Small Farm New Math: If (Chicken Tractor), Then (Pig Plow)
A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO, on a sunny early-December morning, I drove to Sedro Woolley, a small town in beautiful farm country, nestled snugly at the foot of the Cascade Mountains north of Seattle. I visited a lovely organic farm, on a mission to buy some Tamworth pigs to add to the two we’ve been raising this year. Normally I wouldn’t have been buying pigs at that time of year, but these were being offered at such a good price that I made the trip without a second thought. The eleven-week-old pigs were bigger than I expected. It was a challenge getting the three of them into the two dog carriers I had brought, but finally they were tucked in and settled for the three-hour drive. Once we were on the road, the three little pigs slept pretty much all the way home.
The previous year, we had decided to diversify our small farm by adding two pigs. Although I had read extensively on the subject, I felt just about as ignorant as I had prior to starting with poultry. I was also excited, though; it was something new and different.
I had heard that the Tamworth breed was particularly noted for its rooting ability. Never having been in close proximity to pigs, other than at a county fair and the grocery-store meat section, I had only a hazy idea of what “rooting” actually meant in real life. Well, as far as the Tamworth is concerned, it means they will plow up pretty much everything within reach of their sharp little hooves and long strong snouts. Our first two Tamworth weaners were seven weeks old when we got them; we were amazed to see how quickly and efficiently such little pigs turned a grassy pasture into loose soil.
We haven’t had our rototiller out of the shed since.
You might be wondering what pigs have to do with poultry. Well, as I said, our first motivation in getting pigs was to diversify our farm operations. I also love to cure prosciutto, pancetta, bacon and other pork products, and in our area, there are limited choices in commercially available pork. We figured, chicken tractors are great, so why not pig plows?
David and I decided that, since these pigs wanted to root all day long, by golly, we’d put them to work doing what they love. The sizable area to the east of our main house, between the shooting range and the peat bog, is six or seven feet deep in reed canary grass in the summer. It is also the largest plot on our property that could potentially be turned into good pasture. With a high water table, it is essentially self-watering. It’s flat, gets good sun in summer and, unlike most of our 40 acres, has no trees. As we watched the piglets happily tossing large clumps of sod in the air, the wheels started turning. What if we could transform this previously unused acre into prime grazing land?
We had just moved our two older pigs off this area, as it was fairly wet down there after all the rain and snow around that time. They had done their job beautifully, though, rooting and leaving behind an expanse of thoroughly tilled, peat-rich soil; all it needs is a bit of leveling, and it will be ready to plant. With the high water table, I will probably opt to plant ladino clover and possibly timothy, both crops that can deal with having wet feet some of the time. We are looking forward to seeing that field transformed into lush pasture over the next season or two.
In the meantime, the pigs are happily plowing up their new yard. The three little pigs (I know, I know) are in a separate yard temporarily, while we train them on the electric fence. They also are enthusiastically rooting and grazing. They all look happy and healthy, and appear to be enjoying their typical routine: Eating, rooting, grazing and napping.
Such is the cycle of Tamworth life. We did the math, and we like the results.