Piggie Playpen

Our pigs are pasture raised along with all our other livestock.  For the pigs, we started out with Ossabaw/Tamworth weanlings that were born for mischief.  We had quite a few escapes that resulted in us chasing them all over the farm. Humorous now, but very frustrating at the time.  We used the barn as a shelter for them but the barn door was always open to an electric fenced paddock. They did very well in there, but we wanted them to have a larger area back in the woods with access to lots of roots, trees, acorns and shade.

Greg used four rolls of electric netting to create a huge square area. Using a fifth roll, he divided the area in half giving one side to the three males and the other side to the two females. 

Male area to the left. Female area to the right where the feeder is tied to the tree

Corral panels around the feeder. This will allow us to easily (hopefully) corral the pigs when it's time to load them for butchering.

Greg made a vertical waterer that holds 10 gallons

Happy pigs, rooting around

The fencing may not be straight, but it works!

They are loving rooting around in all the leaves

Rotational grazing

It's Spring. Grass is back. The pastures are looking beautiful. It's time to start rotational grazing again!

The first group to get some new grass is our five Ossabaw/Tamworth piglets.  We've had them in the barn, training them on electric fencing so we can safely put them out in the woods to graze on acorns and root around in the dirt.  The last time we tried this, the piglets were still too small and they easily escaped under the electric wire. Now that they are a bit larger, they were contained in the paddock area. They loved all the space, the green grass and all the dirt to dig their snouts into.  They immediately found a way to make a mud puddle.

The next group to move was the two steers.  They are used to rotational grazing and know that when we lower the electric tape, it's time to move to a lovely, munchy new location. They come running!  To put weight on them, they will be on intensive grazing. This means we give them a relatively small area to eat down, then a day or two later, move them to a new, small patch of pasture for another day or two.  We'll continue to move them until they get to weight and are ready to be butchered.

Then we gave the pregnant cows a very large piece of pasture.  Seven pregnant cows and three cows with calves were moved to where the grass really was greener on the other side of the fence.

They bottle-necked as soon as they walked through the gate. New grass is very appetizing!  With some mild encouragement, they moved through and let the other cows and calves come through.

Happy cattle on green grass.  It's great to have all our livestock on pasture!

And this little piggie

.... went running around the farm, causing havoc and thoroughly annoying the cows!

We have five Ossabaw/Tamworth piglets.  They free roamed their farm before they were weaned and came to us. As soon as possible, these piglets will be out in the pasture and woods with access to forage and acorns. For their protection and to protect our investment, they need to be contained in electric fencing.

Greg set up a small area with electric fencing inside the barn. If they got through the electric fence, they'd still be contained and safe. We really want them out on pasture as soon as possible so we decided to expand their electric fencing today. They would have access to a small paddock with lots of room to run around and lots of grass to eat.

 

Meeting of the meats

The cows were incredibly curious. All of them came up to the paddock, surrounded it and moo'd at the piglets.  Then, a piglet made its way under the electric fencing and under the gate.

Complete bovine mayhem!

Those cows went nuts chasing the piglet! He just wanted back in with his siblings ... and some tasty grass. So the cows chased him around the pasture for a bit. Those big, pregnant girls can move!  There was some bucking, some charging and lots of mooing.


The piglet eventually found another way back into the paddock.

Then two escaped.

Run, Wilbur!! Run!!

We got them back in and headed off to feed and water all the rabbits. 

Who knew cows could be such great alarm systems?  Lots of very loud mooing alerted us that all five piglets had escaped!  They ran around the pasture, out into the yard, down the driveway, around the vehicles, down to the wood pile and all around that pasture.  Then somehow, and I'm not very clear on this, they ended up back in the driveway, then in the barn.  At least they were contained!

We herded them back into the barn stall area and shut them in for the night.

Then I let a rabbit get away from me and we had to chase it down too.

I'm ready for some ice cream.

Pig-a-boo!

I started out the afternoon singing, "... and THIS little piggie goes to market..." 

I ended the afternoon trying to keep a pig from flying.

In between? Lots of running and being outsmarted by a pig!

It's time to butcher the three not-so-little piggies.  Each pig is owned by one of the guys. Greg decided to take his pig to a local butcher to be killed and cleaned. We had to separate his pig from the other two, get it loaded onto the trailer and drive it to the butcher. Straightforward and easy, right?

Ha! You obviously haven't had to chase a pig down.

This wasn't even a greased pig!  But, man, did she wear us out!

Last night, Greg was reading "Dirt Hog" by Kelly Klober, a book about raising outdoor pigs.  When discussing the methods of escaping confinement used by various livestock, the author says, "Cattle would go over  fence, sheep and goats through any weak spot they could find and chickens under it.  And hogs? Well, hogs being fair-minded creatures, they employed all three methods of escape."  He wasn't joking.

Our pig jumped over the make-shift ramp walls we created, under the trailer hitch, under the paddock gate, around the water trough "blockage", through me and drug the cattle feeder trough frame halfway across the paddock.  Conclusion: pigs are NOT dumb.

We finally corralled her into the barn, backed the trailer up to the barn door and, once the barn door was opened, she meandered easily up onto the trailer. 

Oh, if only that were the peaceful end to this story.

Greg secured two tarps to the top of the trailer to discourage the pig from trying to climb out, to keep her safe and to protect her from the wind.  This was all well and good until we got about three miles down the road and saw a pig head sticking up out the back of the trailer!  I seriously thought that pig was going to try to jump.  The kids were delighted by the excitement. Greg? Not so much.  Me? I kinda giggled quietly to myself while helping re-secure the tarp. This pig was serious about staying on the farm!

We had to stop a few more times to keep the pig from jumping out into the middle of the road. After the third or fourth time she popped her head out, I decided it might be easier to just let her take off.  But we persevered and let out a collective sigh of exhaustion relief once we arrived at the butcher.  Then I had to stand guard to make sure she didn't try for a final escape while we waited to unload her. I'm not really sure what Greg expected me to do had she tried to escape. The pig already spent an hour in the paddock showing me that she was clearly the boss. If she wanted out of that trailer, I doubt there was much I could do to stop her.

She had a happy piggie life, she nipped at Greg's calves daily as he carried feed to her, she got lots of acorns and leftover veggies from the garden. She had a good pig life. She'll be good eats.

We like it homemade

Baked macaroni and cheese

Venison roast

Chicken and noodles with egg noodles made from scratch

Salsa made with peppers and other good veggies from the garden

Omelets and scrambled eggs from the hen house

And now plans are bouncing around in my head for some farm fresh bacon and sausage.  Makes me lick my lips just thinking about it!

I need to pick a spot on the farm for a hog pen - not too far so I can get to it easily for chores but far enough away and downwind from the house most of the time.  I'm sure the neighbors are going to love it when I have half a dozen pigs running around here.