vermi=pigs

From the title you may have guessed that I'm talking about pigs eating worms. Some people make worm meal and feed it to animals but that requires work and machines. The method I am going to talk about is far more basic but more cost effective.

So you spread your compost (in my case sheep/cow manure) 1 foot deep in rows say 10 feet wide. After worms have colonized it you move your pig paddock onto the area and they eat there fill of worms. You can use the same compost a few times.

Now I know what your thinking "parasitic worms" Yes there are p. worms in it but you can control the worms in your pigs through diet. Give them lots of fresh green alfalfa, bean leaves, or legumes of any kind and not too much starch. The p. worms feed on starch and they hate complex plant proteins. You may also want to make available some different kinds of tree leaves which the pigs will browse on in order to kill the worms.

So on my farm the feed cycle goes from plants to sheep to pigs ducks and chicks and back to plants.

Our pigs, and chickens, love worms. They find lots in deep bedding composting packs in the winter. Even though it may be -25°F here the compost's warmth helps worms stay active through the winter. More so, of course, in the warmer months.

The main thing that limites my worms is wet manure, it is so wet in Puebla in the summer unless I cover the manure the worms will mostly die.

Mixing bulking agents in with the manure makes it better compost and better vermiculture. Tree branches, brush, straw, hay, wood chips...