I've been spending a lot of time outside with the pigs lately so I've had a great chance to get to know them quite well. I've found them to be very playful, extremely quick and I now appreciate what it's like to "eat like a pig". These two are eating machines.
They are also powerful bulldozers. Their snouts can turn over a patch of ground better than a pitchfork.
As a result, I've had to stop letting them free range with the goats and chickens. They were rooting up the pasture like a tractor with a plow. I wasn't expecting that.
Now, every morning, I lead them to the fenced in garden so they can spend the day rooting to their hearts content. They are saving me hours of labour and they're doing a great job.
At the end of the day, I lead them back to the barn for the night. It only took them a couple of days to learn the routine. They follow me out to the garden and back without any trouble at all.
Every couple of days the kids and I go into the garden and pick up all the weeds and stones that they have rooted up.
It shouldn't take the pigs very long to get the garden ready for planting.
I'm not sure where I'll let the pigs root around once the garden is planted. I'll likely have to build them their own fenced in yard ... we'll see.
Until then they still have more work to do ... but for them it's probably more like fun. It's certainly a lot of fun to watch them work.
Wow, they are doing a great job at tilling up the ground!
ReplyDeleteBecareful, those four footed followers are sure to win the battle between your heart & stomach.
ReplyDeleteHey Pelenaka ... LOL ... there is no battle to win ... their destiny is set .... one will be put on a spit in July for our annual pig roast. The other will stick around a little longer until he's big enough for the butcher. I'm looking forward to trying to cure some ham and bacon for the freezer. I only wish that I had raised some pigs last year .. that would have been a good idea.
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