Expanding Pasture Song Farm

Summer has been busy, busy, busy for us on the farm. We started leasing land on a new property mid-spring, which enabled us to double our pork production. In addition to managing and feeding twice as many pigs, the land had zero infrastructure, so we were starting from scratch. We had to install fencing and build the pigs' portable infrastructure, as well as prepare, fertilize, and plant formerly fallow fields.

Digging holes...

Finishing up the fence

Starting from scratch has its advantages. I'd take an open, unfenced field over an old, degrading fence any day. We were able to set-up our main pig field exactly as we wanted, with the type of fencing we prefer. We ended up making a big rectangle, with a dividing fence down the middle, using three strands of 16 gauge hi tensile wire, and as few posts as possible.

Jeremy got sick of taking so many trips with this little tractor, so he strung it all together...

Most of the fields have been fallow (aka growing weeds) for a couple years. This has led to some tenacious stands of Canadian thistle growing. The soil is relatively low in major nutrients. We're working on regenerating the land by establishing cover crops, chisel plowing, fertilizing, and most importantly (in my opinion) using animal impact as much as possible. We planted oats and peas in the pig field early spring, and the hogs have done an amazing job trampling, incorporating, and munching all that biomass. After they go through an area, they've both mulched and fertilized the paddock, which is just what this land needs.

Here is one group of hogs, grazing mature oats. In the front is a newly established summer forage crop

We plan on growing grain crops for our hogs on the lower fields, and to prepare we've tilled, fertilized, and cover cropped them. This helps smother weeds, and get nutrient cycling going.

Lack of infrastructure means hauling water to the pigs...

Perfecta-ing a field for a cover crop

Fall looks like it's going to be busy too. We plan on experimenting with planting one field  to a "succotash" grain blend, which is a mixture of small grains and peas. The idea is to grow a complete feed all in one field. There are plenty of challenges with this, but we'll see if we can get them worked out. Another field we'll get planted to a leguminous cover crop, to prepare it for corn next summer. We also have a whole lot of pumpkin plants getting big, so, if all goes well, we'll be harvesting pumpkins in our free time.

Fresh pork will be available in a week, and more pork to come this fall. Stay tuned!

Buckwheat cover crop: fast growing, phosphorus scavenger, and pollinators go crazy over it in bloom