From grass meadow to food plots for "Hogging Down"

Hello! First post!

I am up in northern Vermont, and have been keeping idaho pasture pigs for close to two years. I'm a big fan - They are sweet, good natured animals. One of my goals for the coming years is to develop my pasture rotation strategy for them - Even though they are called "pasture pigs", I understand that they are still monogastric and need more than grass to thrive. This winter has also been a big wake-up call in terms of feed costs. These fellers can eat!

I have about 5 acres of old hayfield which has not been hayed in a few years now. My only equipment is a walk-behind lawnmower, a troy-bilt pony rototiller and an ATV with a small trailer. I would love to solicit some ideas of how to use this land to feed my hogs. I believe i have a good handle on how to fence and shelter them, but I have next to no experience with growing feed crops and throw myself on the mercy of your experience.

Thanks in advance!

For Idaho pasture pigs, I would suggest growing a perennial forage mix.

I have read that alfalfa, ladino, sweet clover, red clover, and lespedeza are legumes that may be used for swine pastures.  Some of these might be biannual.

I hope folks with experience with pasture pigs will chime in.

We plant food plots for deer so their mix is very different.

I will say that using the ATV will come in handy to make sure you get good soil contact.

Hi Dane,

Welcome to Permies.

Thank you! This is a good place to start.

Anne Miller wrote:For Idaho pasture pigs, I would suggest growing a perennial forage mix.

I have read that alfalfa, ladino, sweet clover, red clover, and lespedeza are legumes that may be used for swine pastures.  Some of these might be biannual.

I hope folks with experience with pasture pigs will chime in.

We plant food plots for deer so their mix is very different.

I will say that using the ATV will come in handy to make sure you get good soil contact.

I hope a real pig expert replies, I’ not one, but we are in a similar situation. We bought 2 IPPs this spring to experiment with. I thought they would nuke the ground and I could plant some annuals behind them as they are rotated, but so far the impact of just 2 is pretty minimal.

Easiest would be bump up the clovers by doing a heavy frost seeding next winter. We have done this with our cow pastures and it works.

We supplement ours with a grain based pig feed as well though. If you want the grains in there we had good luck establishing winter wheat for our layers and broilers with minimal fall tillage(spring tooth cultivator) and broadcast. Suppressing the existing sod by mowing and animal impact will help. The fall planted winter wheat competes again existing sod and weeds in a way no spring/summer annual can.

Daikon radishes grow fast and are high in protein my AGH love them. I generally mix several thing together in a plot like the radishes, cereal rye and purple top turnips and buckwheat but the more diverse the mix the better your odds. In this case I would use the shot gun approach and just seed lots and lots of stuff with a broadcast seeder and harrow it in using the atv and a piece of old fence or bedspring or anything that will cover it with a little dirt then drive over all of it with the tires to pack it down since you don't have a roller. Many if not most things can be accomplished with a little ingenuity and some old junk.

I've not kept pigs yet, but I have heard of people doing what Larry mentioned. Planting a bunch of root crops and letting the pigs harvest them. Of course this does not give you a nice level pasture for other animals though.

Can't speak for domesticated pigs but I have planted many acres of deer & turkey food plots with corn, winter wheat, soybeans, chuffa, & oats. The wild hogs certainly found some of the plots & chowed down. The daikon radish suggestion seems like it would be an excellent addition.