Piglet Pasture/Housing

[Meaghan]

I haven't posted much on BYH except in the goat section, but I was just researching a bit more about pig "housing" and was curious about a few things.

First, I guess I should mention that we're getting 5 gilts in May, and we should have established pastures by then. We'll be culling a couple of them and buying a boar later in the year, but that won't be for a while. Our initial housing for them is a prestrung pen about 20x30ft with a small 4x5ft shelter in it. I know this won't be big enough for our pigs when they get larger, but wasn't sure what to do with them otherwise.

Our property is a 5 acre lot, and the first acre or so surrounding the house is going to be used for our pets and the poultry we have. The remaining 4 acres have a dividing cross fence from the first acre, and we wanted to put our goats and guard llama out to pasture. Originally, I thought of keeping the pigs confined because the pastures here in North Florida aren't great anyways, and I'm afraid they will ruin and attempts to keep the pastures good enough for the goats and llama to graze on. However, I'm not sure if 3 gilts and 1 boar is enough to ruin a 4 acre pasture. We will eventually put in a rotational system and divide it into 4 smaller 1 acre pastures, but we don't have the cash to do that quite yet.

So, if anyone can help point me in the right direction whether that is keeping them confined until we get a rotational pasture going or letting them pasture out in the 4 acre pasture, it would be much appreciated!

 

[outlawfarmer]

Good luck. I like your ideas. I've got many of the same ideas. Still a work in progress. We move them around our property them plant veggies in area they till for us. I wouldn't worry much about housing size and looks as they rarely use it. They need a dry spot to get off the mud. Mine love to lay on pallets or dry hay or both If possible. The nicest house will only get used at night or in rain an Even then they may be laying in the mud.

As for roof, anything that blocks sun and rain/snow. A couple walls are nice but they liked shelter with only a back wall the best. This year I'm thinking the small Aframe looking shelters will get built. Water is a pain as they lay in it and nock it over.

Then enough food to keep them happy or they will find a way out of any fence. And if u use electric fence and the power goes out, they know it.

Here's what I found online and may build

 

[Meaghan]

Sorry, I think I misworded what I was asking.

I'm not concerned about the housing part as much as I am about whether or not to confine them to a small pen, or graze them rotationally when we get that set up, or if we should just let them graze on the pasture even without the rotation system. I don't want the pigs to destroy our pasture as we have goats and a llama, and I know pigs root around a lot.

So, I'm not sure whether to let them out in the pasture or not. Sorry for the confusion!

 

[mysunwolf]

Outlawfarmer's ideas are right on: move them into a pen, let them destroy the grass and till the soil, then move them and plant veggies where they were. That's what we do on our 4 acres.

A single pig, given enough time, will destroy almost any amount of pasture Not really, but pretty close. The people who do continuous "grazing" of their pigs usually say 1 pig (600#) to 1-2 acres, but preferably more, and you will still have large areas that go to the mud. The people who do rotational "grazing" of their pigs usually say 1 pig to 1/2 acre, or as much space as possible, and you will still have some places that will not recover as fast. Pen size for rotation can be quite small, but the smaller the pen the more often it has to be rotated. It very much depends on pasture quality as well, how much of a slope they're on, shade, etc. Pigs actually do best when placed in thick forest, with a little bit of true pasture now and then.

A very important question: what breed of pigs are you getting? The shorter snouted breeds tend not to root as much, and hence don't destroy pasture as quickly. The longer snouted breeds tend to try tunneling to China. Smaller pigs (300#) will not destroy land as quickly as larger pigs (600#). Even the so-called "grazing" pigs (Large Black, GOS, etc) will still root quite a bit and only eat so much green stuff before needing to go back to searching for roots, grubs, nuts, and seeds under the soil.

With the amount of acreage you have, I'd suggest a very good rotation if you are going to go that way. You may even be able to use a permanent pen area, and give them some forage time in paddocks. It's really up to you and depends on your goals for your pigs.

 

[Meaghan]

We are getting Berkshires. Not officially purebred because of the weird requirements about having to come from European stock, but they look it and supposedly act it according to the farm we're getting them from. Sorry for not having a better answer than that, here are some pictures of the parents and past piglets, but they've got a new boar now so the piglets will reflect that change.

Our goal is to have a functional pasture for our goats, mostly, as well as our future livestock (at least one cow, and maybe a few sheep). We are going to move to an intense rotational grazing system for them as we have the money for fencing, but that will be at least one year from now, so about 6 months from when we are getting our pigs (the litters are planned for April or May, so we will get them in May or June). As I mentioned above, we're going to start with 4 1 acre pastures and move them every week, but will likely move up to 8-10 1/2-1/3 acre pastures and move them every 3-4 days when our numbers of livestock grow. Of course, we will be supplementing with hay and grain especially in the winter when the pastures are dormant, but we'd like to minimize cost and feed as much pasture as possible also.

I'm just not sure if the pigs should be pastured with the grazing livestock or not, because even moving them frequently we will be pushing our pastures pretty hard. I've heard that pigs can be pretty good for the soil because they root around, but I'd also be nervous about our sandy soil here. We already have bare, sandy spots with no topsoil, so we definitely don't want any more to crop up.

As far as veggies go, wouldn't they compete with the grasses? I could always reseed the grass in the pastures after moving, but that will grow expensive really quickly if I have to reseed the entire 4 acres every month.

I'm new to the pig scene, and I've had experience with all livestock except pigs, so forgive me if I'm saying something incorrect! The only pig experience I have is with intensive situations with indoor only housing on concrete slats (which is no way for a pig to live IMO), so I've no idea if pig rooting in Florida would be good or bad for the pasture due to the sandy soil.

 

[mysunwolf]

The system I use requires the destruction of the pasture in a pen area: "move them into a pen, let them destroy the grass and till the soil, then move them and plant veggies where they were." This is a system that you can use temporarily until you get your pig rotation up and running. Another option is to re-seed the damaged pen areas with diversified pasture crops: rye, oats, dandelions, plantain, clover, turnips, buckwheat, etc. This type of seeding is never as hardy as the native grasses, but it does get some nutrients back to the soil and provide food for the next time the pigs are put in that pen.

Here's an excellent article on pasture rotation for pigs. I think it may be what you're looking for.

I would also recommend not mixing pigs with other livestock at the same time, just in case you were thinking of doing that. I know a few farmers who let the piglets in with the sheep and goats at the same time, but by the time the pigs are around 50# they will make bad companions for other animal species.

 

[mysunwolf]

OH, and Berkshires are a great choice I've heard good things about their foraging ability. They are supposed to be moderate rooters.

 

[Bossroo]

Disaster waiting to happen all around with this methodology !

 

[Meaghan]

Mysunwolf: Thank you for the article, I'll definitely read over that! I wasn't considering putting them in with the goats, but rather, following behind them by one pasture. If that isn't clear, let me know and I'll try to rephrase that. I'm sure I'll have more questions later after I read the article.

Bossroo: Could you elaborate? Your comment isn't very constructive, and I am here to learn as I previously mentioned.

 

[Bossroo]

What is the soil type, carrying capacity of the land, drainage, rainfall, forage type, tonnage yield, crop regrow rate , soil compaction from stocking rotation rate,pig rooting damage to forage / pasture land, fencing type and size, housing, etc. Check with your County extention agent. Also, pigs are omnivores, so a baby goat or any young animal or poultry will be a tasty treat. Makes on rethink !