alot of hogs were raised in the straw piles-those old sows were pretty self sufficient. I kind of like hogs to be honest-but I like anything with four legs that gets in the neighbors garden lol-jkin'.Those are pretty healthy happy looking porkers for sure-beats what you see in the hothouses.
Northern Rancher said:Contrary to popular belief bears aren't that bad to be around-I suppose they'd kill a pig if they were hard pressed but most would rather eat berries from what I've seen. In the spring they graze in the meadows just like cattle-trying to get their stomachs back in order after hibernating. If a guy went a big scalepasture hog deal like that I'd run some Pyreness dogs with them to keep the yotes out. Mind you any electric fence that can keep pigs in would keep any predators we have out. Back in the day that home grown pork supplemented with skim milk was yummy stuff. I don't really miss milking cows that much though.
:lol: :lol: I didn't mean to imply you were pioneering still, just responding to your statement that bear don't seem to bother pigs. Maybe it is the type of bear like a grizzly more than a black bear. I don't know, just guessing.Northern Rancher said:well it's not quite that pioneer here any more-we've even got the talking pitcher boxes like in the big cities.
this is so interesting- how high did the fencing have to be to keep out leopards?!andybob said:Northern Rancher, the sows are Landrace cross Duroc, Large White terminal boars are used. When I eventually leave the company I will test the profitability of Tamworth in the woods, selling to a niche market, untill then, I have a long way to go building up my new Tuli herd.
Jinglebob, I have used pigs to clear and fertilise land behind electric fencing for vegetables and once to establish stargrass pastures for a friends dairy herd in South Africa.
NR, I have kept outdoor pigs in several variations of this system, on my farm in Rhodesia, I had leopards, African lynx, jackals and hyienas. all were controlled with electric netting type fences, birds after piglets were a bigger threat, always keep a shotgun on hand.
In England, domestic dogs, foxes and ravens (protected) were a threat, the European fox is the only non avian preditor that managed to get through the defences.
Here, no bears nearby,bobcats foxes and coyotes are kept out by perimeter fences, enough voltage should keep out bears, feral pigs are a bigger threat as they harbour diseases.