The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Introduce yourself => Topic started by: welshlass181 on January 26, 2011, 05:45:36 pm
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Hi, we are taking over a 2.5 acre field that we want to get back to organic meadow to cut it for hay. We are trying to do it without the use of tractors or any heavy machinery on the field. We want to use pigs to turn the land and then we're going to seed it by hand and then roll it with either a quad or our little sec a pony. The hay will be used to feed any livestock we have. We want to be as self sufficient as possible and grow some veg for the family and for the piggies.
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hi and welcome from moray :wave: good luck with your plans
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Thank you x
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Hi welshlass Welcome to the forum :wave: :wave:
I'm also from West Wales - lots of infor and friendly guy and girls on here ;) ;)
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Hi and welcome, please please please dont be insulted, but having seen a lot of people here who keep pigs and grow a few mangleworzels or equivalent, for them, which they think will feed them from piglets to table, please dont forget to buy in some protein for them too. Hope you are not insulted, just had a bad day rescuing a sow and piglets
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No no i don't mean that i am going to feed them soley on veg :( I shall be buying proper food for them too. I've been in touch with the local council (the guy nearly wet himself when i mentioned pigs) who has told me what i should and should not do re feeding and the paperwork. What i was thinking about it the first year that i have the veggie patch going i'd grow a lot of bits and bobs and all the first years crop would be for the animals and a supplement to the pellets/pig food that they would have all the time.
Ps not insulted at all and i appreciate the advise :D
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It might be organic already - just because it doesn't have the necessary piece of paper doesn't mean it is not organic.
I think what you have in mind is an interesting subject but an awful lot of hard work.
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The reason we are doing it this way is if we have the heavy machines on it the ground will conpact down and more rushes will grow :-[ we won't be making it organic to sell anything per sey just to make the land better. With the pigs turning the field they'll poo on it to fertilise it as they go and when we re-seed it it'll help out.
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Hi! just pointing out on a previous post that we could do with more Welsh people on the site - then your post appeared - amazing!!! Anyway, good luck and welcome to the site from the north of the Principality. :wave:
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Hi! just pointing out on a previous post that we could do with more Welsh people on the site - then your post appeared - amazing!!! Anyway, good luck and welcome to the site from the north of the Principality. :wave:
Glad i could fulfill ur post :) thank you
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Hello from sunny South West Wales too ;D ;D
whereabouts are you in SW wales? :pig:
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Hello Welshlass
Welcome to the forum. I've replied to your query in the pigs section re. getting pigs to turn over the ground.
You seemed to think you would't be able too find Tamworths in south-west Wales. Well, there are, indeed, Tamworth breeders in your neck of the woods.
Although I'm in south-east Wales (Caerphilly), I've sold breeding stock to two people in Carmarthenshire in the past years. One breeder has just had two January litters - one from a gilt I sold to them which was covered by a young boar (now sold to a breeder in Devon).
If you need contacts, please let me know. I'm also on the committee of the Tamworth Breeders' Club, should - or anyone else - have any Tamworth-related queries.
Good luck with your plans.
Liz
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Hello from sunny South West Wales too ;D ;D
whereabouts are you in SW wales? :pig:
We live near Crosshands ;D
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Hello Welshlass
Welcome to the forum. I've replied to your query in the pigs section re. getting pigs to turn over the ground.
You seemed to think you would't be able too find Tamworths in south-west Wales. Well, there are, indeed, Tamworth breeders in your neck of the woods.
Although I'm in south-east Wales (Caerphilly), I've sold breeding stock to two people in Carmarthenshire in the past years. One breeder has just had two January litters - one from a gilt I sold to them which was covered by a young boar (now sold to a breeder in Devon).
If you need contacts, please let me know. I'm also on the committee of the Tamworth Breeders' Club, should - or anyone else - have any Tamworth-related queries.
Good luck with your plans.
Liz
Brilliant :) will defo look into it more when the land is ready for said piggies thank you
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Welcome from a not so sunny West Sussex, good luck with your project, the pigs will certainly turn over the ground for you.
:pig:
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Just drop me a message when you're ready and I'll pass on my friends' details.
Do come and say hello if you make it to the Royal Welsh Smallholder Festival at Builth Wells in May - and that goes for anyone else who might be there! I'll be up there competing and also doing a talk on starting with pigs - in the Speakers' Corner on the Sunday.
Always good to chat to other forumers about smallholding stuff!