Pig Moving Day
25th January 2009 | Southlands Farm News
The pigs that “don’t rootle” have made such a thorough job of rotovating their bit of the field that we had to give them something new to go at. To this end we fenced one of the young tree plantings on the farm, it’s really very picturesque being on a hillside with a belt of mature conifers straddling a stream where they can wallow and drink.
A good deal of thought went into the planning of how to get the pigs from their old spot to their new paradise, which would involve crossing three fields and negotiating the Dexters for the first time. Plan A was to rise early and go out armed with a ratchet strap and a board, and then creep up on them whilst they were still asleep, then place the board over the doorway and fasten the ratchet strap around their house and tow the house to it’s new plot.
Plan A didn’t work, by the time I had removed the post basher from the back of the tractor the world was awake, including the pigs. Plan B was to feed them and wait for them to settle down for a nap, but they don’t take naps on Saturdays. So with no further plans to fall back on, I decided to lead them with a bucket of feed.
Now, we have tried this in the past with the girls and it hasn’t worked, they are just not that cooperative. The boar on the other hand has only two things on his mind and the first is food, so he followed no bother, what surprised me is that the girls also have two track minds but in reverse order, so they followed the boar. Thus we wound our way through the fields and cows to their new abode without incident, I followed later with their house and they are now very happily ensconced.
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