bedding - and why farmers have landrovers
We needed to get the boys more bedding which meant a few bales of straw were in order. We could have gone to a pet shop or farm supply shop to buy bags of the stuff, but thats really meant for people who keep tiny guinea pigs or a few rabbits, not two cheeky piglets, so we figured we'd be better going direct to a farmer and buying in bulk. Even though pigs only need their bedding changing every 3 to 4 weeks, they're still going to get through it.
Using our local contacts we got the name of a farmer who's just outside our village and pitched up on a saturday afternooon with some cash in hand having no idea what the going rate for straw is these days.
Our farmer was so friendly and helpful! He was interested to hear about our home pig experiment and showed us his shed full of young calves who licked our hands and generally looked very cute. He explained that the modern havesters don't produce the small straw bales anymore, they produce really big ones - like about 4m long! But he was more than happy to saw off a small piece from the end for us, and only charge us £5 for it.
It looked pretty small as this pile of straw fell to the ground amongst the towering bales in the barn - with the farmers young daughter climbing all over them! Didn't look so small when it came to stuffing it into the back of our rather small hatchback. We just manged to get the boot shut but the car still has bits of straw dangling from the roof and covering the floor a week later.
This is why proper farmers and smallholders have proper vehicals, like landrovers, which look like they are meant to be covered in straw. Here's Sam with the biggest bit of the straw ready to go down to the shed, we also filled up a large crate with all the straggly bits that had come loose!
Using our local contacts we got the name of a farmer who's just outside our village and pitched up on a saturday afternooon with some cash in hand having no idea what the going rate for straw is these days.
Our farmer was so friendly and helpful! He was interested to hear about our home pig experiment and showed us his shed full of young calves who licked our hands and generally looked very cute. He explained that the modern havesters don't produce the small straw bales anymore, they produce really big ones - like about 4m long! But he was more than happy to saw off a small piece from the end for us, and only charge us £5 for it.
It looked pretty small as this pile of straw fell to the ground amongst the towering bales in the barn - with the farmers young daughter climbing all over them! Didn't look so small when it came to stuffing it into the back of our rather small hatchback. We just manged to get the boot shut but the car still has bits of straw dangling from the roof and covering the floor a week later.
This is why proper farmers and smallholders have proper vehicals, like landrovers, which look like they are meant to be covered in straw. Here's Sam with the biggest bit of the straw ready to go down to the shed, we also filled up a large crate with all the straggly bits that had come loose!
3 Comments:
Hi Charlie,
The son and heir will be eating his heart out over your web site. He got an iou from his girlfriend for a piglet and he wants to do exactly what you're doing. Do you know Hugh Fernley Whittingstall does pig butchering courses? One of our parents went on one. Great to see the blog, tell Val we wrote
xx
Next time, possibly get a boar & a gilt? Fatten boar up for pork (60kg?) then fatten up gilt for bacon (100+kg)? We were told that there's a 'boar taint' if they're taken on too long, but the gilts don't get it. No experience on that.
Will look up my pig rearing notes B4 I C U.
Regards, Dave
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