The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: Bioman on December 13, 2011, 05:30:23 pm
-
hi guys,
I have 4 cross bred pigs who are approaching slaughter weight, living outside.
My question is what do other people who keep pigs outside do to stop their ground becoming a quagmire?
if there isn't one I'll be fine but would be interested in any ideas :D
Thank you!
P.s. concrete is not an option for me at the moment
-
you don't say where in Britain you are this year has been particularly wet and slobbery even the grass fields are like a peat bog walking over them and that is clay based soils concrete or bring them inside is the only option there is no magic wand for this :farmer:
-
mine run thru the woods and it doesnt seem to get too bad, the more space the better.
the ones that were in a little paddock poached it very badly so we sacrificed our grass paddock and will roll it and reseed it in the spring - it needed doing anyway! ::)
next year we will fence off more woods for them as they prefer to root the grassland than the woodland and quickly turn it to a mess.
we did finish 3 porkers inside once, they had a stable and adjoining yard.
if u dont have spare land to use, then consider the seasons you will be finishing them, maybe avoid winter.
as for the pigs u have now - pray for frost, that stops them sinking so deep...lol :wave: ;D
-
Hi Bioman
Have a scroll down the Pig Forum, I asked a similar question a couple of weeks ago as my pigs are living in a swamp too, you will find quie a lot good advice and ideas.
-
Bioman, I posted it on Dec 01 titled Pigs, Mud and Straw
-
my field is a complete quagmire lol we resorted to putting a hard standing area and put the arks on there to keep them out of the mud. We have no barn or anything and they live out all the time and just have arks. They root and mess about during the day and when it's feeding time they come to the hard standing. They have as much haylage as they can eat to keep them occupied and for once i'm praying for ice so the field solids up a bit :)
-
you don't say where in Britain you are this year has been particularly wet and slobbery even the grass fields are like a peat bog walking over them and that is clay based soils concrete or bring them inside is the only option there is no magic wand for this :farmer:
I live in the East Devon and we've been in drought all year. We had a fab summer. No idea what you are talking about!! Our ground until about 2/3 weeks ago was rock hard for the first 10 inches down. Now after 2 weeks of terrential rain, its not too bad luckily they'll be gone on the 9th of Jan so not too long left on there.
Thank you!!
-
bioman you are very lucky we have had the wet from may with no respite even the sheep have had to be brought inside it is to wet for them :farmer:
-
If you're gonna rotivate or plough the field fling some old straw down (we always have a grotty bale or two left over from the previous year) put it mainly down in heavy traffic areas, front of house near gate and where they feed. It helps soak up the mud, rots down and fertilises. Ours are all in but like Robert we've had a fair bit of rain and all the paddocks are bogging, glad my fatties have gone and we've brought everyonelese into the yards, yahoo no more sucked off wellies
Mandy :pig:
-
Maybe try Cul Noir ;D - this French breed don't seem to like the rain.
We too had dry hard ground up until 2 weeks ago but it seems to have rained non stop since then. The pigs don't like the rain or wind and stay inside most of the time.
Seriously - I really don't think they like the rain. When it was hot and they were young we made a mud puddle which they played in a couple of days - otherwise they don't go into the paddock that they had rotorvated.
-
I lied :-\ the only time they venture off the hard standing is to drink (fresh water source) :pig: other than that they stay put and munch haylage. It's ok for us cos all we do is a quick poo scrape and hooft it onto the field to mulch down ready for spring and ploughing
-
The commercial places who keep sows outside put rings in the sows noses to stop them rooting so stopping so much of the trouble with mud. kind of defeats the joy of pigs though!
-
mine are still rooting thru all this frost, must surely hurt their noses!
-
I wanted them to distroy the ground tbh as we need to work it next spring. They've done a fab job of turning it and pooing everywhere :) we're going to pen them in and get the field ploughed to turn the reeds over and then the piggies will eat the roots like the did on a test patch we did. Really looking forward to the work now