Watching Grass Grow

The leaves are coming in on the walnuts, oaks, and cottonwoods, which will provide needed shade during the hot summer months. We mowed our summer ground (top five photos) hoping to have back a stronger stand of grasses when we'll need them in July. It's looking good, and we even see some alfalfa, which we seeded the winter before last, filling the gaps between the recently cut grasses and mustards. Our spring ground (bottom five photos) is ready for the pigs. In the tallest patches, the thick stand of mustards, vetch, barley, and grasses reaches 2.5 feet. We're pretty happy with the result and look forward to searching for pigs in the tall vegetation.

Spring Time

We had some wonderfully warm weather, and the pigs enjoyed their days taking naps on partially shaded ground. This pasture held up well during the wet winter months, and we're happy to see that there's still plenty of green left, but we'll be rotating the herd on to their spring grounds come April.

Sows and Piglets

After about eight weeks, sows show signs of being tired and begin to wean. They're constantly moving about not so much to get anywhere but to keep from the swarming piglets, because hungry piglets are everywhere.

Field Peas

With another soggy week gone by and more wet days ahead, thought it's appropriate to post about another one of our dry-farmed grains. We seeded about 10 acres of field peas, and some of the pea plants are just starting to poke through the sea of winter vetch. Rich in protein and starch, we grind and mix the peas in with other organic grains for the hogs.

Watching Grass Grow

A week of sunshine has made a big difference in our spring/summer pastures. In the north block of summer grasses, mustards, and amaranth (which we did not seed and is also known as pigweed) have almost completely covered any exposed earth. Photos below are from this drizzly Wednesday.

The mostly mustard seeded south block showed more dramatic growth. We think the ground might be ready for hogs as early as mid-March. I can't wait!

Sows and Piglets

Grouping a few sows and their piglets together gives all little ones more opportunity to nurse. Good thing, because piglets are hungry throughout the day.

This Duroc sow rolls on her side and calls for her piglets to nurse...