Ohiofarmgirl's Adventures in The Good Land is largely a fish out of water tale about how I eventually found my footing on a small farm in an Amish town. We are a mostly organic, somewhat self sufficient, sustainable farm in Ohio. There's action and adventure and I'll always tell you the truth about farming.


Monday, June 30, 2014

Moving Pigs to the Deep Grass

We moved the pigz again.... this time to the deep grass. They loved it.

Pigz in the deep grass.

Remember that we moved the pigz to that new small lot just last Friday? This is what it looks like now... can you believe it?

Moonscape that used to be lush green. I needed them to till it.

I'm always amazed that folks don't understand that pigz can be so destructive. But maybe "effective" is a good word because I did want them to 'roto-hog' this area ... they were kind of digging to China.  But this is what happens if your pigz get out which is why you need really good fence.

Ham digging it's way to China.

So we moved them on Sunday. My big idea is to get them moved to the deep woods in the next couple days - we are heading toward some 90*-100* days and we need them in the darkest shade to keep them cool. To get them to the woods we are implementing a kind of step-by-step rotational grazing scheme. Why don't we just walk them over there? Sure. Yeah. Ha! Actually pigz can be kind of hard to herd and that is why. *OFG thinks about how we tried this once and all the neighbor kids ended up hot, muddy, and stinky.*

Here are the pigz going hog wild in the new yard. I'm trying to get them to dig up this stump. 

I also want them to till up these lots on the way to the woods. I'll use this area for growing fodder for them. In the fall we can turn them out into a field of beans and turnips so they can get nice and fat. The next step will be into a bigger yard which will connect them to the lot in the woods. But between here and there we have very little shade. It's going to take some fancy fencing to get this done.

We used the same methods as Friday to put up the fence. We moved the already-set-up electric line, pounded in some tposts on the outside, then strung up some field fence. And yes we used some fence that we had to drag out of the weeds but it worked like a charm.

New fenceline - complete with weeds from where we drug this fence out of the underbrush.

Then we lured the pigz into the new area with hard cooked eggs and they went hog wild.

Commander Zander. The FoeHammer. Wants pigz.

Of course, then I got the dogs. Zander hates the pigz and he really likes to give them the business. Kai has her eye on them also. They love to watch the pigz run away in abject terror.

The best thing is that we can see the pigz from the house. Not that I like to look at them but at least we can see what is going on.

Happy Monday everyone! Nothing to see here but a ham grazing in the deep grass!


6 comments:

Heavens Door Acres said...

Digging its way to China??? Haha! Maybe you need to sit down with those hammies...and remind them about , Sweet and Sour Pork, Moo Shoo pork, Pork Ka-Bobs. LOL LOVE reading your blog, you are so amazing with them pigz!!

David said...

Please educate me, do the eat the grass or just root in the earth thereby uprooting the grasses and weeds? or a bit of both.

Ohiofarmgirl said...

Aw shucks... thats HDA *gives hugs* and HA! we laughed about Chinese pork too! they dont know what they are headed for.
:-D

hey Dave - both. they will graze and root and dig up all kinds of stuff. mostly they are looking for roots and grubs and stuff. but they will also eat the plants. you can actually feed hogs hay - not as a single source but you can scythe off a bunch of hay or weeds and throw it to them. they best thing tho is that they are busting up the sod for me.... and killing off the poison ivy.

Unknown said...

Good way to manage your land...

Unknown said...

That bacon is going to taste so so good with the added benefit of free labour.

Vera said...

Ah pigs! Ours rotovate the veg plot paddocks, or rather, they will do when we have finished the fencing. We have piglets due soon, so this is becoming a priority job. Good luck with getting yours moved into the woods, hope all goes well and that you do not have any escapees.

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