[dixie]

Here in the south east we usually miss out on rain until now! In the years I've had animals, pigs in particular I have never experienced the amount of rain fallen in the last month.
My pig pens are shocking, it's like mud soup, I am using more straw than ever to keep the arks dry and provide a doormat just outside, I feed in rubber skips, and put hay in the arks to munch on, but the whole situation is so unpleasant. I haven't been able to bring them all in as the barn has been used for sheep and lambs, and even that's flooded twice.
My saving grace is that we are supposedly heading towards summer rather than winter, and it will soon turn to concrete, but it's really getting me down, I didn't decide to keep pigs in these conditions, and feel they have such a naff deal at the moment, how does everyone else cope, as I know many you 'up there' have this bad weather to contend with a lot of the time. 

[Berkshire Boy]

Hi Dixie,
I am in Wales need I say more. Apart from the rain I also have clay to contend with, I cope very much like you are.
It bothers me more than it bothers the pigs to be honest and they are used to it now.
I have plans to build a row of arks with pens all on concrete so that when it is bad I can get them off the mud, hopefully that will be done this year ready for winter.
I wanted to get the empty pens sown with stubble turnip but I don't know when they will be dry enough, just one of those things.
As you say at least we are heading for summer and not winter so it should improve even here in Wales.

[Fowgill Farm]

Dixie don't kill yourself over this we're all in the same boat, pigs i've put into paddocks that are supposed to last them the whole of summer are already trashed into mud soup like BB we're on heavy clay too which will set like concrete if and when it ever dries out, like you we feed in skips(trugs) and going thro loads of straw keeping beds dry, do the best you can its all any of us can do and as you say none of us planned this!
I've evn been seen holding a large golf umbrella over pigs while they eat under it!
Mandy 

[dixie]

I will run out of straw soon    I have moved the sheep outside today, they were sheared weds and had to stay in as the rain was torrential again that night. I am going to bring some pigs in, but 3 adults will have to stay out (no room at the inn), but I'm not even sure I can drive in and out without wrecking all the ground! I have to pick my boar up tomorrow to bring him home as he's needed here and we have a visiting sow too aaarrrggghhhh

[Berkshire Boy]

Ahh the joys of pigs in the winter.

[dixie]

My daughter came home from uni yesterday, and came over to find me feeding pigs, I dropped a rubber skip over the fence into the mud soup, SPLAT! All over her, oops sorry!  .  You need a giggle at times!

[Fowgill Farm]

Just think of the money we're saving on expensive beauty treatments with all this free mud!!
The other day i came in and OH said have you looked in a mirror today? You guessed it greatmud splodges all over my face!
Mandy 

[dixie]

Ha ha I always look like that! I used to be a girly girl! Still am sometimes 

[goosepimple]

We don't keep heavy pigs but we do use plastic mesh around the goats house which really helps keep their feet unclogged - its the stuff you get from garden centres to make a fence for your veg patch or to wrap around young tree trunks to keep the animals off. It usually comes on a roll and you can get whatever length you like.  The smaller gauge is the best (about 2cm squares) and as it's plastic it doesn't hurt their feet.  Also haven't used but would imagine it would work too is those transparent plastic mat runners you get for your hall, may work for the constantly used paths by lighter animals (sheep/goats)  or perhaps as a 'curtain' for a pig ark.
I think piggies would eat most things wouldn't they or at least use them as toys 

[HappyHippy]

Mine all grew webbed feet last year because of the rain 

It's hellish though, isn't it ?
The 'big' pigs are all in a 2 acre field, so although round the gates and feeders are trashed and muddy they've still got plenty of dry/solid ground and the arc is nice and dry and the Kunekunes are just getting rotated round the little pens til their big field drains and drys out. I'm resisting the urge to bring them all in now as they'll be coming in mid-June to get ready for farrowing anyway, as long as it drys up a bit soon hopefully we'll be fine 
Hope the sun comes out for you all soon 
Karen 

[Polished Arrow]

It was bad in May, but now it is ridiculous!  We are really struggling round Margot's pen.  She had a hissy fit a few days ago and reduced any last remaining tufts of grass to Somme-like soup.  Being on a steepish hillside means we don't get as bad as it can get, as the run-off is fairly quick and we do not have clay-soil, so I feel for those of you who do.  But still, the amount of straw it is taking to stop the pigs from getting damaged in the slippery mud is frightening.  I am wondering what the long term effects on ground recovery will be like.  I am guessing I am going to have to completely flatten and reseed the area when we move them on.  Not that that will be for some months, as these are the arks where the weaners will have to live...  Meh^meh!

[Berkshire Boy]

Its getting beyond a joke here to. All the pens are mud soup and no let up with the rain in the near future   Normally I would have some of the pens sown with stubble turnip for the autumn but they are all just slop. Don't you just love the British summer.

[Fowgill Farm]

Its getting beyond a joke here to. All the pens are mud soup and no let up with the rain in the near future   Normally I would have some of the pens sown with stubble turnip for the autumn but they are all just slop. Don't you just love the British summer.

Ditto here in North Yorkshire, i have one small paddock that is still green and i'm keeping it for Clover's piglets which will be Xmas porkers. The mud is slurry like in all the gate holes, trying to make straw lakes around ark doorways and feed under sun (ha    ha ) shelters to keep feed dry. Can hardly walk in my wellies with all the tons of mud clinging to them.
mandy 
ps have to confess to having a week in the real sun last week but coming home to this has made me 10x as depressed about it!

[sokel]

I seem to be lucky at the moment , the small field behind the pig sheds  I am restricting the 5 weaners to isnt to bad
its on a slight slope so the bottom has mud although not deep the top however is still green
Sods law now that I have said this the weather will get worse

[Tamsaddle]

Could it get worse?   Down on the south coast here there is almost always a howling gale too which makes it even more gruesome.    Poor pigs.