permaculture

[Cory Brennan <cory8570@yahoo.com>]

Wow, sounds complicated! The pig at our Pine Ridge project kept breaking out 
of her pen because there was zero stimulation for her back there. So we made 
a pig tractor out of a temporary corral (forged steel panels linked together, 
no way for her to break out of that), and moved her from spot to spot where 
she could dig and root and be near the horses and people, etc. Ideally, the 
design would incorporate a place where the pigs could free range (a la Sepp 
Holzer), but that takes some good barriers if you have a kitchen garden you 
want to keep around, etc. 


________________________________
From: "DGilsen@aol.com" <DGilsen@aol.com>
To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Monday, October 17, 2011 4:11 PM
Subject: Re: [permaculture] PIGS AT WORK

Can you tell me what exactly is a  pig tractor?  Is it just a  pen, or is 
it a contraption?  I heard of a contraption that looked like a  large hamster 
wheel a tin can on its side that had the bars welded about one  foot apart 
on the sides. The pigs rooted through the bars on the ground and as  they 
leaned on the bars of the "hamster wheel" to get to other goodies the wheel  
would roll to greener pastures and the pigs learned to corroperate to go in a 
desired direction.  the pigs entered in the end of the "wheel. The thing  
was about six or seven feet tall I believe.  This was made out of steel  
wagon type wheels on the ends with the bars welded from one end of the wheel 
to 
the other.  one end had a door for the critters to enter and exit.


In a message dated 10/11/2011 7:49:51 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time,  
rollens@fidnet.com writes:

Just be  cautious because when the cute little darling gets physically 
mature and comes  in heat, she may tear the pen completely apart, electric 
wire 
and all, and goo  visiting, or worse, on a feeding binge!  Guess how I  
know???

Lisa


On Oct 10, 2011, at 11:57 PM, Cory Brennan  wrote:

> We set up a pig tractor this summer at Pine Ridge  reservation, and it 
worked great. The pig ate all the weeds except vervain,  tilled the soil, and 
replanted squash seeds and curly dock for us - when we  noticed that, we 
started feeding her stuff we wanted planted and that worked  pretty good too. 
We planted cover crops where she dug, and that worked good  too, tho it 
started getting too hot and dry, and with no irrigation, the  pioneers we 
didn't 
want (like goathead) were coming back in so we moved her  back to a 
permanent pen. But I would do that again in an instant to clear a  field 
rather than 
manually doing it. She worked really fast too - in only a  few days, her 
pen area would be cleared. We were using her to clear a fairly  large space 
for a food forest, but only got a small portion of it done. What I  will do 
next spring if we still have access to her is put some composted  manure and 
straw in the pen, let her dig that in while she eats the weeds  (she
> doesn't leave enough manure herself in the few days it takes her  to eat 
stuff, though there is some), then plant cover crop and nitro fixers as  
soon as we move her. It would be a relatively labor free way of turning the  
compacted clay pioneer soil into food forest material...
> 
> Cory  
> 
> 
>  ________________________________

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>From DGilsen@aol.com  Tue Oct 18 10:45:16 2011
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Subject: Re: [permaculture] PIGS AT WORK
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So a pig tractor is just a movable enclosure????  What does it look  like?


In a message dated 10/18/2011 6:35:46 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time,
cory8570@yahoo.com writes:

Wow,  sounds complicated! The pig at our Pine Ridge project kept breaking
out of her  pen because there was zero stimulation for her back there. So we
made a pig  tractor out of a temporary corral (forged steel panels linked
together, no way  for her to break out of that), and moved her from spot to
spot where she could  dig and root and be near the horses and people, etc.
Ideally, the design would  incorporate a place where the pigs could free range
(a la Sepp Holzer), but  that takes some good barriers if you have a kitchen
garden you want to keep  around, etc.


________________________________
From:  "DGilsen@aol.com" <DGilsen@aol.com>
To:  permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Monday, October 17, 2011 4:11  PM
Subject: Re: [permaculture] PIGS AT WORK

Can you tell me what  exactly is a  pig tractor?  Is it just a  pen, or is
it a  contraption?  I heard of a contraption that looked like a  large
hamster
wheel a tin can on its side that had the bars welded about  one  foot apart
on the sides. The pigs rooted through the bars on the  ground and as  they
leaned on the bars of the "hamster wheel" to get  to other goodies the
wheel
would roll to greener pastures and the  pigs learned to corroperate to go
in a
desired direction.  the pigs  entered in the end of the "wheel. The thing
was about six or seven  feet tall I believe.  This was made out of steel
wagon type  wheels on the ends with the bars welded from one end of the
wheel to
the  other.  one end had a door for the critters to enter and  exit.


In a message dated 10/11/2011 7:49:51 P.M. US Mountain  Standard Time,
rollens@fidnet.com writes:

Just be   cautious because when the cute little darling gets physically
mature and  comes  in heat, she may tear the pen completely apart, electric
wire
and all, and goo  visiting, or worse, on a feeding binge!  Guess  how I
know???

Lisa


On Oct 10, 2011, at 11:57 PM,  Cory Brennan  wrote:

> We set up a pig tractor this summer at  Pine Ridge  reservation, and it
worked great. The pig ate all the  weeds except vervain,  tilled the soil,
and
replanted squash seeds  and curly dock for us - when we  noticed that, we
started feeding her  stuff we wanted planted and that worked  pretty good
too.
We planted  cover crops where she dug, and that worked good  too, tho it
started  getting too hot and dry, and with no irrigation, the  pioneers we
didn't
want (like goathead) were coming back in so we moved her  back to a
permanent pen. But I would do that again in an instant to clear a   field
rather than
manually doing it. She worked really fast too - in only  a  few days, her
pen area would be cleared. We were using her to  clear a fairly  large
space
for a food forest, but only got a small  portion of it done. What I  will
do
next spring if we still have  access to her is put some composted  manure
and
straw in the pen, let  her dig that in while she eats the weeds  (she
> doesn't leave  enough manure herself in the few days it takes her  to eat
stuff,  though there is some), then plant cover crop and nitro fixers as
soon as we move her. It would be a relatively labor free way of turning
the
compacted clay pioneer soil into food forest material...
>
> Cory
>
>
>   ________________________________

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