Animals used in garden prep

Does anyone else use chickens or pigs for prepping their gardens? This video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DR3fC06qLqQ&feature=related is of what will be our garden next year, 2011. We will leave the pigs in this plot until mid summer and then get it ready for laying plastic mulch in the fall. Our plots are roughly an acre in size, and we usually put 3 litters in a plot. Pigs do a very thorough job of pre-tilling and fertilizing the plots. If you use your livestock for garden prep, what is your method? What is your stocking rate?
Note: I've thought abought firing the narrator of this video (sounds like a hick) numerous times, but then I'd be out of a job! :)

I love the video, please keep them coming.

Those little ones are too funny. Why is the young ones are too cute and funny?

ps you didn't sound like a hick, my step daughter sounds way more hicky than you do....LOL

Janet

Thanks Janet. I've actually lost alot of my Georgia accent, as my family is quick to point out, since moving to Oklahoma. If you want to see young pigs playing and having a good time, watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxdzvIG3UjQ You can't help but laugh watching these pigs running around.

Hey there Tulsa Dawg: Great video. I and my wife are looking into relocation, possibly to Oklahoma close to the Missouri border. What can you tell me about it? Any info would be appreciated. Thanks Haystack.

Those are some really nice looking hogs you've got there.

We put 7 hogs (5 adults and 2 shoats) into a 2 acre fenced area on October 6th. By November 30th there was almost no grass in the entire 2 acres left.

I'll be pulling these hogs out late this spring and will be planting the entire 2 acres in corn, squash and beans. Here is a photo of their area.

We have Yorkshires and a couple "Red Wattles". We had a hampshire but he's in the freezer now.

We do add manure from our cows to our garden, but I'm not expecting to have to add any to the area where the hogs are. They're doing a very good job leaving their manure all over the place. We have sandy soil, too, and it seems like the sand just eats up the manure.

Dave just moved into there house and this may be the first time he has done this. I am looking forward to hearing his reply and further discussion on this, although I would use peafowls.

I am indeed interested to see how well this field supports my plantings this summer. I'll post the updates.

Oh my what a funny video of those youngster. But then what baby livestock isn't fun to watch.

when I had nigerian dwarf dairy goats the babies are about a pound when born and I had never seen babies like that come out and be so alert (I was use to collie puppies) and start running around jumping off walls, people off the backs of their moms, I could hardly do my work for laughing so much at their antics.

Love the videos. Keep them coming.

So are pigs like dogs in that the mothers since they know you don't seem to mind you coming around their newborns? or do the mothers go after you?

By the way, I'm a ham, pork chop, pork rib lover, so keep them coming.

Do you sell off your farm to individuals or do you just take them to the auction house?

Janet

Those piglets are so dang cute! I'm glad they don't stay that way or I'd have to swear off pork.....mmmmmm, bacon!! Thanks for sharing the videos & pics!

It is a shame what the corporate world has done to more than just our farmers, look at what walmart has done to all the small mom and pop stores....

Oh my do you have a shipping business???? I used to get some icelandic sheep meat from a friend out west shipped to me, but sadly she passed away a few years ago, it was a hugh lost to the icelandic sheep industry as she was responsible for making that breed well known in the US.

So do you like the farmers markets?

Janet

oh my gosh stop you are making me drool all over my keyboard,....LOL

so do you smoke any pork as well.

How do you get past the raising them then having to take them to be dressed out? That was always hard for me with the bucks but I always told myself this is the way it has to be. But I was always determined to use everything from them as my way to honor them for their life.

I know I'm strange....

Janet

so do you have any seeds from those heirloom vegetables you might be interested in trading for say flowers as I don't have vegetables and so want heirloom?

Janet

Janet, we do smoke hams, shoulders, and bacon. As for getting past raising them, I look at how 99% of the pigs in this country are raised ( on concrete, crammed together like sardines, and pumped full of meds and hormones) and like to think that our animals are well cared for and treated humanely. I really don't get emotionally attached, which must be a guy thing! :)

yes a guy thing for sure.... it was hard the first time for me, but I will say it did get easier as I made sure not to get too close to the bucks.... besides their smell kind of keeps you away anyhow.... * ~ )

smokes hams and bacon and shoulders... oh my..... Wish I was closer as I would have a standing order with ya.

When I had the dairy goats I was just getting started with making raw milk aged cheese, and the care of the animals was the key to great cheese. I was just getting started with rotational grazing, wow when you get rid of the worms and don't have to worm anymore, what a joy that was.... I always was a natural type raiser of animals I do this with my collies and they are so much healthier, just like us.

I really feel that most of our health problems come from the food (and how the animals are raised and how some of them have so much disease and then they are shot up with the meds, just destroys the meat... IMHO)

Janet

The seeds I concentrate on saving are our melon and watermelon seeds. They are the most profitable at our markets so I always save seed from melons with the fastest growth and, in the case of our Moon & Stars watermelons, appearance. I also save tomato seed on occasion, but we have a local farmer that can supply me with better seed than I can grow. He has the knack! All the seed from last year is allocated for this year, but keep in touch and I'll save you some watermelon and "Kansas" melon seed from this year's crop.

Janet, goat's milk and cheese are very popular at our markets. One of my good friends raises goats and sheep. She also grows vegetables and hosts farm dinners during market season. Here's a link to her blog if you're interested: http://livingonthisfarm.blogspot.com/

thanks so much for the link. Nice blog, I've tried several times to post on mine but I have too many other things going on to keep up with it....LOL

Janet

Hey Tulsa!!! I apologize for the bad manners, I asked about relocation to Oklahoma, but forget to welcome you to the forum. I have been the only regular guy here for a long time and am so looking forward to another guy around here. I will tell you this though, these are the best ladies I have ever known, and I am grateful for their friendship and all that they have taught me. Looking forward to the things you will share with us. Haystack.

Hi Meadowyck: Great to meet you and welcome to the garden.

I have to take exception to one thing you said. Walmart destroying all the mom and pop stores. No disrespect intended but the Oil Companies destroyed the mom and pop stores not Walmart. I like Walmart. They have created lots and lots of jobs. The Oil companies have created little to none. No offense intended. Haystack

How did the oil companies destroy the mom and pop stores?

We used to let our chickens into our garden over the winter, to fertilize it and to help with bugs. But we never seemed to be able to get them out in time for me to plant peas early enough. Then I reorganized my garden à la Eliot Coleman with 30" wide rows and 18" woodchip-over-landscape-paper paths between them, so that was the end of the chickens' winter spa. They can definitely do a number on any kind of neat arrangements! Now we just compost the chicken manure and garden and kitchen scraps and spread it over the rows with a wheelbarrow.

Tulsa, your spread sounds just wonderful and I wish I could get some pork from you. We have thought about raising a pig or two for our own use, but reading about pig-slaughtering on old French farms, it sounds like the sort of thing that you'd need a neighborhood to help you with, so we're not up for it. When DH gets a deer we can bone and package it ourselves, but that's a different story! We love pork but I hate the idea of eating those factory-farmed creatures!

greenhouse_gal, we grow all our root crops in raised beds, and I'm building a portable 2 pig enclosure that is the size of the beds we use, 4' x 16'. Just put the pigs in and voila, a tilled bed with no sifting for grass or weed roots needed, plus no need to add fertilizer or compost. As soon as the bed is ready just pull the pen to a spot for a new bed. When I get it finished I'll post a video on here so you can see how it works.

Tulsa, I'd love to do that, but it's the butchering that stops me. A friend who's a retired veterinarian and also farms remembers doing it as a kid and we can't talk him into trying it again because it's so labor-intensive. It sounds like your method really works beautifully for you, though. I'd like to see how it works.

thanks for the welcome.

I do miss living in a farming community, but I guess the trade off is that we are less than 5 minutes from anything we would want.....LOL

No offense taken Haystack, I say wal mart cause so may friends have gone out of business when Walmart keeps expanding. No sure I understand how Oil companies are effecting us other than pricing of our oil.....

Now back to more important issues such as proper farm raised animals for food consumption....

Yes I totally agree that when livestock intended for our tables are raised in much better conditions than our overall health is better.

Just remember when our grandparents lived their lives were filled with as much disease as what folks have now.... Just too back we all can't have a 5 acres to be self sufficient then we all would be healthier and happier...

Janet

WalMart does tend to close the stores in downtown areas; so do Home Depot and Lowes. Small businesses have to develop specific niches to remain viable. I have also heard that WalMart's treatment of employees isn't as good as, say, Costco, but I don't know the particulars. Much of what they sell doesn't seem as well made as articles from the same manufacturers bought at other venues, but I think people realize that you often get what you pay for. I try to patronize the small local stores whenever possible.

Men seem to love Walmart and women seem to be, at least, less enthusiastic. Our little hardware store survives despite Home Depot and Lowes because the people actually know about what they are selling and are genuinely helpful.

The only jobs Wall-Mart has created around here do not pay enough to live off of and most are part time so no benefits. I do not know but one person who works for Wall-mart and she hates it. I know hundred who work in oil related jobs and they at all make a GOOD $

Walmart moved in and our little mom and pop stores could not compete. Then home depot moved in and well Ace and Leroys are still going but it is tough for them. I like Leroys as I know all the people by first name.

I didn't mean to get this thread off topic, so folks lets get back to dealing with videos of the piggies

Ima.....
Please forgive the off topic your thread has taken.

Hay any more videos of the little spotted piggies.... they are too cute.

Do you own the male that you are using in the breeding? By the way what do you call a male pig???? and for that matter what do you call the females???

Janet

I believe that is Boar and Sow.

This message was edited Jan 31, 2010 8:48 AM

Boar and sow.

Janet, a male pig used for breeding is a boar. A female that hasn't had pigs is called a gilt, and after her 1st litter she becomes a sow. We own all our boars and sows. We keep one Large Black boar and one Spot boar on the farm, plus one Large Black sow and one Spot sow. From these purebred pigs we produce a Spot x LB boar and a LB x Spot gilt that we then breed to produce our market pigs.

Education time.

Hope you don't mine me asking these questions.

So how long does an adult live and how often does the gilt or sow cycle? How many babies are usually in a litter?

and are they really as smelly as folks say? I'm thinking not really if you don't have so many and they have plenty of room to do their thing, lol

Janet

Pigs will be clean and odor free if you give them room to be. They like mud not filth.