11:15 I'd like to share an exception to the general rule that pigs won't touch electricity. My mother knew a farmer that had a nut tree with an electric fence around it. There was a pig that would break through that fence to get the nuts. It would run full tilt at it from some distance, start squealing in anticipation of the pain before it got to it, and just barrel right through it. After the shock wore out, it would get up and start eating nuts. They ate that pig first.
Hi Troy & Pascale, interesting how you manage your pasture with the help of the pigs, they’re like mini bulldozers. And Pascale, hope everything is going well with your pregnancy, waiting to know if boy or girl. All the best to you both, take care, from the UK.
Hey mate love the regenerative agriculture Would love if you shared your rotation schedule for the pigs eg how many pigs per area and how quickly you rotated them A video on your overall longterm regenerative plan would be amazing 🙏
The rotation speed changes through the year, and we now have no pigs on the block through the driest part of summer. By getting piglets started on weekly rotation just before autumn, we get the heaviest impact as the rains start and the pigs are bigger. They disturb the weed seed bank deeply in time for the best rain and the rotation speeds up as they grow. We cull in the middle of winter to take advantage of the cold, but they do well on spring growth if holding year round, mainly grazing (not digging) and moving daily.
Another superb video, many thanks! It's remarkable how you've used the pigs as sort of "organic rotavators", not only tilling the soil and opening it up (and fertilising it too) but also removing the things (like onion grass) that you don't want ... remarkable use of an animal I think is often maligned ... I've worked with pigs before and found them very pleasant characters, apart from when you get the big breeding Boars, who can be a tad feisty :) We're still settling in to our new place ... my back (as always!) is playing up a lot, so progress on projects is slower than I'd like, but already, just 8 weeks in, I've completed my workshop workbench build, put flooring planks down in the loft (to allow it to be used as a storage area) and so far have completed the floor and one "long" wall of the shed I'm building for my fiancé - she's hacked out the foundations and is re-laying recycled paving slabs over sand, to act as the base/foundation for the shed, and I'm busy building the various walls and (eventually!) a felt-covered roof panel too ... the only "bought in" item is a door, which was too good, and thus too tempting, to not have, especially considering the price our local timber merchant gave it to us for. So, just the 2 short walls and other long wall to go then I can start the roof ... what was supposed to take a week is now well into Week Two and not even halfway done, but that's life, or at least it is for a cripple trying to build structures in heavy wood :) I've also secured a small but steady supply of wooden pallets, and thus pallet planking ... they're mostly "HT" (Heat Treated, essential for recycling into useful stuff as the others can be injected with chemicals, or have toxic paint already applied to them, so using HT wood is essential for anything garden or pet related) and after a long delay we're just over 2 weeks away from taking delivery of our rescue puppy from eastern Europe! Which obviously we're super stoked about. Hope all is going well for you guys especially the imminent birth of Firstborn so hope Pascale is being looked after and doted on even better than you would treat the pigs :)
Your post is making me feel lazy! I saw a method of taking pallet timber, laying them all together on their side and clamping them into a block. This was then run through a thicknesser so they were uniform width, and perfectly straight of edge. The wood was then perfect for gluing and clamping into useful panels and table tops or forming rails and stiles.
@@FreeRangeLiving lol! You guys, lazy?! No way! I'm just toddling through my "To Do" list as best I can ... hopefully got a random orbital sander arriving shortly, plus a Makita cordless impact driver, which should help the shed building along no end ... in theory. As for pallet wood ... it's a bit of a puzzle, TBH, or seems so to me. On the one hand it's free or super cheap (local businesses are knocking out complete, unbroken pallets for £1.50 each, which seems a rip-off when you think they got the stuff for free but then these are tough times and it is "free" wood) but on the other hand it's not great quality and needs a LOT of prep ... I don't own a thicknesser or planer (I wish!) but apparently you can chip a lot of thicknesser or planer blades or drums on hidden nails, as pallet wood is often full of them. Then there's the technique in a video I saw (while looking for building raised veg beds using pallet wood), where instead of trying to take off the "good" wood and remove nails, you simply saw the whole pallet in half (seriously, right down the middle, where there are rarely any nails) with a circular saw or plunge saw (I have the latter, a corded one) and then plonk the "loose" wooden slat ends into the earth to make sides of raised beds and just bolt across some 4x2 (other metrics are available!) over the "top" or "edge" ends, to make a raised bed in no time! I'd post the video link here but some folk get annoyed if you post links on their UA-cam channels, which I can totally understand, so hit me up if you're interested as it's the sort of thing you or I would (indeed, probably WILL in my case!) experiment with in order to build raised veg beds fast ... you're both flexible enough to not need raised beds yet but my spinal crap means it's raised for me, or nothing :) All the best to you, Pascale and Firstborn, when s/he turns up :)
Joel Salatin calls it mob grazing, the electric fence acts as predator pressure crowding the animals so they are in competition for each mouth full, thus eating not just what tastes good but also what's good for them. undesirable/noxious vegetation are rooted or trampled by the crowding action removing their advantage. the concept was not his but has served him very well on his farm. no doubt, natural systems still have amazing things to teach us.
Gday Troy could you list your energiser type batteries and other electrical accessories that you use in your containment system, I like your set up and I am about to build mine, kind regards Tony
It's really interesting how you are using the "bad habits" of your animals to accomplish your goals for the land. Everything is looking good for the coming growing season.
You have certainly made great use of those living rototillers Troy. Your efficiency has really paid big dividends. Any word on Pascale and the baby that you want to share ? My wife keeps asking me for status checks. Take care all of you.😉
Confined to a small area pigs will eat everything they can. Then all you need to do is spend a couple hours using a drag behind the tractor and you will have a mulched smooth fertilized pasture. This process just improves the pasture the more times you let it germinate and grow then turn the automatic fertilizers back on the pasture.
Thanks for sharing your experience. I am venturing into pigs (american guinea hogs) on our small homestead as a way to help clear thick brush and brambles and open up the forest. I'm also trying to get a more pleasant field in front of our house by having them graze it down. I'm assuming you get a good rain before you throw seed out or do you throw seed out and eventually the rain comes and it's all good either way.
For 9 months of each year, we know that there will be at least some rain in any given week. Most seeding is spring and autumn, with an eye to which season suits the plants chosen.
Hi Troy. Awesome vid! Just watched it again to get my head around the Kiwitech stuff. I noticed at the start the pigs were in bracken. I’ve been told it’s toxic to them but wondered if you had any issues? We’ve got a fair bit at our place so have been wary of it. Thanks heaps!
In our experience, the pigs just uprooted the bracken to get to whatever was living under it. We fed them well, so they were never tempted by anything unpalatable, which I think keeps them safe. Wild pigs here certainly dig through bracken and they do very well!
Must be up to date with vids for spring, or is it last year? Some of the sailing channels are a year behind, funny when you've already seen some of the content on someone else's channel. Whist obviously been good rainfall, you guys have done a fantastic job turning that place around. Opening up the canopy & pigs has made a huge impact. Unexpected seeing you came off a boat, for all I knew you were city slickers . Wish I knew what your showing me when I had my property, sandy silicon riddled with onion weed. Current predictions only low 30's atm (be nice vs ~40's), but looking forward to comparing before and after in January (24). No doubt be carrying someone around by then, with bags under your eyes 👩🍼🐷🐣🐐🐶
Yes, this was filmed the same week, while Pascale cared for our new farm hand. She'll be back in the episodes soon enough. Yep, the fields will dry out, but have better cover this year. Will take a few years before we have enough carbon in the soil to stay green(ish) thru summer. Fingers crossed for a January rain. I'd like to spread patches of lucerne for summer fodder and more stock palatable trees.
@@FreeRangeLiving Congrats! (2 both) "Old Man" (dad & b/day), altho by your late gate start I was already a Nan. You've officially been bumped to 2nd place podium. Also be interesting in Jan to see comparisons re your dam engineering skills, if plenty, could always irrigate in the evenings, maybe some surfactant from the washing machine & bathroom. For dam evaporation, 30x3.66 shade cloth ~$100, on top of some old/patched car tyre tubes.
@@FreeRangeLiving "cheap(ish)" for you is prob like the apples score. If not, type heifers into Gumtree, Western Australia, +0km. There's also a Robyn in Margaret River with a wanted advert. Maybe get a better deal for 2, + cover travel delivering to her.
I’ve really enjoyed your videos from sailing and provisioning from the sea, to your approaches to farming and gardening, making use of all the produce. However!! I’m very surprised that you have essentially battery farmed the rabbits. Do they have a hutch? Do they get out onto grass and have a run? You’ve not shown them ever out if there cages ? How is that Free Range?
I am in the process of building a movable pen for the young rabbits to grow out on grass. The large females can't be put together, as they will fight until one is dead. I put them on grass and they froze, until they returned to their cage where they relaxed. They came to us in those pens and have never lived on grass, so it is foreign to them. Also, breeding rabbits are usually raised on wire, as it is hard to keep them free of parasite infestation on pasture without medicine. I've seen battery production and the poor condition of animals kept that way. Those bunnies are in excellent condition, according to our local vet who also breeds them.
11:15 I'd like to share an exception to the general rule that pigs won't touch electricity. My mother knew a farmer that had a nut tree with an electric fence around it. There was a pig that would break through that fence to get the nuts. It would run full tilt at it from some distance, start squealing in anticipation of the pain before it got to it, and just barrel right through it. After the shock wore out, it would get up and start eating nuts. They ate that pig first.
😅 Yep, sounds like an eater!
Wow, what a vast farm! I'm captivated by the way you take care of your animals.
You've both done a great job bringing that place to life and it looks superb. All the best. Hope Pascale is doing well.
Troy makes it all sound so straightforward. It all makes a lot of sense after learning it here.
Hi Troy & Pascale, interesting how you manage your pasture with the help of the pigs, they’re like mini bulldozers. And Pascale, hope everything is going well with your pregnancy, waiting to know if boy or girl. All the best to you both, take care, from the UK.
We will update every one very soon. We are still finding our feet.
YOU GUYS ROCK!!!!!!! HOPE Pascale is doing AWESOME with BABY!!!!!!! CAN'T WAIT!!!!
Pasture rotation and management using pigs to till and graze the soil.
Love the pig episodes! :-)
Troy big congrats on your baby girl!
Thanks for sharing. Pascale, I hope you are well. 💙
This video was so informative. Thank you
Outstanding hope Pascal is well
You have a very good sense of the camera- I don’t the technical words but I’m impressed at the quality of your videos.
Hey mate love the regenerative agriculture
Would love if you shared your rotation schedule for the pigs eg how many pigs per area and how quickly you rotated them
A video on your overall longterm regenerative plan would be amazing 🙏
The rotation speed changes through the year, and we now have no pigs on the block through the driest part of summer. By getting piglets started on weekly rotation just before autumn, we get the heaviest impact as the rains start and the pigs are bigger. They disturb the weed seed bank deeply in time for the best rain and the rotation speeds up as they grow. We cull in the middle of winter to take advantage of the cold, but they do well on spring growth if holding year round, mainly grazing (not digging) and moving daily.
@@FreeRangeLiving roger that thank you
Another superb video, many thanks! It's remarkable how you've used the pigs as sort of "organic rotavators", not only tilling the soil and opening it up (and fertilising it too) but also removing the things (like onion grass) that you don't want ... remarkable use of an animal I think is often maligned ... I've worked with pigs before and found them very pleasant characters, apart from when you get the big breeding Boars, who can be a tad feisty :)
We're still settling in to our new place ... my back (as always!) is playing up a lot, so progress on projects is slower than I'd like, but already, just 8 weeks in, I've completed my workshop workbench build, put flooring planks down in the loft (to allow it to be used as a storage area) and so far have completed the floor and one "long" wall of the shed I'm building for my fiancé - she's hacked out the foundations and is re-laying recycled paving slabs over sand, to act as the base/foundation for the shed, and I'm busy building the various walls and (eventually!) a felt-covered roof panel too ... the only "bought in" item is a door, which was too good, and thus too tempting, to not have, especially considering the price our local timber merchant gave it to us for. So, just the 2 short walls and other long wall to go then I can start the roof ... what was supposed to take a week is now well into Week Two and not even halfway done, but that's life, or at least it is for a cripple trying to build structures in heavy wood :)
I've also secured a small but steady supply of wooden pallets, and thus pallet planking ... they're mostly "HT" (Heat Treated, essential for recycling into useful stuff as the others can be injected with chemicals, or have toxic paint already applied to them, so using HT wood is essential for anything garden or pet related) and after a long delay we're just over 2 weeks away from taking delivery of our rescue puppy from eastern Europe! Which obviously we're super stoked about. Hope all is going well for you guys especially the imminent birth of Firstborn so hope Pascale is being looked after and doted on even better than you would treat the pigs :)
Your post is making me feel lazy! I saw a method of taking pallet timber, laying them all together on their side and clamping them into a block. This was then run through a thicknesser so they were uniform width, and perfectly straight of edge. The wood was then perfect for gluing and clamping into useful panels and table tops or forming rails and stiles.
@@FreeRangeLiving lol! You guys, lazy?! No way! I'm just toddling through my "To Do" list as best I can ... hopefully got a random orbital sander arriving shortly, plus a Makita cordless impact driver, which should help the shed building along no end ... in theory.
As for pallet wood ... it's a bit of a puzzle, TBH, or seems so to me. On the one hand it's free or super cheap (local businesses are knocking out complete, unbroken pallets for £1.50 each, which seems a rip-off when you think they got the stuff for free but then these are tough times and it is "free" wood) but on the other hand it's not great quality and needs a LOT of prep ... I don't own a thicknesser or planer (I wish!) but apparently you can chip a lot of thicknesser or planer blades or drums on hidden nails, as pallet wood is often full of them. Then there's the technique in a video I saw (while looking for building raised veg beds using pallet wood), where instead of trying to take off the "good" wood and remove nails, you simply saw the whole pallet in half (seriously, right down the middle, where there are rarely any nails) with a circular saw or plunge saw (I have the latter, a corded one) and then plonk the "loose" wooden slat ends into the earth to make sides of raised beds and just bolt across some 4x2 (other metrics are available!) over the "top" or "edge" ends, to make a raised bed in no time! I'd post the video link here but some folk get annoyed if you post links on their UA-cam channels, which I can totally understand, so hit me up if you're interested as it's the sort of thing you or I would (indeed, probably WILL in my case!) experiment with in order to build raised veg beds fast ... you're both flexible enough to not need raised beds yet but my spinal crap means it's raised for me, or nothing :)
All the best to you, Pascale and Firstborn, when s/he turns up :)
Excellent pig farming there mate
Joel Salatin calls it mob grazing, the electric fence acts as predator pressure crowding the animals so they are in competition for each mouth full, thus eating not just what tastes good but also what's good for them. undesirable/noxious vegetation are rooted or trampled by the crowding action removing their advantage. the concept was not his but has served him very well on his farm. no doubt, natural systems still have amazing things to teach us.
Allan Savory is also a very vocal advocate for this management technique, though a lot drier in his communication!
❤ you guys are awesome but you keeping us in suspense when is the baby arriving 😊
Gday Troy could you list your energiser type batteries and other electrical accessories that you use in your containment system, I like your set up and I am about to build mine, kind regards Tony
Cheers, mate, NC USA 🇺🇸
It's really interesting how you are using the "bad habits" of your animals to accomplish your goals for the land. Everything is looking good for the coming growing season.
Beautiful 😊👍
You have certainly made great use of those living rototillers Troy. Your efficiency has really paid big dividends. Any word on Pascale and the baby that you want to share ? My wife keeps asking me for status checks. Take care all of you.😉
Outstanding!
Great system.
Cheers.
Confined to a small area pigs will eat everything they can. Then all you need to do is spend a couple hours using a drag behind the tractor and you will have a mulched smooth fertilized pasture. This process just improves the pasture the more times you let it germinate and grow then turn the automatic fertilizers back on the pasture.
Hopefully the pasture can support a house cow on rotation. I imagine cow pats would have some nice insects for a pig a few weeks later as they follow.
Thanks for sharing your experience. I am venturing into pigs (american guinea hogs) on our small homestead as a way to help clear thick brush and brambles and open up the forest. I'm also trying to get a more pleasant field in front of our house by having them graze it down. I'm assuming you get a good rain before you throw seed out or do you throw seed out and eventually the rain comes and it's all good either way.
For 9 months of each year, we know that there will be at least some rain in any given week. Most seeding is spring and autumn, with an eye to which season suits the plants chosen.
FINE BUSINESS!!! CHEERS from HERE!
Awesome
Hi Troy. Awesome vid! Just watched it again to get my head around the Kiwitech stuff. I noticed at the start the pigs were in bracken. I’ve been told it’s toxic to them but wondered if you had any issues? We’ve got a fair bit at our place so have been wary of it. Thanks heaps!
In our experience, the pigs just uprooted the bracken to get to whatever was living under it. We fed them well, so they were never tempted by anything unpalatable, which I think keeps them safe. Wild pigs here certainly dig through bracken and they do very well!
Must be up to date with vids for spring, or is it last year? Some of the sailing channels are a year behind, funny when you've already seen some of the content on someone else's channel.
Whist obviously been good rainfall, you guys have done a fantastic job turning that place around. Opening up the canopy & pigs has made a huge impact. Unexpected seeing you came off a boat, for all I knew you were city slickers .
Wish I knew what your showing me when I had my property, sandy silicon riddled with onion weed.
Current predictions only low 30's atm (be nice vs ~40's), but looking forward to comparing before and after in January (24). No doubt be carrying someone around by then, with bags under your eyes 👩🍼🐷🐣🐐🐶
Yes, this was filmed the same week, while Pascale cared for our new farm hand. She'll be back in the episodes soon enough.
Yep, the fields will dry out, but have better cover this year. Will take a few years before we have enough carbon in the soil to stay green(ish) thru summer. Fingers crossed for a January rain. I'd like to spread patches of lucerne for summer fodder and more stock palatable trees.
@@FreeRangeLiving Congrats! (2 both) "Old Man" (dad & b/day), altho by your late gate start I was already a Nan. You've officially been bumped to 2nd place podium.
Also be interesting in Jan to see comparisons re your dam engineering skills, if plenty, could always irrigate in the evenings, maybe some surfactant from the washing machine & bathroom. For dam evaporation, 30x3.66 shade cloth ~$100, on top of some old/patched car tyre tubes.
Funny you mention shade cloth. I did get some from the local tip. Quite cheap(ish) indeed.
@@FreeRangeLiving Score! One mans trash. There's prob heaps balled up rotting away on horticulture properties.
I now understand why in days of old there were boar hunts and the bayonet was invented.
Do you have acorn trees for the pigs to eat the fallen fruit and what type would you recommend,
Another great video. Any big plans for the ranch with the upcoming Spring?
I hope we can get a cheap(ish) jersey heifer to sort our cream, butter and cheese needs. That's our last food items that we have to buy.
@@FreeRangeLiving "cheap(ish)" for you is prob like the apples score. If not, type heifers into Gumtree, Western Australia, +0km. There's also a Robyn in Margaret River with a wanted advert. Maybe get a better deal for 2, + cover travel delivering to her.
Had to check this post to see if u also found a stray heifer at the tip. Maybe 2moro arvo, Sundays are usually a big tip day😉
Are you feeding them while they are working the soil
I’ve really enjoyed your videos from sailing and provisioning from the sea, to your approaches to farming and gardening, making use of all the produce.
However!! I’m very surprised that you have essentially battery farmed the rabbits. Do they have a hutch? Do they get out onto grass and have a run? You’ve not shown them ever out if there cages ? How is that Free Range?
I am in the process of building a movable pen for the young rabbits to grow out on grass. The large females can't be put together, as they will fight until one is dead. I put them on grass and they froze, until they returned to their cage where they relaxed. They came to us in those pens and have never lived on grass, so it is foreign to them. Also, breeding rabbits are usually raised on wire, as it is hard to keep them free of parasite infestation on pasture without medicine. I've seen battery production and the poor condition of animals kept that way. Those bunnies are in excellent condition, according to our local vet who also breeds them.
From my experience, rabbits are escape machines.
Love your work mate, great video. How many acres would you say you're running them on year round ?
I'd say they run 7 acres. 3 blocks, divided into 4/5 cells. 7 days a cell. It's pretty flexible. I could probably run a few more, truth be told.
I was under the impression that pigs need an area to wallow us this true?
Have just come across your channel. Great . What state are you located.?
We are in Western Australia, near Manjimup
❤❤
I guess Paskie delivered. Are they ok?
Yes, thank you. We'll get an update sorted out for you all.
Troy, boy or girl? Is Pascale ok? I am hoping for the best, of course!
We will put out an update very soon for all of you wishing us well.
Congrats Daddy-o! Wishing you both all sorts of WELL!@@FreeRangeLiving
Привет из Украины, мы тоже очень любим работать на земле, но сейчас немного мешает война, удачи и терпения вам, друзья!
What is a paddock ?......why does everybody call a pigpen a paddock
Here's a link to help you learn what a paddock is:
dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/paddock