Planting a cover crop in the pig pen last year
After our berkshire pigs exhausted the entire pen of plants and roots we move them to a new pasture pen. Our hog pens are fenced in cattle fencing and have one hot wire about 8-10 inches off the ground. This has worked very well for us at keeping the pigs in over the years.
The pigs grow very fast in the new pasture with help of a couple of pounds of hog pellets a day, along with home and garden scraps.
We just took about 10 lbs of barley and oats mixed with a bit of red clover seed.
Clean up some of the rocks and rake the seeds in a day before rain is forecasted.
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And about two weeks or so later the grain is over 6 inches tall.
Two more weeks and its over a foot tall and the new pig shelter is built for them.
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By six weeks later we moved the pigs back in to their pen when the grain is over a foot and a half tall and forming seed heads. This lasted them about a month before they exhausted the pen again. This is a great cheap way to cover the ground fast and keep the pigs busy and well fed.
Here is a couple of months later and the three breeders we kept the other two went to freezer camp they weighted about 230lbs at 10 months old.
Thanks for looking there is many things you can plant for your pigs to eat this is one of the fastest ways we have found.
Please share a comment of what you plant out for your pigs don't forget to upvote and follow if you like.
This is excellent! We only have 2 pigs each year, and they never take their 1/4 acre area to dirt, so we've never had to seed it. We do mow it and the hens go over it several times once the pigs are gone. Love your photos of progress!
Thanks
wow...I had wondered how well something like this would work. Thanks!
This is the way we handle our padlocks. We move them once they have started to eat down the area into a new pen. We use local corn and sunflower seeds mostly but I do sometimes use other things. By time the goats or hogs come back in 6 week later the corn in waste high and produces a good amount of food for them. Great way to handle your padlocks and also produces a cheap and healthy feed for your livestock.
Great to see your keeping Berkshires. They are by far the best tasting pork!. We specialise in Berkshire pork and raising awareness of this rare breed