Pig planning
Posted: Monday 15 March, 2004
It's nice to have pigs around the place again. Apart from the satisfaction of watching them turn over a large piece of ground where we can grow veg next year, saving me a sore back and blistered hands, they are such friendly, lively animals. This lot, being a good bit older than our two last year, and used to dogs thanks to Holly, already follow us around inquisitively and love a good scratch.
Now we've got them we need to start thinking about the when, how, and who of their eventual departure. That means seeking out those potential customers who last year expressed an interest in buying pork from us but for whatever reason missed out, and offering more to those who did buy last year (but who might still have half a freezer full!), and giving the butcher an early warning of the likely date for the carcasses to arrive.
These three are 3 months older than the Tamworths we had last year, which means that they will most likely go to slaughter in late July. That provides much more scope for cultivating and planting up the vacated bed before autumn, and while there's no solid plan evolved yet we're thinking around spuds and a good over-wintering green manure such as grazing rye, phacelia or winter tares. That way come the spring the soil will hopefully be much more workable than this year, when the bed vacated by the pigs was quite badly panned and took a lot of effort to open up.
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