[nannynoonoo]

I am just starting to research the possibility of keeping a couple of weaners for meat, I would keep them under my car port in a pig ark the area of concrete is 20ft x 15ft with access to a patch of garden about the same size with a patch of tarmac inbetween so all in all quite a large area. most of this area has stone / brick boundaries and the rest i would post and sheep wire. the run off from the concrete would go down into the grassed area and soak away.....thoughts on this set up please 

[Fowgill Farm]

http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/index.php?topic=17820.0

see the above topic, you have no way near enough space and i suspect you will have objections from your neighbours!
Sorry.
Mandy 

[nannynoonoo]

one of my boundaries is the arable farm next door ,the rear boundary to the house is open fields and my other side neighbour has no objections, i live on the edge of a village in a rural area and my house is situated on quite a large plot.....i dont want to give the impression i live in a built up area surrounded by other houses and i already keep hens.......isnt the concrete area i already have big enough on its own?......i am not challenging what you say as I have been on your website and would like to come up and visit you as part of my ongoing research but neither do i want to dismiss my plans out of hand   

[Fowgill Farm]

Sorry but 20 feet x 15 feet isn't as big as my living room so theres no way you could keep pigs in that size area, they would soon become bored and the area would quickly get pig sick. Even with the additional area of the same size in grass it would soon turn mush. Plus theres disposal of all the poo collected, storage of straw etc.
Have you thought of asking the arable farm next door if you could have a bit of the field that borders your house? or the fields at the back?
Have no problems in you visiting to see our set up, our main pens are 18 metres wide by 12 metres long (approx 60ft x 40ft) so you can see the difference against what you're suggesting. and we use two of these pens per set of fatteners as they quickly get minging!
It sounds like you really want to keep pigs but your main concern has to be their welfare and i'm afraid you need more space.
Mandy 

[nannynoonoo]

Thanks for all that Mandy..........my next port of call is going to be the farmer as he does have several plots that i have my eye on including one that is wooded...........as it is my first foray into pigs i did want to be able to keep them at home so i could have a close eye on them at all times, but of course I completely agree with you in that the pigs welfare has to be of the utmost importance, there is no point going to a lot of effort and expense for the pigs not to be happy and therefore not produce the quality of meat i want.

[Barrett]

I agree with Mandy, they do turn the ground over very quickly indeed and the smallest amount of rain and it will turn into a smelly mud bath, you need to be able to rotate them so one paddock can rest whilst the other is getting a pounding, although people see really big pigs that are docile and don't move very much they have to get to that and in doing so can be very disruptive and boisterous and of course us pig keeper wouldn't have them any other way. My boar Bob has turned his pen into a right bachelor pad it is mess though can't wait to get out in the field every morning for the grass.

[welshlass181]

Sorry to be a bit noobish here but would a CPH number be an issue if you are using somebody elses land?  I'm sure that defra needed the landregistry number when i applied for my number. 

I keep Kunes and KK x gos.  I've got a holding pen that is 20mtrs x 8mtrs that i have split into 2 seperate pens.  I used this as a temp pen and a farrow pen. 

All of my are in the big field at the moment until i pull up the old pen and make a more permenant one for my boar.  This one will be a lot bigger and will be better fenced.

I found that the KK wearner were ok in the smaller pen but they had lots to root and dig and plenty of hay.  We used to spread veg and fruit around it so they had something to do.  We didn't keep them in there very long and i wouldn't like to have had only that as housing for them