[farmerkate]

Hi,

Here's a puzzler for you:-

4 paddocks, each 1/2acre on heavy clay soils.
Aim of the enterprise is to
a) rear as many weaners to slaughter weight as possible (weaners are BSB/GOS, bought in at 6weeks old)
b) graze paddocks in a way that causes minimal damage to pasture, and
c) maintain a breeding population of Kune kunes that produce piglets every couple of months.

Any ideas/advice/calculations/musings very much appreciated!!

cheers,

Kate

[deepinthewoods]

you might get the kk's on that?

[hughesy]

If you want to keep your pasture forget keeping pigs on it. Unless you stick to the alleged grass feeders kune kune. Can't see how keeping KK's fits into a viable business plan though.

[Tudful Tamworths]

Big plans for such a small acreage. If you're talking pigs (particularly weaners/growers), forget about maintaining good grazing. Plus if you're on heavy clay (as I am), the odds are even more firmly stacked against you.
I think you could manage a couple of breeding KK sows and some offspring on that amount of land (rotating regularly), but that's about all. Don't forget, however, that KKs will root - albeit less than other breeds. Before anyone mentions it, I don't condone ringing. Look up the Five Freedoms re. freedom to express normal behaviour.
Sorry if all this sounds negative. It's just that your ground conditions sound similar to mine and I wouldn't want you to go into something and then regret it.

[Sylvia]

Young KKs will root a bit, other breeds will plough your fields for you! Also just having pigs of any kind on clay (as we are) will churn it up just by them walking around, especially in this weather.

[Fowgill Farm]

Too ambitious i'm afraid, you might be able to rotate the 4 paddocks with two KK sows and their litters but no weaners of any other breed.
This is what one sow did to 1/2 acre in a week
http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb220/fowgillfarm/Image0066.jpg
This one of our paddocks at the end of summer!
http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb220/fowgillfarm/Image068.jpg
Our boar try and find him in this photo
http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb220/fowgillfarm/019_17A1.jpg
We are on clay here and for the first time in 8yrs of pig keeping our pigs are already in for winter, on this kind of ground you MUST have a plan B, yes pigs like mud but they do not like being upto their tummies in it, its cold, wet, and means they burn up all that grub keeping warm and not making pork!
Farmerkate go back to the drawing board, either forget the KK's or the weaners don't see how you can do both without welfare issues.
Sorry to be so negative but thats how it is.
Mandy

[kja]

those photos look like yourksire show pig rings this year  on a serious note mandys right it wont work out

[HappyHippy]

I think you're being over ambitious with the amount/type of land you have 
Two acres of heavy clay would be completely trashed after a year with your set up I fear, unless you have an area you can move the pigs to in the winter (big shed, stables on hard standing etc)
I'd be tempted to go for either raising weaners or keeping Kunekunes - at least initially, til you see how the ground copes (if we have another wet year  )

As others have said, if you want nice paddocks and good grazing - don't get pigs ! Stocking for year round pigs is recommended at 6 per acre, certainly a paddock of half an acre would do for 4-6 weaners to pork weight but it'll be a real mess afterwards and need to rest for at least 3 months to recover.

I keep Kunekunes (15 at present) Large Blacks (11) and OSB's (3) they are using 9 acres (we're not on clay but the ground is WET) and we have a big shed with seperate pens that they all come into in the winter, even then the ground is a mess when they come in.

I don't want to be negative, but if you try to do it all you'll have major problems, fairly quickly. Better IMHO to start with one or t'other and see how it goes.
HTH
Karen

[Mrs Snoodles]

Mandy,......you got admit, your boar sure does look happy. I love that picture!
We are on clay too and are trying to run a 6 month rotation. As everyone else says, the mud is the issue.  Kate, you dont mention where you are.....I am in the east , where we tend tO get less rain than elsewhere, and find that although the clay gets bad, it soon recovers.  Having said this I have seen fields that are on a slight slope and then the clay area towards the bottom is hideous.
Pigs lolling around in wet mud won't help them convert their food well, and you also have the potential that they develop foot problems.

you might want to take a look at Katie Thear's smallholding books...she puts forward a rotational system for 6 sows on an acre.  Half acre is sacrificed in the winter, re seeded in the Spring. The Other half is split into
quarters with electric and the paddocks are used in rotation, when the grass is eaten, the pigs are moved on to the next bit. Vacant areas are re seeded.

Obviously with this you need to consider, where your ark goes  and how you can move it around.  It is also much more labour intensive.   you need to work out, how easily you can move the pigs around too, thinking that it may be stupendously muddy etc.

6 per acre does sound very very heavy, esp if you are on clay. Maybe it could work with a couple of KK's though???

Weaner wise ..... If you only did these in Spring and Summer, you would find your ground would do better. 
Maybe you could just raise these on a half acre, bearing in mind you only keep them for 3/ 4 months. Just do a small batch per year?   You could then keep this as an emergency paddock.
 
I would be very very mindful of where you raise your piglets.  You can't have them going on heavily used
ground (parasite issues) so perhaps, having a spare half could be used for their purposes.

I can't see how you could keep your pasture, really pasture. It will go, and if you have pigs you've got to kind of resign yourself to that. 

[Possum]

I'm keeping weaners on clay for the first time this year. They've ploughed the pasture very thoroughly and I would be interested to know what seasoned pig keepers do before re-seeding. Does it need rotivating/harrowing or something else? What sort of seed mix is best to use in the spring?

[rispainfarm]

I love your pictures mandy, what brilliant rooting as well. I agree with the rest, don't underestimate the amount of damage pigs can do, even in half a day. When I took the meishans to Wigtown show, they routed up their pen completely and they were only in it for a day. If you want to keep pigs expect lots of mud even just keeping a couple.

[Fowgill Farm]

I'm keeping weaners on clay for the first time this year. They've ploughed the pasture very thoroughly and I would be interested to know what seasoned pig keepers do before re-seeding. Does it need rotivating/harrowing or something else? What sort of seed mix is best to use in the spring?

Hi Possum
If possible we subsoil to get any water away first and let it stand for a week or two, as a bare minimum we rotivate, roll and seed with Paddock mix from our local ag merchant but it generally gets overgrown with any self seeded weeds too.Clover seed is a very welcome addition and will grow in the well manured soil.I also for good measure chuck into the mix any old veg seeds i have left over.
We try to do all this work at the end of autumn but this year it will have to wait until spring, i think we would lose the tractor in the boggy ground!
HTH
Mandy 

[hughesy]

We allow the pigs to completely trash the ground and eat just about all the roots etc. Then when it's dry enough run a harrow over it to break it up a bit and level  it. I don't see the point of wasting expensive grass seed on a patch of ground that will get pigged over again so will plant something useful such as fodder crops or even a small area of wheat. We have 8.5 acres of lovely muddy clay soil on sloping ground so use the upper parts for the pigs over the wetter months and move them to the lower bits in the summer. So far we have a 3 acre field that hasn't seen the pigs yet but will use the upper half of this towards the end of this winter then sow fodder beet, kale or maybe turnips on it in the spring.

[Padge]

our 2 go Monday.....looking at Hugheseys post is it worth rotovating/harrowing this time of year and planting with kale?    would be good to get some winter greens before next years piggies

[goosepimple]

and you can't put different livestock on it for 6 months if pigs have been on, so veg is best.