Monthly Archives: December 2023

Pigs

Pig Ark Build

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The pig arcs have taken a battering, the group of delinquent teenagers have taken to chewing along the bottom of the plywood ark and a couple of the sows have pushed the back out of one of the tin arks. To be fair the tin ark is fairly old so not unreasonable it needs a bit of TLC. I can’t get the arks out of the field and back to the barn without trashing ground so I’m going to build a new ark for Tammy who should farrow mid Jan. I’ll pull the old ones out when the ground is dry or frozen and repair them back in the barn. You can never have too many arks!

Do I build a tin ark or a wooden one? The tin ones are quicker to build and do last, but I think the wooden ones are better for farrowing as the piglets can get into a corner and won’t get squashed when the sow flops down. I have a design that I’ve used since we first keep pigs. I found in on the web and would credit the author if knew who they are. It’s a good plan that anyone can follow and build a decent ark.

Pigs, Sheep, Weather

Short Days and Plenty To Do

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It’s been fairly quiet for a change. The tups went in at the start of October, Spot farrowed and the odd tree fell over in the October storm. It was the rain that caused most hassle in the Autumn, we had our highest October rainfall and November was above average as well. The pasture has stood up pretty well but the pig paddocks cut up quickly and in no time turned into mud soup.

Now we’re into winter the days are short, no sooner is lunch over and we need to crack on with the afternoon jobs before it’s dark. Several groups of sheep need hay plus a little cake for the ewes, then onto feeding the 4 groups of pigs and not forgetting that the dogs need a walk as well. After that there’s not much time to do anything else outside. While the ground is sodden I should be repairing fences, it’s a lot easier to bash the posts in when the ground is soft.