dimanche 25 juin 2017

new plan, seeking advice:

Ok, by the end of the week I'll have 11 pigs here (badly in need of fattening) and since I'm going to have to deal with the pigs I'm keeping probably 6 of the chickens.
Not for eggs, but as bug control.

My buddy and I got a pen made out of 11 or so gates and hog pannels today, and I'll get an electric fence enclosed around the acre or so in time.

While it's not good to feed raw meat to pigs (worms) I'll have (free) 3-5 lbs of turkey breast a day (per pig) that I'll cook and feed to them.

This will meet their minimum caloric needs (although not balanced) and is a hell of a lot more than they are getting now.

I picked up a 12V pump and some strainers today to pump them water from the pond, and I'll be adding a "pig nipple" I just found out about to the stock tank I'll gravity fill from a ICB tote. (That I'll also water my raised beds with)

But I'm considering something longer than "sell these as soon as they are healthy":

Where I built my house (and that acre or so I'm talking about, as well as a few more acres) was a farm/garden back in the 1800's. Based on soil quality, lack of rocks, and homestead foundations.

I'm contemplating keeping the pigs longer, long enough to move the smaller pen around an acre or so and root out EVERYTHING (my buddy/partner is willing to wait to sell the pigs so long as it doesn't cost him) and then bring in a couple loads of turkey litter for fertilizer.
I don't know if:
1. I should do it after the pigs are gone or allow then to root/turn it in.
2. I'll be able to plant in the fall, or if it'll be too hot to plant till spring.

But (considering I have access to free seeds) if I then plant it VERY intensely.... just broadcasting etc...

And can water from the pond... (have to engineer that out) there will be a.... call it community food resource, and it'll probably take some years for native grasses to take it back over. (If I keep it sewn)

....but I don't know what to plant ... not so much for yeald, but mixed in there to keep it... useful. (Does that make sense?)

Once these pigs are gone, baring a similar event I do NOT plan on getting more than 1 or 2 to feed out till its time to butcher. Having animals short term I can deal with, but I don't want to be "chained to the farm" (otherwise it would be relatively simple to pattock them back through to turn it over.... not happening)

I'm more interested in the experiment than production, but would like to give away more than I do now, and some people could use it. (And it wouldn't be bad to have for relatively little more work/investmwnt than I'm already doing.)

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new plan, seeking advice:

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