[banbh]

i left 'em there

[langdon]

are they back with you or is there a longer collecting time than we have ?
all in all im sure your hard work will pay off.
enjoy mate
langdon
p.s. by the way has that homemade sty lasted, it looked fab?

[Andy1982]

Nice to see the thread getting some love and nice to meet a few more members.

Since Thursday when i went to see my new holding (which we have decided to buy with offer accepted ) we have 3 good elevated fields running down to a peatish bog which amounts to 2 fields which need some draining and re-trenching as it's been left for 4 years.

 I was wondering which,if any animals can be kept on bogland. I'm worried about sheeps feet(don't want any fungal infections due to the wet),but i don't know about pigs, as they live in mud once they have ploughed up some land. Would they be ok to plough this land up or not without any problems? If not, the farmer next door keeps cattle and it seems to be a done thing in the village and surrounding areas, but from my opinion it purely for profit and I would be interested in going off the beaten track and raising pigs amoung other things. If there is need,which I'm sure there would be for rare breed or any breed pork product, I have a market corner to make a couple of squid.

Any advice welcome.

Thanks,

Andy 

[supersean]

hi andy, imo 3 acres is not a lot really especially if some of it is bog, once the pigs hoke it up it will take longer to recover, your best bet is to try and drain it see how it goes, sheep will be fine especially if they have access to bog and green land, your going to be very limited with numbers 2-3 acres ,so id forget the sheep idea, its quiet wet here also, keep that in mind, iv set aside 10 acres for my pigs to hoke up 2 acres,level reseed move to next 2 acres and then  let sheep into first 2, etc etc, my point being 2 sows and say 16 young wont be long hoking,

[Hilarysmum]

IMHO 3 acres is plenty for a few pigs but not if its all bog.  They will enjoy a small wetland area, but not deep mud as they dont have the feet for it.  They need a good large dry area for pooing, eating, sleeping and sunbathing.  Ours all have access to some wet areas for most of the year (but not this one its all dried up) but still prefer to tip their water containers rather than to use the damper areas and wallows provided.

A local farmer used to keep cows on our land, they have done untold damage to the drainage on the wet land.  We have turned part of ours into a v. large pond on which we keep waterfowl for pleasure and eating.  Even thats dry now.  But if you have permanent wetland perhaps that could be a consideration?

[gavo]

Are we talking peat bog with the associated bog plants ie heathers etc or are we talking just a wet soggy area of ground? If it's the former we have pigs on such ground ;and they do far less damage in there than on any of our other fields; winter or summer. They only hoke up areas without the bog plants and even then not as much as normal and it sems to cope really well.We do keep the worlds best diggers TAMS.

[Andy1982]

Thanks for the imput everyone.

To clarify, we have 3fields which are all at a slope and run down to the 2 boggy fields,but the top 1/4 of this which joins to the next field which begins the slope is ok and not too much in the way of marsh plantlife. This side i could use to house the pigs and keep them in reasonable dryness. I would like to put them on this first as the better fields will be used for growing crops for them as well as keeping a cow or goat. The other reason being that if i can set the pigs on that after i have redone the trenches and dig in some drainage it gives me some time for the field to dry out and hold some productivity at the same time. I just don't want to put animals on a certain type of land which they can't do well on such as sheep or chooks.

i would then want to reseed the land to see if any improvement has been made and have learned to be with the new    which my main concern is i want to be eating a bacon roll while pondering the success or lack thereof rather than have an animal that is not thriving due to my inexperience of what will live ok on that type of land in it's current condiction than eating weetabix

Thanks again everyone,

Andy

[banbh]

langdon the sty lasted fine cheers.

andy, you're lucky you have a slope. it rains a lot in the west of ireland and the whole place gets sodden. i'd be tempted to get a couple of sturdy (it blows a lot too) corrugated sheds and stock the land bit by bit to see what it can take. you'll have to rest it by moving them about. stone walls are great for keeping pigs in, if you have them.

you'll find the west of ireland not as developed as britain (imo) for organic markets, or farmers' markets. There is a different social tradition. But if you ask around, bit by bit, you'll find locals who will know a lot about pigs (there was a bacon factory in claremorris) and an awful lot about farming wet land. Also Teagasc are good, the govt farm advisory folk. Twenty or thirty years ago everyone had pigs, they'll be glad to see them come back.

[supersean]

just seems a lot of plans for 3 acres, imho stick either pigs and crops. a good idea would be to take on few pet lambs, lots of farmers will give them away, i know a man who used to get 10apx each spring and get rid of them at end of autumn, stay away from cows sheep the paper work alone is a pain in the ****,

[Andy1982]

I am planning on the sturdy pig ark banbh as i need to change the roof of my dodgy extension which is the lovely iron sheets and been taking some plans down from a few websites and went by our local pig farmer here in Norfolk where i got a few tips.

We were over there last Thursday and I still could'nt believe that no-one opened up shops till at least 10am, we own a village shop and we are up at 6am every day and close at 6pm hence why we are getting our act together and going to where life is as layed back as it is there. I love it!! Oh and the rain, I love the rain as sad as it sounds . I am going to have a look for our local farmers market orgainic if we can but I would like to seel some of our produce to local B&B's and small restaurant's or cafe's as there is plenty of those round here for the tourists and we are very central to Kilkeely,Ballyhaunis and Knock.

Sean, i do have a lot of plans but that does'nt mean I can follow through on all of those just as space will allow and I will be taking things slow to find my feet. TBH me and the old ball and chain have only agreed on pigs and chickens so far. A goat might come in handy for milk and size and veg are a must including polytunnel and one field split into a couple of sections to grow fodder,kale,mangolds etc.

Andy

[supersean]

 best of luck with everything.