Spring Hill Farms

A question I always get from farmers who are considering raising hogs on pasture is, "how much will they root?"

What they are really asking is how much damage are they going to inflict on my pastures?

That's a good question with no correct answer "except that depends."

It depends on how wet or dry the ground might be. What type of soil you're dealing with is another factor. The type and quality of forage available, coupled with how much or how little grain you are supplementing the pigs.

And last but not least, is the breed and age of hog you have running on the pasture.

I have read and spoke to farmers who say Tamworth hogs root more than other hogs they have had in the past. Sometimes they have other heritage breed pigs along with Tamworth and they say they root more.
Tamworth pigs are very active compared to other breeds of swine I have raised. That probably has something to do with it. A hog laying around more probably won't root as much.

I'm not completely convinced they root more but one thing I am convinced of...all hogs root to some degree.

Then add to it that as they increase in weight they are walking around on four pretty small feet! If it's wet they are going to tear up your pasture!

My experience is they root more when it's wet so you're getting a double whammy! Walking around cuts up the sod and then they all have their noses buried about six inches deep!

One conclusion I've come to is you will be reseeding some parts of your pasture from time to time.

The best way to minimize pasture damage is to have a lot or two that you can move them to if it begins to rain long enough to saturate the pasture for a period of time.

Another thing to remember is that you  must keep an eye on forage conditions in the pasture. Move them to new grass before they decide there is more to eat below the ground than above it! 

A group of pigs on limited feed can take down a significant amount of forage in just a few days so it's critical to be ready to move when necessary. Don't wait to build more fence when they need moved. By the time you get it completed your pigs may have plowed the pasture they are in.

The key to successful pig pasturing is not to run more pigs on your farm than the grass can handle. How many pigs can an acre handle? Well that depends....

Maybe we'll talk about that sometime!

Until next time...

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Tamworth Pigs Plowing

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Tamworth Swine Dozer

Tilling Pasture

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If you look in this picture we are actually going behind my father-in-laws house because he likes to mow about as much as I do!

It is critical that we manage these lots so as to not offend anyone with sites or smells.

Most people who drive by our farm have no idea the number of pigs running around. Many don't know we even have pigs!

 

Compare that the old pre-1950's model of running pigs outside where everyone knew it because they could smell them a mile away. People are amazed when they come to visit at how they can't smell the pigs.

How do you accomplish this?

1) Move your pigs often to new grass.

2) Don't try to raise more pigs than your land can support.

I'll be talking about this more in future blogs. I have a lot of people who want to see how we manage these pigs here at the farm. I plan to video and blog some of this through the summer.

This ground was horrible when we first started running hogs and poultry over it. Slow but sure it just keeps getting better as we allow the pigs and chickens to fertilize it.

Until next time...

 

Watch a video of this while I ramble.

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Tamworth Sow and Piglets

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Herbivores have been under attack for centuries. Farmers and breeders have been doing everything in their power to convert them to grain.

As a result, we have made the majority of our cattle and goats dependent on a high grain diet in order to perform at the levels demanded.

In the case of commercial type cows, they finish in half the time and are ready for slaughter. Of course it comes with a price. Out of balance omega -3 and omega-6 ratios in the meat, and little if any CLA's in the fat.

Just as costly is the fact that good grass-fed genetics are almost non-existent as compared to commercial grade cattle.

Then to add insult to injury, along comes a farmer and hears all about 100 percent grass-fed, grass-finished beef. "This is the ticket!" he exclaims.

Off he goes to raise 100% grass-fed and finished beef. The only problem he discovers; it's one thing to throw some cattle out on grass, but a whole different deal to get them to finish on grass.

Many times he discovers this once his cows are hanging at the slaughter house on the rail.

Or worse yet when customers start calling and saying it's tough, or dry, or tastes funny etc.

The farmer has some choices at this point, upgrade his herd, go back to grain, or educate his customer about why his beef is different.

It seems many farmers are opting to educate the customer. I suppose some education is good seeing as how many people are not the best cooks I've ever seen. Over cooked beef of any kind is dry.

But the truth is as I have talked to farmers all over the country....much of the beef out there is not genetically capable of finishing on grass. 

That might not be exactly how they say it, but from what I can tell, that's the translation. Farmers usually say things like "well it's grass fed so it going to be dry." or very lean, or chewy.

Sometimes they say things like "the ground beef is out of this world."
So I asked about steaks and then we're back to "well now it's grass-fed...."

Come to think of it, I'm not sure who is actually having a dilemma:

• The herbivores - can't get along without grain.
  
• The Farmers - can't produce a good product on grass.
  
• The Consumers - can't figure out how you eat grass-fed beef.

Let me clear up the dilemma. Spring Hill Farms has 100 % grass-fed and finished beef that you can eat and enjoy it! For those of you who want data, our beef consistently grades choice to high choice and a yield grade of #1 or #2.

Cows can thrive on a 100% grass diet. Farmers can find genetics that will help them upgrade their herd. And consumers can find beef that is out of this world good tasting and tender with marbling. To top it off it's also loaded with all the health benefits of omega 3's, CLA's and all the other things yet to be discovered!

Until next time...

If you've read many of my posts you know I love old books on farming and especially pigs. I have a pretty good collection dating back as far as 1883.

I've bid on books on some auction sites older than that but they end up being too rich for my blood!

This document is dated 1925 but is revised so it probably was from an earlier work. It is titled Swine Feeding.

It covers quite a bit of topics such as: [More]

 

 

In the building up of fertility, especially on the poor light-land farm, there is no animal more effective than the pig. Though I would not suggest that the pig is an essential part of fertility building, there is no quicker or more economical contributor to soil fertility - Newman Turner.

When I first read this a light bulb came on! I could use pigs to increase the fertility of my soil. I was already pasturing pigs when I came across the writings of Newman Turner.

I regard him as one of the pioneers of organic farming and low input farming methods.

Our land is all part of a dairy farm that was abandoned nearly forty years ago. This left our part of the farm basically multi-flora rose and  30+ year old trees.

As we began clearing off trees and brush, it was amazing the pasture grasses that begin to appear. Dormant for probably thirty years and the sun brings them to the surface.

We took electric fencing and kept the pigs in small enough lots that they would first eat down anything they wanted and then they began to root up the soil while fertilizing it as well.

As someone said (maybe Joel Salatin) pigs have a plow on one end and a manure spreader on the other.

In the last several years we have succeeded in restoring a lot of pasture using only pigs as fertility.

We have used the tractor and brush hog to take out some of the larger multi-flora rose and brush that the pigs didn't root out. We are now getting ready to selectively remove some of our wild cherry and sassafras trees.

Since we are going to plant some open pollinated corn this Spring for the pigs to "hog down", I am going to have the soil tested. It will be interesting to see what the pigs and chickens have been able to accomplish as far as soil fertilizer.

Almost gone and gettin' full

80% of our immune system resides in our gastrointestinal tract, which houses 100 trillion bacteria—about two to three pounds worth of bacteria!

Expert natural health folks will tell you optimum levels of bacteria would 85% good bacteria and 15% bad.

What about pigs? Pigs are very similar to humans in there digestive system. It stands to reason if good bacteria is needed for optimum human health than it's needed for optimum pig health.

Good bacterial inputs are typically called probiotics. They are the opposite of antibiotics.

The big guys regularly dose their hogs with sub-therapeutic antibiotics to virtually kill all types of bacteria good and bad.

This keeps the animal healthier (supposedly) and optimizes growth. The major problem of course is the over use of them is resulting in resistance to antibiotics when we need them.

You can read some very solid research here on the resistant pathogens that are direct result of factory farms.    

So....let's just say that we at Spring Hill Farms do not want to use sub-therapeutic antibiotics for our livestock.

We want to use probiotics to build up the good bacteria to the point that it holds in check, or even stamps out bad bacteria in the animals system.

Probiotics are great for:

• The proper development of your immune system
  
  
• Protection against over-growth of other microorganisms that could cause disease
  
  
• Digestion of food and absorption of nutrients

One of the ways we build up good bacteria in our pigs and chickens is by feeding them clabbered milk.

Traditionally, clabbered milk is made by allowing raw milk to stand until it has thickened, a process which takes 24-48 hours. The milk is also typically kept warm, encouraging the growth of beneficial bacteria. As it thickens, the acidity of the milk increases, preventing the growth of harmful bacteria and creating a very distinctive tang which many people greatly enjoy. Pigs practically kill for it!

That was one of the plans when we bought our Oberhasli goats. Make clabbered milk to feed the pigs and chickens to keep them healthy and vigorous so we don't need antibiotics or other pharmaceuticals to keep them healthy.

It works great and the pigs and chickens both really enjoy it!

This is just another way we are striving to work with the animals immune system, not prop it up with outside inputs.

till next time!

This is a great video showing the nutritional profile of pastured vs conventional chickens. I will be ordering our last batch of birds next week. If you were thinking of ordering now is the time...

 

Video

 

 

I'm a collector of old agriculture books. I find so many of the old methods to be just what is needed for the sustainable farmer of today.

 The following passage has always made me smile.

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 Our pigs, when old enough, are allowed to run out everyday, into the barn yard, in winter, and the pasture in summer; and we find this arrangement convenient for letting them in and out of the pens, as each pen opens directly into the barnyard.

If well bred and properly treated, the pigs will go to their pens as readily as cows or horses will go to their own stalls.

 This may be doubted by those who ill treat their pigs - or in other words, by those who treat their pigs in the common way. But it is nevertheless, a fact, that there is no more docile or tractable animal on the farm than a well-bred pig. There is a good deal of human nature about him. He can be lead where he cannot be driven. A cross grained man will soon spoil a lot of well-bred pigs. They know the tone of his voice, and it is amusing to see what tricks they will play on him.

We have seen such a man trying to get the pigs into their respective pens, and it would seem as though he had brought with him a legion of imps and seven of them had entered into each pig. No sow would would go with her own pigs, and no pigs would go with their own mother; the store pigs would go into the fattening pen, and the fattening pigs would go where the stores were wanted. Should he get mad, and use a stick, some active porker would lead him in many a chase around the barn-yard; and when one was tired, another pig, with brotherly affection, would take up the quarrel, and the old sows would stand by enjoying the fun.

Let no such man have charge of any domestic animal. He is a born hewer of wood, and the drawer of water, and should be sent to dig canals, or do night-work for the poudrette manufacturers.

 At their regular feeding time, we can take twenty or thirty of our own pigs, and separate them into their respective pens in a few minutes. They inherit a quiet disposition, and would dismiss on the spot, any hired man who should kick one of them, or strike them with a stick, and we cannot bear to hear an angry word spoken near the pens. - Harris on the pig, 1883.

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 So true! With our pigs being on grass, we move pigs constantly from one pasture to the next. Never have a problem. I've had some people tell me they think I could lead them to town and back!

 Notice the author says "at their regular feeding time". A huge key to pigs is they are very scheduled. Mine will be waiting at the gate about five to ten minutes before they are to be fed, moved, etc.

As one man said "pigs will do anything that is their idea!"

 

 

Until next time...

A few pictures of pigs and kids on the farm  [Read More]