Check outside your window. I bet you’ve got the same thing going on that we do if you live in the Pacific Northwest. Two weeks ago, everything started getting green. Now we live in a jungle. What to do?! These chickens, goats, sheep and pigs better start chompin’!
The other day I did have to mow the fence line of the electronetting around the pigs, layers, and oldest broilers. The pigs got out two days in a row, and I certainly didn’t want them to establish any habits like that! Now that it’s a clean line, the electric is nice and tight. Not painful, but a good reminder, nevertheless. (FYI, these pigs are quite domesticated, and come when they see or hear us)
It’s hard to believe the pigs are already some 4 months old! We got them on February 16th, when they were just wee things. It doesn’t feel like we’ve had them long, which means something’s going right. Often pigs seem a bit of a burden. They tear everything up, make a mess, get out frequently, and are seriously smelly. We’re usually exhausted by now, and regret having chosen to eat pork.
I think the nose-ringing and electronetting is doing well for everyone. I did notice just this week, after all of the rain fall, that they are starting to muck up the area just a bit, and should be moved soon. They’ve been in that pasture about a month, longer than I expected they’d last without tearing it up. They’ll move over toward the hill to do some work before they head into the freezer sometime around late-July.
It’ll be really strange to be done with pigs (and turkeys!) before August for the season. Although, with our losses on the turkeys, it’s likely we’ll be doing another batch a bit later. It’s a blooming shame (two pens, two fences, two waterers, two feeders…). This batch has been so very fragile, which is unusual for this breed/shop. But we’re working through it, and they seem to be much stronger now.
I think this healthy lush grass will be a good booster once they get out from under the Big Red Light (ie. brooders). In the meantime, we sing: In the jungle, the mighty jungle… followed by monkey sounds.
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