Playing with pannage

[spandit]

My pigs have 2 days left to live. The giant freezer in my shed is soon to be full (especially as they're going to be joined by a large sow we're having made into sausages). Thought I'd experiment with some tree/plant fodder to see what else they like to eat besides the commercial pig food they've been living on...

Thought I'd try: alder
apple
bamboo
bay
bramble
hazel
holly
nettles
oak
poplar (balsam)
rosemary
Scots pine
sorrel

sycamore
willow (goat)
willow (grey)
willow (osier)

the clear winner is oak - they fight over the twigs and leaves. Fortunately, one of our mature oaks has very droopy branches so they're easy to harvest. They didn't eat most of the other ones (although I'm told once the nettles are dry they'll eat them). The holly proved a bit spiky for her and although we have some that is mature enough not to need prickles, it's a bit out of reach. They quite liked the bramble shoots but unfortunately weren't fussed by the willow (athough they snaffled up some freshly sprouted buds I'd picked off the trunk of some I'm attempting to pollard). Think they ate the apple but the rest is just ending up trampled into the mud (which they've created in this hot spell by continually turning over their water bowl - the bowl that they have to use since they pushed the metal water trough too close to the electric fence and made the whole thing electrified )

I've left them dozing in the sun so haven't tested the full range yet. It's a shame they didn't touch the rushes in the paddock

Started like this (this photo was taken after about a day):

Now they're moved back into their old pen, you can hardly tell where they've been!

The next lot to arrive should be around in the autumn when there will be plenty of acorns to feed them but might try and dry some tree fodder anyway.

 

[santaman2000]

When I was a kid somebody in the family (neighboring uncles, aunts, cousins, etc.) always kept two or three pigs. we fed them anything and everything including all our table slop (inedible or spoiled leftovers) Not legal for feeding commercial hogs unless it's first boiled to sterilization temp. When I worked as a correction officer, the prison sold the swill (as we lovingly called the leftovers from the kitchen) to local hog farmers for just that purpose; as do many restaurants.

As for foraging, they also eat any birds eggs or young hatchlings they can reach (ground nesting species) and any snakes or other reptiles they can catch.

 

[Tengu]

How do you think they would do on a patch of Japanese knotweed?

 

[santaman2000]

How do you think they would do on a patch of Japanese knotweed?

Are you asking me or Spandit? I don't even know what Japanese Knotweed is so I'll pass.

 

[spandit]

How do you think they would do on a patch of Japanese knotweed?

I'm hoping never to find out. Kudzu roots go very deep so they wouldn't kill it that way but if they ate it, perhaps it wouldn't have a chance to regrow

 

[spandit]

Sorry, got confused & thought they were one and the same. It's still edible, though so they might control it

 

[spandit]

A brief Google search has some saying they make it worse by dividing the roots but others say it gets eliminated. It's one plant I have a sneaky respect for and if we had a lot of it here (it's in the neighbourhood) I'd try to get livestock to eat it - it could probably be cut and dried for hay - but I won't be deliberately propagating it

 

[santaman2000]

So it's similar to kudzu? Ouch!

Yes it can be baled as hay but it really can't be controlled without some really nasty herbicides.