The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: mugball on February 25, 2013, 02:13:21 pm
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Hi, long time lurker and researcher, this is my first post.
Have recently taken possession of a farmhouse and six acres, and I am very keen to keep a couple of Tamworth pigs for fattening.
Most of the land is very overgrown, including some dense brambles, and ideally I'd like to let the pigs have a chomp on that to clear it.
My concern is the area used to be a plant nursery, and I can see some broken plastic water pipes sticking out of the ground in places, and presumably there is other debris that I cannot see.
Am I safe to assume that the pigs will forage about and only eat what they are comfortable with? i.e if there is any undesirable foreign matter they will ignore it rather than wolf it down?!
Many thanks in advance.
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they will typical only eat the food, i normally walk across the ground a couple of times a day and collect the assortment of farm waste and also pick up the stones and tip those on my side of the gateways
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Mine have uncovered various plastic/metal/stones and I pick up anything that may cause harm. Mine tend to play with anything plastic that they find ;D
Unfortunately they have not dug up any bags of cash or treasure.......yet :o
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thanks guys, much appreciated
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We put our weaners on a new bit last year and they dug up all sorts of plastic - bags, crisp packets, plant pots - as well as old carpet and glass, that had all been buried. Like Hassle we just walked around once a day picking it all up, now it's completely clean.
Obviously there's a risk they might cut themselves on anything sharp, but they're pretty tough. :)
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Hi Mugball,
Our first weaners went on land that unknown to us, the previous owner used to burn absolutely any rubbish going. The pigs dug up everything from broken glass, melted glass, old rusty bedsprings, hinges, nails, screws, farm tools and all sorts of other items. As other have said, they didn't come to any harm but we cleared up daily after them. To this day they still occasionally discover something new!
Pete
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Hi,
Like others, our pigs have dug up all kinds of rubbish and been mostly OK. We did have one weaner that got a very nasty cut between the toes of her hoof. It swelled right up and she went lame for a bit. I found a hideously sharp piece of glass they had dug up in their paddock. So just make sure to clean up the rubbish. Have found lots more sharp glass but so far no other problems!
Interestingly, the barbed wire we put around the bottom of our stock fencing, seems not to put the pigs off of digging along the fence line! I blame the new boy we have in, he's a tough old bruiser! They are even going for excavating the telegraph pole in the corner of the field! OOOPS ::) :o
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Ours have had a chew at odd bits of plastic, but not actually eaten any (as far as I can tell). A couple of our pens are on what was obviously a very old midden, and the pigs there regularly turn up old bottles, stone jars etc. Some of the bottles and jars are intact and we actually make a bit of money selling them as antiques!
One of my friends wasn't as lucky: he put his pigs on ground that had contained an old pit for disposing of dead stock! He got a hell of a shock one morning when he went to feed them and saw one playing with an old cattle bone - he had visions of a murder investigation!
He swiftly moved them to a new site! No problems, and no murder :relief: