The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: YawningAngel on February 08, 2020, 07:51:49 am
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Hi all,
Simple question...are there any reasons why pigs could/should not live in a pine wood...?
I'm considering acquiring a few wearers to fatten up, and I (potentially) have access to about an acre of pine woodland...
I have read a lot about how pigs like to root around in woodland, but everything I've seen is in relation to deciduous woodland, rather than pine woods.
Cheers
Paul
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does this answer your question... https://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/index.php?topic=70865.0 (https://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/index.php?topic=70865.0) ?
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Thanks!...I guess I didn't search back far enough...and/or was using the wrong key-words/phrases...????
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I would imagine that there is no leaf litter, so no worms or other interesting things for them to route around in, no daylight hitting the ground so no patches of green for them to eat. I imagine they would be 'ok' but you'd need to feed them as if they were in a bare field.
Of course there is conifers and conifers, I am thinking of planted woods where they are densely planted. You could think then out a bit to give the sunlight a chance to break through and allow scrub to start growing
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If there are larches, there will be leaf litter and bugs a-plenty! :D. And even if all the trees are evergreen, the pine cones and so on still make quite a bit of litter - and wood ants at least seem to love the environment!
My only real qualm would be on the age and robustness of the trees. Some pine types are rather shallowly-rooted, and if the trees are still quite young, I would expect that quite a few would be rendered vulnerable to being uprooted by winds by the pigs doing what pigs do, and exposing and chomping through surface roots.
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Always ran the pigs in mature spruce / larch windbreaks they loved the dry ground and slept out under the trees in hollows rather than in their ark , all food taken to them as only rooted the grass areas where trees were thin . We made an error once by putting the tamworth sows and boar into a young wood with 15 -20 ft high trees and they started rooting and made some fall over before we moved them
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Hi Paul,
Hope you don't mind me commenting. I'm a TV producer & I'm currently looking for somebody who hasn't kept pigs before but is planning on getting some to feature in our returning series 'Springtime on the Farm'.
Might this be of interest?
My number is 0113 204 5922 and email is [email protected]
Many thanks,
Emily