The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Techniques and skills => Topic started by: gavo on February 14, 2009, 09:16:27 am
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Hello,
With my herd of Tamworths it is sometimes necessary to reseed fields once they have moved on. Generally I use a meadow grass mix from my local merchant and leave the field 6 months to a year to recover (dependent on season and field drainage). However I often find that the root penetration sometimes isn't enough to ward off the rampage the next time the little darlings come onto it. Often the field (generally 1/2 acre) doesn't last too long before they have to move off again.
Question is - is there any vigorous "greenery" (i.e. doesn't have to be a grass) that will take hold far better ?
I accept that of all the pigs I could have kept - Tamworths aren't the best for "gentle grazing" but that's the breed we like the best.
Cheers
Gavin
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I'll be interested to see replies to this. We had a "hump" of rubbbsih cleared off our field this year and we'll need to reseed whare it was. I haven't decided what to use so will be interetsed in replies. It's not for pigs, though, it will be sheep and poultry on it.
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There was a very good post somewhere on here about sowing "understory" ....... Ree
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Tomorrow we're having a party - a work party - to clear stones and stuff off the field in preparation for reseeding. I'm going to hire a petrol lawn scarifier ( in the absence of a harrow and it's not a very big area for next weekend and sow some seed.
I've been looking for suppliers and the best I've found so far is The Grass Seed Store Low Input Diverse Grazing with herbs or their poultry grazing mix which is similar in composition.
If anybody knows a lot about this, I'd value an opinion.
I was going to spread some calcified seaweed as well.
The land will have poultry and sheep on it, but it's not intensively grazed.
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hi ref ree mentioned, look up page2 in pig section heading is keeping pigs in forest, see resistance is fertile post re seeding planting pig paddocks very good post...........neil
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The Cotswold seed company are supposed to to very good. I haven't tried them but they have been highly recommended we are considering reseeding the areas where my son had his pigs as the grass there is not doing it's job properly still seems to turn into a muddy mess.
Anyone has any other ideas would be interested to hear them. :farmer:
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Some say a thin spread of sheep manure is worth a go as the grass seeds seem to survive their passage through the beast and germinate reinvigorated.
The converse of this advice is that sheep manure seems unhelpful on the raspberry patch as it's now more grass than raspberry..... :-\
regards
David
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Hello Gavo,
I have the same problem with the same Bl**dy type of pigs (Must be related-OH-they are!!).
But I do agree that the Tamworth is far harder on the ground than the G.O.S or the Saddle's the only thing I do is keep seeding and keep moving them to new pens.
I would love to hear a solution to this also, So please Help!.
Kind regards and love to all
Joe :)