Our piglets arrive on the farm at 6 weeks of age.
They have a straw lined enclosure to protect them from the cold, as well as a roof to protect their fragile skins from the blistering African sun. Their electrified paddocks are moved bi-weekly and always include a tree for extra shade. They also have continual access to clean drinking water which they sometimes engineer into a mud bath. Apart from their normal pig feed, they also receive a daily ration of either cauliflower or broccoli off cutts repurposed from the vegetable harvest.
A week before they are moved, a diverse cover crop mix is sowed by hand and left to be trampled into the ground. These seeds will germinate, fed by the pig manure, and be grazed on when the next batch of pigs return to this paddock a couple of months down the line.
March 21, 2018