[permaculture-oceania] feeding pigs and nutrient runnoff

Wed Jun 14 10:29:38 EST 2006

I just thought I would throw in a few words about the pigs.

After having my three small pigs destroy and upturn a 1/3 acre paddock,
and then the smallest, get under the single electric wire, run down the
next door neighbours paddock, then squeeze under another fence to eat my
goat food, I decided I needed some control!!!

So I obtained a Gundaroo tiller, which is 50 metres of electric fencing
1.2 metres high.  This we have placed into an area  with a small
moveable shed - I plan to start a garden in spring.  Food was the
incentive to follow me (as it always is) into the round area.

In 4 weeks, they have schnozzled through the area, and we have nice
friable soil.

I feed them a mix of products, eg lucerne chaff, mixed with grains, and
some pellets, this is their staple, then I get any amount of scraps I
can get from the greengrocer, and any left overs from the house, eg
potato peels, pumpkin, 

So it is a diverse diet, but no meat.

Sue Mossman

________________________________

From: permaculture-oceania-bounces at lists.cat.org.au
[mailto:permaculture-oceania-bounces at lists.cat.org.au] On Behalf Of
Robyn Francis
Sent: Tuesday, 13 June 2006 4:10 PM
To: permaculture-oceania
Subject: Re: [permaculture-oceania] feeding pigs and nutrient runnoff

Hi Kerry
My piggies absolutely love comfrey - haven't let them loose on the
comfrey patch but they enjoy eating both leaves and roots. I'm
considering expanding my comfrey production for all my animals.
Ciao
Robyn

On 12/6/06 7:23 PM, "kdawborn" <kdawborn at bigpond.com> wrote:

Hi Robyn, 

Thanks for your suggestions about pig fodder - good ideas to take on
board. We are in a cool temperate climate - in the Yarra Ranges,
Victoria. Mulberry sounds a possibility, along with tagasaste, and am
wondering about other tree crops or high protein plants. Am also
wondering if anyone out there has fed comfrey to pigs if anyone has
anything to say about that... 

Also am wondering about meat quality outcomes if a lot of fruit or
high-carb root vegies are fed....

Cheers,

Kerry Dawborn 

________________________________

From: permaculture-oceania-bounces at lists.cat.org.au
[mailto:permaculture-oceania-bounces at lists.cat.org.au] On Behalf Of
Robyn Francis
Sent: Monday, 12 June 2006 11:25 AM
To: permaculture-oceania
Subject: Re: [permaculture-oceania] feeding pigs and nutrient runnoff

Hi Kerry

Some excellent fodder crops for pigs include Jerusalem artichoke, Qld
arrowroot (leaves & roots), sweet potato, potato, pumpkin, melons. They
pretty well love all fruit and root crops - any chance of connecting
with fruit & veg producers in the area to collect damaged or rejected
produce?  The pigs can plough areas for their own crops - could also
design a self harvest system for some things - nothing they love more
than rooting up some delicious tubers. 
They also love mulberry leaves which are high in digestible protein -
can coppice them regularly through spring-summer-early autumn.

what climate are you planning for.
Ciao
Robyn

On 10/6/06 11:16 PM, "kdawborn" <kdawborn at bigpond.com> wrote:

Hi All,

A couple or so questions regarding livestock (pigs) on a property
interested in using a more permaculture approach:

1)       from anyone out there raising free-range pigs for meat, what
kinds of fodder crops can be grown to reduce or eliminate the need for
supplementary grain feeding? In our case we're talking commercial
free-range pork production. We're aware that pigs can pretty much eat
what humans can eat; these pigs are currently on pasture and grain, and
while we realise that pig-tractoring in systems growing human food crops
as well could have a lot of benefits, what we're looking for right now
is fodder crops which would have sufficient protein (and other necessary
nutrient?) content to ensure growth and meat production - in other words
to replace the grain. We've been thinking tree lucerne as a start, which
could probably be grown in marginal areas with ready access to where
pigs are pastured, but are wondering about other plants, especially
those with high food for meat value that could either be grazed or
coppiced for fodder. 

2)       Any other suggestions regarding sustainable feeding of pigs -
reducing or eliminating the need to bring in food from outside.

3)       Nutrient runoff from paddocks into creek: we are concerned
about the nutrient load going into our creek from animal manure. It
seems likely that the most sensible way to view this is that really, the
nutrients are something we want to keep and use rather than allow to
pollute the creek, so perhaps the thing to do is grow more stuff that
can soak it up. Any suggestions re useful fodder (especially) or human
food plants or other plants, and ways to lay things out in order to best
catch the runoff? As I write I'm thinking swale-type arrangements with
appropriate plantings could work, but we are talking paddocks with pigs
so for stock management and other reasons, am not sure whether this
might create problems.

Anyway, any thoughts and suggestions would be most welcome....

Cheers All,

Kerry Dawborn

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