Beware the Pig Nut!

[Nomad64]

I try to live life as though today is my last, but plan as though I've got 20 years left - but that's just not enough for this kind of trial/experiment

As they say, the best time to be planting trees is at least 30 years ago but failing that, do it this year!

That said, I do wish I could have had a word with the guy who owned our holding 30 years ago!

 

[santaman2000]

Pigs aren’t’t a good idea. They’ll devour everything: all the plant and animals within their reach. They’ll eat every snake and lizard on the ground as well as all the eggs of any ground nesting birds. They’ll uproot all edible plants (and to them, almost all plants are edible)

 

[Toddy]

Snakes and lizards are surprisingly rare around here, and are usually found in moorland or in among dampish rocks, tbh.
Ground nesting birds are generally either foreshore or meadow/ farmland, not really woodland.
Pannage has a very, very long provenance in Europe. The annual mast was ideal pig fattening food, and the boar is native to our woodlands.
It's very much part of the cycle of life there.
That they turn over the soil, and fertilise it as it goes, is part of that whole ecosystem.
Our robins are notorious for following really closely any gardener delving.....it's some inbuilt thing in it's wee brain that evolved to follow rooting pigs and badgers and humans with digging sticks

 

[Nomad64]

Snakes and lizards are surprisingly rare around here, and are usually found in moorland or in among dampish rocks, tbh.
Ground nesting birds are generally either foreshore or meadow/ farmland, not really woodland.
Pannage has a very, very long provenance in Europe. The annual mast was ideal pig fattening food, and the boar is native to our woodlands.
It's very much part of the cycle of life there.
That they turn over the soil, and fertilise it as it goes, is part of that whole ecosystem.
Our robins are notorious for following really closely any gardener delving.....it's some inbuilt thing in it's wee brain that evolved to follow rooting pigs and badgers and humans with digging sticks

+1 though as with everything, moderation is the key!

http://www.conservationpigs.co.uk/Conservation

 

[santaman2000]

Snakes and lizards are surprisingly rare around here, and are usually found in moorland or in among dampish rocks, tbh.
Ground nesting birds are generally either foreshore or meadow/ farmland, not really woodland.
Pannage has a very, very long provenance in Europe. The annual mast was ideal pig fattening food, and the boar is native to our woodlands.......

The rarity of snakes and lizards there or one of the reasons I mentioned it. Yes, boar are native to Europe but you said you didn’t mean boar so I presumed you were talking about domesticated hogs. Containing them is near impossible and once they get a foothold they expand to any and all be environments (they won’t remain only in the woodlands) yes, the mast crop is ideal for them but they won’t confine themselves to just eating that; they’ll eat anything and everything they can reach.

 

[santaman2000]

+1 though as with everything, moderation is the key!

http://www.conservationpigs.co.uk/Conservation

Cool article, I like the concept. The real problem with hogs though is moderation isn’t a real possibility. As I commented above, they’ll expand and overwhelm. If, as the article suggests, the goal is control of I’m asive or unwanted weeds, then goats would be a better alternative.

All that said, It seems as if the UK is going forward with using hogs. I hope in a few years I read an article on your success proving me wrong.

 

[Keith_Beef]

I try to live life as though today is my last, but plan as though I've got 20 years left - but that's just not enough for this kind of trial/experiment

I have this idea that I may very well die today or tomorrow or live for another hundred years... So plan for long term, but try to leave no loose ends that others will have trouble dealing with.