The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: norfolk newbies on August 25, 2011, 01:52:32 pm
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Hi Folks
Our GOS successfully cleared a patch of our new garden. They grazed down the brambles and nettles (after we had got rid of the huge elder and conifers) but left all the ground viola/sweet violet which they did not like apparently ???. However we then moved them and that cleared ground has now become a jungle again, except under the apple and plum trees.
I thought the new weeds were mostly fat hen and resurgent nettles, but I can see quite a bit of deadly nightshade - including plants with berries. I was hoping to put sows back in to clean up again ( including eating all the fallen apples) but am now concerned about potentially toxic berries.
Given that there is so much other ( tasty) stuff around, are they likely to leave DN alone, or should I really not put them back there, (I am assuming it is toxic to humans and pigs).
I am hoping that they are both in pig, and I do not know if eating a little bit of DN would cause pregnancy problems either. I need to shift them to new ground so need to make a decision soon. It might be possible for me to dig up DN by hand, but there is the possiblility that I would miss some, or that the berries had already dropped.
I suspect that the answer is 'do not put them in' but I am also looking for advice as to whether I should never put them back in this area as the DN seeds are obviously dormant in soil.
My other alternative new ground has ragwort.....and is only half fenced!
All advice greatfully received
thanks
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If you go on thepigsite.com health section it has a bit about deadly nightshade. Even though the eating of it is fatal it says pigs rarely get poisoned and it can be treated. I would have thought a vet might be the best person to ask to be on the safe side.
Most animals know what is poisonous to them and will only touch things if there is nothing else to eat.
The other thing is that you said they had been in there previously so I would have thought that the deadly nightshade had been there as well.
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"If in doubt-------rip it out" is my philosophy!
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ragwort......it says hardly ever grazed???? http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/ragwort.htm (http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/ragwort.htm)
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if unsure spray it off. you don't want to chance it. our docks are bigger and healthier than ever.
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Well, IMHO unless you've got youngsters (who as we know will try & nibble just about anything ;) ) I would expect a native breed adult to be ok knowing which plants are poisonous - the only problem being when the berries drop/plant dies back/plant "hidden" in hay/lage/silage.
Even my Kunes won't touch anything poisonous whilst it's "alive" like ragwort, foxgloves etc though don't think they've faced DN yet. If it was me I'd rather risk the Ragwort than the DN, but I'd certainly attack it (pull by the roots/dig it up) when you get time, coz it'll gradually infest all your grazing. Can you beg/steal (?)/borrow an eleci fence until you get around to finishing your fencing?
:love: :pig: :love:
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Agree with others who have posted, that the pigs will avoid poisonous plants. Deadly nightshade is a native woodland plant, which pigs would have encountered frequently in the wild.
I once saw an area of wetland that had been cleared by pigs, they'd eaten everything bar the rhizomes of hemlock water dropwort (dead-mans fingers) which is lethal to both man and livestock in very small quantitites.