The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: welshlass181 on October 30, 2011, 05:47:30 pm
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We have a tree line that goes down one side (boundry) of the field that are all oak. My pigs have rooted the line of the boundry seeking out the acorns that fall. I was sitting on the tree swing we have and sorta jiggling about to make more fall and they were actually fighting over them.
Somebody has just told me that acorns are bad for pigs? I'm sure i read somewhere that they are sometimes used (where possible) as a staple part of a swines diet. I did a bit of digging when a friends horse died of acorn poisoning :( none of mine have died or are ill due to eating them and i was after everybodys thoughts.
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I do not know about Acorns, but beech trees were definately grown around here for the nuts to feed pigs. The wood near us that overlooks Junction 23 of the M62 motorway, (every one can see it when passing by), has two names; Plantation or Pig Hill Wood. It was a plantation of beech trees. The nuts are said to be oily and for pigs during winter. :pig:
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well that will be the Italian pigs knackered then the acorns give that extra special flavour to there hams :farmer:
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Acorns are fine for pigs, but in small quantities. Unless they are used to them the tannic acid can upset their digestions. We give ours the odd handful as pig sweeties. Your situation sounds fine: I think the problems have been when someone has tipped a bucket of acorns in for pigs which haven't had them before
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When my pigs escaped they made a B-line for the acorns, ripping up the lawn :'( they are also very partial to hazelnuts....
I don't know enough about pigs yet... But I do know the kune's and the Osb's have a real thing for them.
On another note the kune's didnt touch pumpkins but the Osb's loved them.
Greg
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well that will be the Italian pigs knackered then the acorns give that extra special flavour to there hams :farmer:
;D
I'm not a hard ham expert by any means but I was once sort of offered an opportunity to set up a holding in Tuscany for someone; the livelihood was a chestnut grove where the pigs would forage turning themselves into beautiful proscutio... I guess it's different nuts in different places? (Rather like TAS? ;) :D)
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As others have said, acorns are fine for pigs, just let them graze for them.
Ours are let out onto the fields with oaks and graze for a few hours. We only restrict the time to prevent then digging the grass in these fields.
The pigs in the woods have free access to falling from a couple of oaks.
Yes it was traditional, this wiki link shows a nice picture on the right of pannage in the 14th century
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pannage (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pannage)
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As others have said, acorns are fine for pigs, just let them graze for them.
Ours are let out onto the fields with oaks and graze for a few hours. We only restrict the time to prevent then digging the grass in these fields.
The pigs in the woods have free access to falling from a couple of oaks.
Yes it was traditional, this wiki link shows a nice picture on the right of pannage in the 14th century
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pannage (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pannage)
Oakland - I love the idea of 'letting them out for a few hours' ( we have an orchard and a patch of woodland in the next field which would be a joy for them) - but I'm scared I wont get them back in their space!! We've had our 4 for 6 weeks now and they seem pretty settled, but I have no idea how to start the walking with a board thing. They do come to the bucket at feed time, but dont always come over to me when they are not. How do you get yours back?
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I love the idea of 'letting them out for a few hours' ( we have an orchard and a patch of woodland in the next field which would be a joy for them) - but I'm scared I wont get them back in their space!! We've had our 4 for 6 weeks now and they seem pretty settled, but I have no idea how to start the walking with a board thing. They do come to the bucket at feed time, but dont always come over to me when they are not. How do you get yours back?
Oaklands will answer for his situation but my two penn'orth would be to put them out a few hours before their normal tea-time then get them back following their bucket for tea. They'll soon catch on. ;D
Meg goes walkies around the farmstead sometimes - sometimes by invitation and sometimes not ;) :D - but is never any trouble to get her back where she belongs. As long as she's had a little while to explore and isn't harried back, she'll happily follow a bucket, or often now just walk alongside me, grunting happily to me, even if I'm empty-handed.
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as sally said if they follow the bucket there should be no problem the board is just for confined spaces and showing once they get used to it(a board in the middle of an open field is as much use as a chocolate watch if the pig has not been trained to it) :farmer:
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Thank you :) as always the best thing to do is ask the people who know a hell of a lot more than i do.
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I have to go on an Acorn Hunt everyday at the moment as there are Oak trees in a couple of the sheep fields. They are poisonous in quantity to sheep and so I collect them up daily and then bring them back and give 'em to the pigs :thumbsup: which makes it seem all the more worthwhile doing it. ;)
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Acorns are fine for pigs just as long as they get other food as well, We turn ours out every year for the Pannage season in the forest and they happily root around the oak trees hopefully saving some of the ponies lives cause they love them too.
We do have to ring them though or they would dig up a terrible mess and the agister would be after us.
If the acorn season is particuarly bad then we are granted a licence for grazing extension much to the riders' distain because they don't like us out their much ::)
Pigs and horses, you know ::)
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Pigs and horses, you know ::)
We've an ex-racehorse lodging here at the mo. At first the pigs unnerved him, now he looks round expectantly when he hears the piglet delegation heading his way!
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Yes my old pony was great with pigs didn't mind them one bit but then i think i could off hacked him down the M27 and he wouldn't have batted an eye! had a fire engine with blues and twos going once come around the corner and there we were, politely standing to one side to let them through, should have seen the look on the drivers face :o
But whenever pannage comes around you should here the moans and groans of the riding brigade about spooking horses, my view is you should teach your horse about these things, after all it goes on every year, we will always have acorns so we will always need the pigs ;)
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New forrest pig keepers are allowed to turn them out for pannage , quite how the get them back in again after is another matter....
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are 2 pigs love the acorns one of the enclosers was
full of them seems to be lots this year
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They eat them all and don't miss any lol mine are terrible for them :) the way i see it is the pigs do a fab job, they don't miss any and it's safer for the equines. Will be offering my herds services next year to close friends who keep horses
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New forrest pig keepers are allowed to turn them out for pannage , quite how the get them back in again after is another matter....
We dont find it too difficult to get them in, usually someone will let us know where they are running, either the Agister or another commoner and we all work together down here so quite often they will come in with someone elses pigs and then they contact us to say they have them.
Other than that we try to walk them to a fenced area and walk them into the trailer with buckets and boards
simples ;D
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Ah! I have a horsy neighbour who complains (not nastily) that my pigs ALWAYS stand by the gate when she's riding her horse by and the poor little dear is terrified of them, so much so that she has to dismount and coax him by with horse "sweeties" that she carries for just such moments (Clever horse, I say ;))
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Oakland - I love the idea of 'letting them out for a few hours' ( we have an orchard and a patch of woodland in the next field which would be a joy for them) - but I'm scared I wont get them back in their space!! We've had our 4 for 6 weeks now and they seem pretty settled, but I have no idea how to start the walking with a board thing. They do come to the bucket at feed time, but dont always come over to me when they are not. How do you get yours back?
You need to bucket train them first.
When you feed you pigs, if you always feed in the same place, when you arrive the pigs run to that place, and wait for the bucket to arrive.
If however you feed in a different place each day, and go in and shake a bucket, the pigs learn to follow the bucket, so are bucket trained.
Now when they are let out to eat the acorns, i just rattle then bucket in front of them and they follow it home to feed and bed.
We do the same with our veg patch in the winter, a couple of pigs are walked to it in the morning on fine days, stay there turning it over and manuring it, and walked back top bed at night.