Using Pigs for Woodland Management

Our piglets arrived at our farm just over a month ago.  When we put them into a generous 200 meter squared area of oak plantation woodland they couldn't believe their luck! We have been watching very closely to ensure that they do not damage the trees either by unearthing their roots, or by nibbling off the bark. There has been plenty of other activities for them to get involved in and its taken four weeks for them to churn the top few inches of soil into a lovely fluffy consistency. They have eaten all the grass and surface roots, having spent most of their day with their snouts in the soil, grunting happily as they go and doing what pigs are supposed to do. Any acorns left uneaten are now well planted in the aerated soil, so woodland regeneration is encouraged by the pigs presence. Happily, there is no evidence of any damage to the bark of the trees.

Once the ground had been almost completely dug over, we decided to move their paddock, rather than wait any longer. The advice from experienced pig rearers was that once we reached this level, they may begin to dig deeper and find the tree roots or nibble at the bark.

We moved them to a new area of the same size this week, but with far more undergrowth so it will be fascinating to see how they deal with the extra challenge. The area has quite a large section of bramble and wild raspberry, which ideally should be removed in the process of plantation management, so we are very keen to see how the pigs will facilitate us with this work. In another months time the pigs will be moved to a third paddock, and will be rotated monthly to ensure they don't damage the trees. We hope that four paddocks for monthly rotations will give enough time for ground rest between rotations, but we have plenty of space to add more if necessary.

If we see any worrying damage to the trees the pigs will have to be moved into plan B, a field paddock. We are very hopeful that our experiment will be a success. If it is, we will have found the perfect solution ... rearing happy free ranging rare breed pigs, thus managing our oak woodland sustainably while also helping to conserve rare breed livestock, and providing our family with delicious pork.

This is a photo showing the difference between the area that the pigs have foraged on, compared to the untouched earth on the near side of where their electric fence had been ;

We have had great support in terms of advice from Robert Mitchell, visit his very informative website with lots of expert information about rearing pigs in woodlands.

Comments

[Podchef]

It is amazing what they can do isn't it? My own six piglings churn over a patch of rough, rocky, douglas fir forest in around two weeks. As soon as I notice they are rooting under the electric netting more than one day in a row I move them.

The only trouble is the areas they have churned over so far make me want to head out and pick up the branches, pile the stones and rake the soil over some pasture grass seed and maybe some sugar beets to see what comes up for their next rotation. Work, work work and more work . . .Still, can't complain, they do more in two weeks to reclaim the scrub woodland at the edge of the pasture than I have time to in a year--and there is no oiling, greasing, fueling or mechanical parts to break just after you've spent all day doing the first three. And it is much more fun to feed, water and scratch them than it is to work on equipment.

[Moonwaves]

Thanks for that Becky, that link has gone straight into my "projects" folder. One of these days....