Pear Tree by North Garden
This is a budding pear tree by the north garden. It’s not a recent photo – things are cold and dead right now in the heart of winter. We have no green. Yet, now is the time to think about pruning the trees I have planted and also to think about planting more.
Fruit, nuts, legumes, beets, turnips, kale, rape and other things are great additions to our livestock’s diet. People think of pasture as being grass but really it is much more than that and what it offers varies with the seasons. Clover and alfalfa, both legumes, suck nitrogen out of the air and boost the protein value of the pasture and building the soil without us having to buy fertilizers. Tubers send deep roots down right into the ledge bringing up minerals, water and other nutrients. Nuts are filled with protein and fats. Fruits provide vitamins and sugars. Variety is the spice of life and makes for better tasting meat.
So now when the cold winters months bury the land under a protective coat of white snow I plot and plan where I’ll next plant fruit and nut trees.
Outdoors: 11°F/-16 Sunny
Tiny Cottage: 69°F/67°F
Daily Spark: Fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight and bull-strong. -Old Saying
I’m doing the same plotting and planting for my pines that will come in April. In fact, I hope to go to my woods this weekend and clear more land for them. If you’re free and in the area, come along!
Have fun at round rock. Is it snowy there?
We have a few pear trees on our farm. The day the pears are at their perfect ripeness always follows the night the deer eat them all. :(
You need dogs!
We recently got two tamworths to raise on pasture. We are trying to ween them off of store bought food and onto our grass and clover pastures but they don’t seem to want to eat much of it. Any suggestions on ways to train pigs to eat pasture when they have not been previously exposed to it? Thanks
Changing their feed is a process. It takes several weeks. Start by feeding them the commercial grain based hog feed later and later each day. Then gradually decrease the amount that you feed to wean them to forages. However, keep in mind that pasture alone is low in lysine, a necessary limiting amino-acid, and calories. Also smaller pig do not do as well as larger pigs. Big sows and boars are better grazers than piglets. They have bigger jaws and longer intestines.
Our original pigs were taught to eat pasture by our sheep. They saw the sheep eating the clovers and grasses so they tried them and found them good. Now our older pigs teach the younger ones to eat pasture.
Not all pigs do well on pasture. Those that have been bred for generations to be on grain for factory farms do not tend to do well on pasture perhaps because they have shorter gut lengths. Another theory is that they’ve lost the appendix’s ability to digest roughage. They may also not have the right flora in their digestive tracts. Or perhaps they just haven’t learned to eat pasture. Pigs are naturally hesitant about new foods because they could get poisoned by strange foods.
Additionally some pigs do a lot better on pasture than others. Likewise some winter better. Over the years we’ve selected for those who fair better on pasture. It’s a process of selection back to a more natural pig.
These are all reasons to get piglets from someone who is raising them on pasture.