Well today I am back working on the farm. I have so much to do but I feel like I want to be doing them all at the same time. I was looking on the local Country Store website while at work yesterday when I noticed an 8 door hog feeder for sale. I have been looking for used stuff like this all the time but never come upon it. Brenham is not a huge pig raising town, I think there is one guy that actually raises pretty much all the pigs for 5 surrounding counties. These are show pigs though. Anyway, I called the guy and he said he would take $75.00 for it. I had no idea what it looked like and he made it out to be old and real used, but we need it out here.
So when I got off this morning, I drove home, tended the animals, then headed to his house. It was a bit farther than I thought but I was excited about this. Well I got to his house and there it was. The prettiest 8 door hog feeder one had ever seen. It was old but this fellow had pretty much redid the whole thing. I mean, it almost is too good looking to put out with them hogs. So I bought it and now I want my pigs to eat out of it.
"What a beauty"The problem though is that I have my 3 feeder pigs mixed in with my 2 breeder pigs. So each and every night, these 5 go at it when it is time to eat. They don't hurt each other but they sure do like to push on one another and make terrible noises. So already knowing this, I don't want to put this in with them yet. This hog feeder holds a couple hundred pounds of food in it so that the hogs can eat when they like. This is good for feeder pigs but I don't need my 300 pound breeder pigs to sit and eat themselves full each day. So now I am going to start on another 08 farm project: getting the new pig area built.
I use nothing but high tensile wire for our animals except for some of the perimeter fencing that was put up earlier. So today I spent most of the day planning where I want the pigs to be and getting my lines ready. This means mowing and lots of weed eating. I feel like I have been weed eating all day, wait, I have been. None the less, it is done so tomorrow I get to start setting my posts and putting the fence up. I have run so much electrical fence out here in the last 6 months that once I get to this stage, I am a pro. After staking it out, I feel the area will be about 10 acres +- with half being pasture and the other being wooded areas. This part of our pasture is in the worst shape. Very sandy, rough (I can't get a tractor in to mow), and very poor grasses. There are several dry creek bottoms and tons of acorn trees. I'm hoping that by rotating the pigs around this area, they will till up most of the junk and help fertilize the area with their natural goodness. Then I can come behind them and plant much better grasses for them. Then by having the acorn trees all over, this will be great for finishing them off come Oct. and Nov.
Guess the rabbit hid too long. (mower got him)View of the new pig areas:
Dry Creek Bottoms
Can you spot my dog Rowdy? (Its like wheres Waldo)Nothing too exciting but I will keep progress pictures coming. I am off for 5 days so hopefully I can rock and roll through this.
4 comments:
Great stuff but couldn't find Rowdy.
Js Dad
Waiting for the rest of the Egg story?
I found Rowdy!! He's below the top left corner. I'd have to say that is the prettiest 8 hog feeder I've ever seen. ( and the only one I've ever seen!) Can't wait to come out and see all the progress.
David
Hi Jason,
Great post and pictures, as always.
Also, great deal on the feeder! I keep our Berkshire boar and two barrows in one area by themselves with a 2 hole feeder, and they do bounce it around. However, I strapped it to a couple of tress so they can't really move it. Perhaps that will work for you?
We try to keep all our pigs in the woods with a little bit of pasture. In a few weeks, we're rotating the 6 (soon to be) Berkshire sows to a separate wooded area that is about 6 acres. We'll divide it into several (6-10) paddocks, and rotate them through them every couple of months or so. You don't need to worry about mowing any weeds other than those that touch your fence line. Believe me, they will eviscerate anything that grows. All your privet, weeds, etc. (even downed trees) will get chewed up.
Keep us posted.
Tim
Nature's Harmony Farm
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