Pigs

I can't wait to increase the diversity in this woodland by planting a wide variety of trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals and climbers.

In the first years the emphasis will be on soil improving plants. Also on fruit bearing trees and shrubs which will take some years to bear fruit and thus need a head start.

You may ask: 'What does that have to do with pigs?'

It's a lot of work to plant and propagate plants, and I could use some help with that.

Students of Permaculture are always excited when they come across the idea of the 'chicken tractor'.

Hens, confined in a small space, will scratch and root up weedy ground, take out slugs, insects and their eggs, and most of the weeds and grass.

When moved onto fresh ground, they will leave it behind nice and manured and in fine tilth, ready for sowing seeds into.

One big step up from this concept is the Tamworth Pig.

Tamworths are reckoned to be the closest to the old British forest pig. They are a hardy breed, being able to cope with both cold and windy conditions, and thus suited to the outdoor life much better than the commercial breeds.

The quality of their meat is supposed to be excellent.
It is their natural habit to root through the ground, eating grass, roots, and even soil, to supplement their diet.

With golden coloured hair over reddish brown skin Tamworth pigs are quite beautiful animals.

They can be confined by electric fence. Concentrated on a small piece of ground, they will dig over every inch of it.

“…Pigs are also used to manage deciduous forestry. They can be released into a forest shortly before felling to help to clear the undergrowth. Pigs prefer eating the leaves and roots of bracken and brambles to those of small trees. (Harris, R. 2003 Making a start with woodland pigs. Quarterly journal of Forestry 97 (1) pp51-54.)

"After felling, their rooting helps to give an advantage to growing saplings.

Pigs can also be very destructive. It is important to keep them away from rare woodland plants, to keep them at a low stocking density, and to move them on once they have cleared the ground sufficiently. Otherwise they can destroy the ground flora and wildlife cover."

(Compassion in World Farming trust 2006: Animal welfare aspects of good agricultural practice: Pig Production.)

In my internet search about pig keeping I came across Rebecca Hilmann’s website

Her E-Booklet: 'Rearing Weaners for the Table, A Beginners Guide' is a useful and encouraging read. It’s good -and so rare on the internet - to have information geared towards Irish conditions.

Two months ago we bought two eight month old females from breeder Billy Collins in Nenagh, Tipperary.

On the day Billy wasn't able to meet us, but he had done that previously and given us a lot of good advice and encouragement.

He has taken great care in raising these animals, as is obvious from the fact that they are as tame and calm as 150 kg creatures can be!

It makes life so much easier for all concerned if animals are handled on a regular basis and used to interactions with humans.

So, with the capable help of Billy's mother (who sent them off with a sprinkle of holy water, christening them ‘Kerry’ and ‘Rose’) and two sisters, we loaded these dauntingly big animals into our trailer and brought them down to South Kerry.

It was not the easiest to bring them into the woodland, through trees and muddy patches, but we managed by putting strands of electric fence tape (not switched on) either side, which they respected well enough.

As soon as they put their feet onto the land, their snouts went down and started rooting through the soft mossy ground.

We learned that you can't herd or hurry up a pig. You can only gently encourage it, and block its view with a board, or sheet of cardboard, if it feels inclined to stray off the path.

Well, we got them into the area we had fenced off for them, which includes a house I built for them from scrap wood and harvested trees.

Within a week they had reduced the soft bog ground to mud, removing all green vegetation. I then moved them on to a new patch, still with access to the house.

Four weeks later they had finished with all the ground around the shed and I realized it would be necessary to have pig housing that could be moved on easily.

So we bought one made from plastic, originally intended for calves. It is very sturdy, and just right for two pigs. It has no floor, so I place it on a ‘cow mat’ (another fantastic plastic product) plus some straw for making a cosy nest.

Pigs need constant access to water. I simply place a bucket on the ground which they drink from in a very mannerly way, which I refill from rainwater harvested from the roof of the pig house.

When they are finished drinking in that mannerly way, however, they get playful and tip over the bucket, so I dig it into the ground a little bit.

I also see them drinking from puddles in the mud.

They respect the electric fence very well. They did occasionally test it with their snout -- and a loud squeak! – but by now they don’t come near it except by accident.

Young pigs need to be confined by an additional wire mesh fence, as they will otherwise slip through it quickly, without receiving a shock

At present we feed them the only pig ration easily available in the local shop, but since this mix includes genetically modified soy, I want make up my own mix, as soon as I can get around to it.

Billy used to supplement their food with dried seaweed meal, and I would like to experiment with offering them fresh seaweed.

Bog soil is low in a lot of minerals, and both pigs and soil could do with this additive.

Pigs do eat slugs, which is another bonus.

If contemplating the use of pigs for soil work, careful consideration needs to be given to the soil type, and what this will do to it.

Ragmanslane Farm in England write this on their website: “We would like to use pigs to do a bit of ploughing, but we are on silty clay and an unringed pig (we ring our pigs to stop them rooting up the pasture) left to its own devices will take the structure out of the soil in less than a week - long before it has turned all the ground and eaten the roots with textbook obedience - leaving it resembling concrete. On our land there are perhaps two weeks of the year when the soil conditions are good for pigs to be turning it. This requires an approach that is soil orientated not pig orientated ie the pigs need to whipped out as soon as it rains and put somewhere else - OK for a backyarder, but quite tricky with a large number of pigs that suddenly require housing, feeding and watering elsewhere.”

Clay, in particular, can be tricky to work with. Clay is made up of very fine smooth and cohesive, plate-like particles derived from the decomposition of rock.

When these particles get moved around in combination with water, they tend to align themselves flat against each other and form a mass that will not hold much air and dries out hard as brick.

Thus, letting pigs root around your clay soil would destroy your soil structure.

Soil Structure is essential to facilitate plant growth. It is maintained by plant roots, humus and clay minerals.

Earthworms, proper drainage and deep-rooting plants, incorporation of organic materials and/or sand, all contribute to form a healthy soil structure.

Since we don’t have a good soil structure to begin with, I am happy to let the pigs make a start in creating it.

I intend to use the peat mud to create raised beds. Having roots removed from the soil also helps with digging and creating drains.

Here is a picture of an area I had intended to make into a garden for a few months now.

Before the pigs' arrival, I mulched it with cardboard, hoping to break down the grass-root mat by early spring.
Now that I had the help of the pigs I simply removed the cardboard (which had not achieved much yet), staked the electric fence around it, and let the pigs have at it. Three weeks later it is now ready to turn into a garden.

I often find myself drawn to working next to these two gentle ladies.

When I feed them I take the opportunity to stay around and cut some brambles, gorse or low hanging willow branches, or work on creating a path nearby.

They are great company and it feels like we’re a good team.

I’ve done enough hard 'jumping on the back of a spade' -- trying to cut through grass roots -- to appreciate the help they give me with working the land more easily.

I give them a scratch and I talk to them, and this way my confidence in handling them improves.

At this stage they easily follow me and my bucket (after a night’s fasting) whenever I want to move them further into the woods.

We don’t particularly aim to breed pigs, or rear them for the table. But, since Billy has a pedigree boar, the opportunity seemed too good to pass up, and we decided to put one of them – Kerry - in young. She will be farrowing towards the end of December.

If anyone in or near Southwest Kerry is interested in a piglet, please contact me…