[FiB]

I've read in a few places that Saddlebacks are grazers. Dunno who dreamed up that nonsense ours are very efficient rotovators. Even giving them a large amount of space just means it'll take a bit longer but they will turn it all over in no time at all. They don't call pigs "Nature's Plough" for nothing.

Yep I can also confirm that our Saddlebacks could win a ploughing competition!  Anoyingly they didnt do a thourough job though - just rooted up and turned over huge clodds of turf then moved on.  Hell of an uneven result and needed a disc rotovator (? or was it a disc harrow) vefore reseeding.  Now our best fiedl though 

[MKay]

We did a pair of Berkshire cross last year and they were the most destructive creatures ever, from above there park looks like mars!

[Ratchete]

I know this is an old topic, but the info is still relevant.  We've had KuneKunes for 4 1/2 years, bought has a birthday present. Only tried to breed them once & that was a disaster, but our real intention was to put them on bits of rough ground that we wanted dug up or where it wasn't a disaster if they did.  It was a bit of a failure in that they didn't root at all and we ended up ploughing and cultivating to clear the ground instead. Since then they have occasionally done a bit of turf stripping on our good leys, when allowed in for a treat. But in their own pen of perfectly good grass they have kept it grazed short except where I feed them their sow rolls/windfall apples, which is churned up. As they are probably getting a bit old for breeding we were thinking of changing them for younger animals; possibly of a different breed, but would prefer they were of a similar reduced rooting disposition; hence ending up at this thread. We're not dead set against ringing any new pigs just would prefer not to.  We have enough rough land eg in scrappy shelter belts that we don't need to put them in our good grass parks, but would like the option if/when necessary/convenient. I have now read through the BPA Breed Info Section and there are a couple of mentions of breeds that tend to root less than others, but I'm going to stick with KuneKunes.

[Richmond]

We did a pair of Berkshire cross last year and they were the most destructive creatures ever, from above there park looks like mars!

Yep! We had Berkshire crosses for the first time last year also and they did similar. We've been keeping rare breed pigs for 10+ years now and never had anything so diggy as last year's pigs. Nice natured pigs, but oh so diggy.

[harmony]

Kune's are known for grazing but generally speaking all pigs dig. They are designed to dig and would dig in the wild for food so it's asking a lot to expect them not to dig. Some can be really destructive diggers but of course certain things might affect this. Fresh ground not dug before is heaven for pigs. Certain times of year are more attractive. And of course depending how much ground they have, the soil type and weather can make a difference to what your ground ends up looking like.


Ringing pigs is horrible. Take a look on you tube.