Piglet Friends & Porcupines too

Piglet Friends and Porcupines too!

On the farm this week, a couple of fun updates.

The first update is about our piglets. I took down the electric fence that had been separating the new piglets from our friend Ben at Wild Harmony Farm and the piglets that were born here, and I can share now that everything has gone well, something I was pretty concerned about: these two groups of pigs coming together. 

In the past, when I've integrated groups of piglets from different places, they always fight, and they fight pretty brutally. The older animals pick on the younger animals, and it causes a lot of stress, for both the humans and the pigs.

Ben and I talked about this as we dropped off his piglets in the field, and I told him that I harbored a secret and irrational hope that piglets from such similar farms, with pasture based organic systems, would just naturally get along. We laughed and shrugged. 

I'm happy to report that when I took down the line and checked on the group throughout the day on Friday, they really did seem to get along amazingly well. As in any herd and hierarchical animal group, there were certainly larger animals letting the smaller animals know who's the boss. 

With plenty of feeder and water space, and plenty of shade, each animal group seemed genuinely curious to meet and learn and sniff and nuzzle the others. And I saw very little true aggression, and didn't hear any of that sharp squealing from a piglet, which often means ouch, that hurts, or leave me alone. So here's to one big, happy pig family.

As I was traveling about the farm this week, I also stumbled upon this little porcupine. I couldn't quite do the moment justice with my camera, but he was patiently nibbling on the grass along the side of the path. We spent about a minute watching each other, and he showed me how he liked to nibble the grass. Thanks, porcupine.

Finally, Butter and Vinegar, the calves who we've been bottle feeding in our yard for the last two months, made some big changes this week. Lovett and I have been reducing their milk consumption to push them to develop their rumens and eat more grass, which has been working beautifully. 

On Saturday, we opened up the line dividing them from the rest of the cow herd, whom they'd been mooing at and sniffing over the line. We watched as the herd surrounded them and sniffed them and welcomed them in. It was an exciting morning. Butter and Vinegar will now begin their daily moves with the cow herd, learning to follow the leader and move from pasture to pasture, where there's always fresh grass. We'll still bring them a bottle in the afternoon for the next couple of days to help them transition. Good luck, Butter and Vinegar.

Nathan