AGHs not eating grass

[Tjcib]

Are these AGH breeding stock? Or are they feeder pigs?

We have two registered sows for potential breeding in the future. We would just need a boar from another line.

The two barrows are for the freezer.

Fortunately with AGHs, if we decide not to breed, the meat doesn't change flavor much as they age.

 

[farmerjan]

I have killed 600 lb sows of both hampshire and durocs, as well as crosses, when they were only worth $.20 lb back in "the day"..... and the meat has been fine. There are boars that get the "taint" and maturity will render their meat nearly inedible... but for the most part hogs do not get tough with age like cattle.

 

[Ridgetop]

Peas. Purple hull, black eye, red ripper, peas. I would plant in strips of 4-6’ then skip 4’ for a hot wire. Section it off, plant in blocks or strips. Keep it watered and peas will make masses of vines all summer. The next year, the pig poo will REALLY make ‘em grow!

Baymule is not talking about feeding the hogs picked or dried peas. She is talking about planting peas to replenish your soil. Peas, beans, clover, and alfalfa are members of the legume family. Legumes add nitrogen to the soil and make it more nutritious.

When cotton farmers saw their cotton and corn crops pulling so many nutrients out of the soil that their cotton or corn crops failed, they were told to rotate with soybeans. Soybeans are a rotation crop as well as a cash crop. By rotating in soybeans (a legume) the soil is enriched again to support cotton (which really pulls nutrients out). Rotating in soybeans has become an established agricultural practice to renew soil.

Another thing to do is to plant clover and other legumes as "cover crops", then till the entire plant back into the soil. This really increases nutrients in the soil. Planting legume cover crops, then tilling them in after the first frost and before heavy winter, then letting them lay through the winter can be very helpful in returning your soil to good condition. This type of planting is called cover cropping.

 

[farmerjan]

Here in Va and up north where I was from in CT and worked on the dairy farm, we planted cover crops to grow and protect the soil from erosion in the winter. They they were plowed under and worked into the soil in the spring for the earthworms to break down into the soil. The point is to NOT leave the soil bare to the winter weather . Plus when there is growth in the spring, and it is turned under or incorporated back into the soil, the green vegetative leaves break down fast and add nitrogen and moisture back.
Many of the commercial farmers here will go through and use an herbicide to kill the crop in the spring, and no-till something like corn. The killed cover crop acts as a mulch to protect the soil and allows the planted crop to grow up through it. I am not a fan of all the chemicals... but it is better than constantly plowing and laying the soil bare and the wind and rain will cause erosion and loss of topsoil. There is a place and time for plowing and tilling the soil.... but there is much more erosion and loss of top soil if the ground is left bare.