Author Topic: Modern pigs in woodland? (Read 2870 times)

heyhay1984 · « **on:** July 29, 2015, 09:31:41 am »

Random q again and don't want to go into too much detail as I'm currently just mulling the idea over, has anybody experience of keeping modern breed pigs in a woodland setting? We've kept traditionals and White pigs in an outdoor context (I'm an expert at suncream application now) but never had the woodland into the mix.

My gut is that it can only be a good thing but as always there is bound to be something I haven't thought of. Maybe they would find having a thinner skin/less hair a bit of an issue in a bramble infested situation? They would have normal, if slightly reduced, feed, and an ark as well, not reliant on the woodland for everything. Obviously water via trough as well.

hughesy · « **Reply #1 on:** July 29, 2015, 10:03:54 am »

Can't see why there would be any problems.

oaklandspigs · « **Reply #2 on:** July 29, 2015, 10:38:39 am »

No problem with any of the traditional or outdoor breeds.

They will love it and get sun protection from the trees.

They will clear it through though, so whilst trees thicker than your wrist will be fine, those smaller can get dug up. They can also strip bark by rubbing (they don't generally attack trees).

Many people rotate between two or more areas, to let the natural woodland recover

Marches Farmer · « **Reply #3 on:** July 29, 2015, 11:04:07 am »

Growing pigs may eat so much roughage their gut becomes impacted. Older pigs will root deep enough to damage the roots of mature trees, once surface vegetation gets eaten off.

oaklandspigs · « **Reply #4 on:** July 29, 2015, 01:36:16 pm »

We have not seen an issue with younger pigs - all our fatteners are grown in woodland settings.

We have oaks, ash and beech in our woods amongst others, and they tend to dig away from the larger trees.

But as said earlier, rotating between areas ensures the woodland is sustained.

heyhay1984 · « **Reply #5 on:** July 29, 2015, 05:19:01 pm »

Brilliant, thank you all. Could build in flexibility to have them out in the woods during daytime only if it looks like they're scoffing too much.

Was thinking of running them on it during Autumn/Winter as there are some seriously big old trees in there that take in much of the water from the land (and my current pens don't drain as well as I'd like so we don't currently have pigs between October and March). There's also a load of bluebells in the woods so would probably be wise to get the pigs back onto grass in the Spring so they don't get obliterated, though a bit of research tells me that there's no obligation to protect them from pig rooting, which is a relief!

I feel a piggy plan coming together