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Guess which acorn grew on a tree that was fertilized by pig manure last year? The giant acorn fell from a tiny Red Oak tree in a spot that the pigs grazed in last year. The average sized acorn fell from a mature Red Oak that was not fertilized. Never doubt the power of poo (and animal impact)! P.S. - This is not an isolated incident- all of the Oaks that the pigs foraged around last year gave abnormally large acorns. |
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| Hickory nuts |
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| Acorns |
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| Well, hello there! |
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This year we began farrowing our own piglets in earnest. Last year we dabbled, this year we've jumped in. From here on out our herd will likely remain "closed." This will help us to preserve our favorite genetics, and to reduce the chance of bringing illness in from another farm via piglets. Piglets are one of the very best parts of our job! |
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We interfere with sows and their babies as little as possible-
believing that bonding is important and that the mama pigs
know how to raise their babies better than we could do it ourselves.
Unfortunately, our hands off approach means that we don't
get to snuggle the piglets as much as we would like.
(It's really hard to keep our hands off the little guys!)
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Piglets are usually shy, and skittish, which is why we don't have many
pictures of them.
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| This litter is unusually friendly-
I took advantage and spent some time with them today,
soaking up some cuteness.
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| Never too young to forage. |
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| Those dangly things are "wattles-" which are found only in Red Wattle hogs. Red Wattle is a rare, heritage breed with a mysterious origin- more on Wattles another time. |
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| Sisters! Margaret (lying down)- nursing her sister's (standing) babies. Margaret and her sister were separated for a couple of months because their babies were born at different times. They were reunited yesterday and Margaret very quickly installed herself as wet nurse. Her own piglets are big, and strong, and are nearby playing with the big kid piglets. |
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| We had a fabulous visit with about 25 kids from Mountain Road School. The kids were excited to learn, and were gentle with the animals. |
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| You don't often hear of a group of 25 kids that are all willing to try pork rinds, smoked sausages, and head cheese. Way to go Mountain Road School! |
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| Here the kids are checking out some piglets- they were surprised that we don't have a big red barn, pink pigs, or lots of mud. |
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| Super proud to say that not one kid was zapped by the electric fence! Phew! |
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| We often field the question about whether silvopasturing (raising pigs in the woods) is harmful to the forest. We took a walk in our woods the other day and this is what we saw. This woodland pasture was used heavily about 9 months ago. This section has far more vegetation growing on the forest floor now than it did before, and far fewer invasive plants- like Multi Flora rose and Japanese Knot weed than it did before it was used. We have noted significant growth in saplings since our pigs have been on silvopasture. We are very pleased with the health of our forests. |
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| This section of pig fence is part field, part woods. These guys like to come out and sun themselves in the field. They thrive when they have a varied diet- in this case, from field, forest and dairy. |
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| Piglets- about 15 weeks old. Just before being moved to a new section of fencing. So curious! |
Early morning chores with no kids makes it much easier to take pictures!  |
| One of these things is not like the others...
Note: To encourage the chickens to graze we feed grain only once per day, this also helps them
to grow at a healthy rate- not too fast. Needless to say, the birds get pretty excited at grain time
and aren't great about turn taking.
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| Young Mulefoot gilt. (gilt= young, un-bred girl pig) |
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| Young breeding group on field/forest. We keep breeding groups small, and with similarly sized pigs. |
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| This section of fence was last used about six months ago- with rest the vegetation comes back quite well. At this time last year the hillside these pigs are standing on was covered in six foot tall, super-invasive multi-flora rose bushes. Yay pigs! |
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| Colby spends more time with the pigs, so he typically chooses who will be kept for breeding. The pigs we keep to breed are selected based on many factors. Here are some of the things we think about when we choose who will become breeding stock: how well they forage how well they respect the fence whether or not they are pushy with people or other pigs whether or not they are loud and squealy the quality of meat (tested when their siblings go to slaughter) body conformation general health whether their mothers were good mothers |
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| This fence is about an acre in size, roughly half field/half woods. Five breeders will stay in this space for around a week or two depending upon the condition of the ground and forage. |
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| Powerful nose. |
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| Meat chickens resting in a shelter made from a (very clean!) used septic tank. |
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| Sheep: curious about the grain bucket I was carrying. |
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| Sheep: so curious about the grain bucket I was carrying that one got a bucket stuck on her head. |
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| Eleven nine week old piglets in a dog crate...this, my friends, is exactly like a clown car routine at the circus. We prefer our piglets to travel in a small, confined space like a dog crate. It seems to stress them out less when they are all snuggled up together, and not sloshing around loose in the back of the truck. They often organize themselves in rows, just like hot dogs in a package. We had a gap in our pig schedule and picked up these beautiful piglets from Crosby Farm in Berne, NY. It is a beautiful, well-managed farm that sits way up on a hill overlooking the world. They come from a couple of different litters, there is some red wattle in the mix (see the little dangly things on the pig in the front right?), some Berkshire, some Old Spot. |
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| Piglets in the woods. |
