Author Topic: Use for an empty pig pen (Read 2475 times)

Rhea · « **on:** August 04, 2015, 09:40:35 pm »

My large blacks went off three weeks ago, so I now have an empty pen. I was thinking of just resowing grass, but I'm wondering if there's a better use for the area until next April/May.

Will their manure be too strong for putting in some late new potatoes or something like that? Or, is there a better groundcover my next weaners will enjoy eating

devonlady · « **Reply #1 on:** August 05, 2015, 09:47:11 am »

you could plant Jerusalem artichokes and then sow grass?

SallyintNorth · « **Reply #2 on:** August 05, 2015, 09:59:45 am »

I may be remembering this wrong, but when I first was WWOOFing, I worked on a farm that rotated pigs and field crops. They'd tried Jerusalem artichokes once and said never again, they'd never managed to clear them thoroughly and they kept popping up through the other crops. Not such a problem if you'll be having pigs back on, I guess, but to be aware of if you weren't.

oaklandspigs · « **Reply #3 on:** August 05, 2015, 12:31:45 pm »

More pigs?

Rhea · « **Reply #4 on:** August 05, 2015, 08:05:25 pm »

More pigs was my first plan, but given how full my freezer is I decided against!

heyhay1984 · « **Reply #5 on:** August 06, 2015, 08:59:52 am »

We had a load of Jerusalem artichokes rotavated into our pig pen last Spring, they came up great, ran the two sheep we had at the time on it for a bit and they enjoyed the leaves but the plants came back in force after the sheep came off, and provided good cover for the white pigs we put on it over the summer. But either they or the two pigs that went on it afterwards must have found every last scrap of tuber as there hasn't been a single one this year (though the pen has been very very dry this year so may not have managed to come up!)