Sunday, July 15, 2012

3 little pigs and a house of straw

After talking about pigs for a long time, we have finally made the leap in the form of 3 Wessex Saddleback piglets. The day before we made the house of straw, wire and tarpaulin and i must say it's pretty cosy. Whether it will stand up to the rigours of pigs is another matter.
Almost a house of straw - straw and metal to be exact
Saddlebacks pigs as a breed are in the critical catregory. Fore example there are just over 300 registereed animals with less than 30 annual registrations of females. There is an interesting story in the Melbourne Review about this breed and Fiona, one of the champions of this breed in Australia. My pigs were sired by one of her boars.

After finding this good patch the pigs were reticent to go anywhere else.
One of my pigs will end up being a breeder while the other 2 will be consumed after having a pretty nice life on a free range pasture. They are happily routing up the ground, chomping down on blackberry stems and roots and making gentle hoggy sounds. Their large enclosure has 3 electric wires and chain link fencing to make them more secure while they are learning about electric fencing.
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2 comments:

  1. TempletonAugust 4, 2012 at 7:09 PM

    Chris,
    found your post from last year about Delta Louisa Snow Pea. I'm doing a bit of backyard pea breeding and I'm using DL as one of the parents. I picked mine up from a seller at the Castlemaine market a few years ago. I was wondering where you got it, and if you know where any of David Murray's other peas are available? I'd love to find out what the parents of DL were.

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  2. Chris Brock (under the Chestnut tree)July 10, 2014 at 1:24 PM

    Southern Cross Seedsavers have more peas from David Murray. I find DL lacks vigour for winter growing and lacks the flavour of other snopeas - if you are looking for points of improvement. But it is of course mildew resistant.

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