Lazy Farmer Uses Pigs to Clear Forest
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- čas přidán 12. 06. 2024
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0:00 Intro
0:38 The before
1:02 Catching the pigs
2:55 Day 4
4:00 Treasure found in the woods
5:11 a word from our sponsor
6:37 Day 7
7:05 450 lb snuggle muffin
7:54 Misconceptions about pigs
9:48 Pigs vs forest explanation
10:51 Friend's before/after
11:19 Reviewing the progress so far
13:59 Toilet area, etcetera
14:54 Infrastructure setup
18:04 A question for ya'll
19:13 We've only just begun
MORE ABOUT ME
I'm Anne of All Trades. In NASHVILLE, I have a woodworking, blacksmithing and fabrication shop, a selection of furry friends, and an organic farm. Whether you've got the knowledge, tools, time or space to do the things you've always wanted to do, everything is "figureoutable."
I became "Anne of All Trades" out of necessity. With no background in farming or making things, I wanted to learn to raise my own food, fix things when they break and build the things I need.
12 years ago I got my first pet, planted my first seed and picked up my first tool.
My goal is to learn and share traditional techniques and skills while showing my peers how to get from where they are to where they want to go, how to do the things they are passionate about, and what can be done TODAY to engage their own community and grow deep roots.
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They are also very likely to clean up your snake problem too. Add in some nesting boxes for opossums and your ticks will be drastically reduced. As ways, I'm amazed by you.
I never thought about opossum houses, I’ll do some research ;)
Wow that is amazing, can you explain what will be happening in more detail please! I am very amazed by the way your idea might be helping ❤
I recently read that the study that was used to determine how many ticks an opossum can eat in a certain timeframe was not conducted well. Apparently they isolated the opossum with only ticks to eat. They are opportunists, which is why they’ll steal your chicken eggs too! I do suggest really doing your research.
Bat houses as well!!
opossums carry Demodex mite bad news if you have dogs
For keeping the grass down along the fence line, when we had cows we used to put the electric wire a bit higher up so the animals could still graze on the grass underneath the fence, solving the problem for us. When they got a little too eager they would lean too far forward and get a shock, but they quickly became artists at getting close to the wire without touching it. Some of them would even kneel down so they could reach further. The same idea might work for you with pigs.
We bought raw woodland and our pigs are essential to our land-clearing endeavors! Behind them, we knock down trees that are still standing and either plant gardens or sow pastures for our grazers! Bonus: pasture-raised bacon 😁
Also, only the pink pigs are susceptible to sunburn. If you want a sunburn-proof pig, get berkshire or giant black ;)
I’m planning to breed with Duroc and Berkshire Semen this year, so that will definitely help a bit with future sows.
Consider installing a Screech Owl nest box. Owls eat rodents which host ticks. Rodents feed and attract pit vipers, Coyotes and Bobcats. Screech Owls have a 90% diet overlap with Copperhead snakes; mostly Deer mice and White-footed Forest mice.
It you have Briars on your property, go out on your first Crop Insurance planting day and toss Turnip seeds into your Briar patch. Sixty days later take a pail of corn out and let your hogs see what you can, lead them out and scatter the corn into the sticker patch. They will root up the briars and chew and suck the sweet liquid out of the roots. When they are done they will leave the ground ready for planting. Fluffy soil that looks like a rotor tiller has been run.
Brilliant!
Great advice.
I love what you’re doing with the pigs being able to clear your land for you. When you mention LG I used to be the President and CEO at work. Give the hardest job to the Laziest Guy and he’ll find the easiest way to do it. I wasn’t lazy, but was a very hard worker trying to figure out the right way to do it and the easiest. You should leave your goats in with the pigs to help clear it out faster, keep up the good work. I love what you’re doing.
This is a good idea! But giving how the one pig went for the new pig they might not get along great
Yup, goats will eat ANYTHING.
@@aaronburdon221 wrong. goats will eat eveything
That's what I was thinking about the goats.
Thank you for educating everyone about Pigs. They are definitely a favorite of mine. So loving, and ready for scratches and a belly rub anytime. I really miss having them. Give the Kevin's a belly rub for me!!!
So.. for the keeping grass/weeds down on fence lines: I use old asphalt roof shingles around areas that attract digging predators (chicken coops) because they don't like the nail file feeling and it works well. Otherwise I use quickcrete on a low enough profile that I can run my mower deck right over top of it. I am getting old and I am not slinging a weedeatter around.
I did this once until I was educated that asphalt AND shingles have many terrible chemicals in them that leach into the soil and stay there FOREVER. Never use these products on the soil if you want to eat food from it or where it can run off into your water.
Old timers used to use hogs to clear out a patch of ground, it doesn't take long.
That pile of limbs you have, get a chipper /shredder and make wood chips/compost out of it, don't waste it.
While they are doing their job clearing, you could walk back there once a week a with a seed spreader and start spreading grass and clover seed, the pigs can be trampling some of that seed into the soil.
The piggies will make their own mulch and I would like to see what native seeds come up with the first few rotations before intentionally seeding anything else, though if I were in more of a hurry and less curious to see what will happen naturally, I’d definitely go the route you suggested.
5:12 THIS!!! I feel the same exact way! I do things a lot like you do. I'm so incredibly thankful and happy that I found your channel. Keep on keeping on girl! You are doing AWESOME 💯
For preventing grass and weeds in the fence line, you could put old recycled shingles down under it. They will prevent weeds from growing, being black they give a better visual than red dirt and they last forever.
Buy the biggest fence charger that you can. The big chargers kill the weeds.
I put shingles along my garden fence line to make it easier to mow along. It works great.
Better help is toxic. Please don’t advertise with them.
My Dad had our pigs do that when I was growing up. Thanks for reminding me!
Do your chickens know/respect electric netting? If they get along with the pigs, they'll take care of your tick problem and help mix your pig's poop pile in with the nearby sticks-and-twigs
They are, but pigs eat chickens ;)
Yes they certainly do. Don't ask how I know. :( Do you find they can catch the chickens even with fencing like you have that chickens can slip through? Or are the chickens too afraid of the shock? And, yes, sadly, chickens don't always know when to use their flying ability. @@AnneofAllTrades
@@AnneofAllTrades I had no idea that pigs ate chicken
@@AnneofAllTrades They do? Geez.
@@AnneofAllTrades Will pigs eat small dogs like a Shih Tzu?
I run our 3 Kune Kune pigs through some woodland in a small area and it is amazing what they can clear. Absolutely desamated the brambles and nettles. The amount or rubbish they have unearthed is amazing. Bricks, plastic and metal that previous scumbag owners had dumped. They are doing a fantastic job. I keep them in a tighter space and move them on once it is clear. Grasses etc are now coming up on the areas they have cleared. Love what you are doing. PS I only need two strands of electric wire to keep them in. Under fence lines I use a deep bed of wood chip.
Love this! Great story! Here on the East side of Hawaii Island my husband employed the wild pigs to clear forest areas by luring them in with dog food. 👍👍👍👍👍
Growing up we had a small herd of highland cattle. They are much heartier than north American beef cattle and they can digest a wider variety of food. the down side to them is that they will take care of everything including foliage the size of the wild plum/cherry trees that you mentioned wanting to let grow. As they break down the smaller trees they use the stumps/ broken off pieces to groom their coats. Its amazing to see what animals are capable of.
Rock salt that melts ice in the winters on sidewalks, mixed in water, will help keep fence line clean. Sorry don't know the ratio, but I begged my brother to do this instead of using chemical weed killing crap & he reported back it works if he mixes the rock salt with water & sprays it on.
Guinea hens are absolutely hell on ticks.
Added bonus, they are hilarious.
Never knew pigs cleared property like that! I knew goats would do some work, but never pigs! Good to know!
You bet!
According to Greg Judy, if you keep your fence hot enough and never turn it off, it will cook off any shoots that come into contact - once you get it initially clear.
That makes sense that it would work, my charger obviously isn’t powerful enough.
You have some beautiful hogs there Anne. I'm convinced that the inventor of the bulldozer came up with the idea after watching pigs root.
No they started with a horse drawn scraper used for road construction and added a beam running between the horses to push earth forwards,the idea was invented when a contracting company was building a road through a swampy area and pulling a scraper into a swamp was a bad bad idea.
Piggies did a great job...but why did you not put the goats in the wooded area? I hear they are just as effective at brush clear
The goats don’t uproot the saplings, which is what I really want ;) that and they’re a little tougher to contain.
We run plastic or fiberglass posts 45 degrees from the permanent fence with a strand about knee high. Cows will reach under to graze and keep the fence clear without putting pressure on the permanent fence. May work with a 1’ high wire for shorter beasts
plant white clover under fence doesnt grow high enough to cause a problem
Oh that is SO DANG SMART! on it!
DON'T MESS WITH LUCY!!
Anne you are the best. Love watching your farm videos.
Love your videos! We've been using premier one netting for 6+ years. Weed eating is a pain. We're getting ready to run 2 sections of several nets 30 ft apart around our garden. 2 livestock guardian dogs will patrol. Keeping deer out and bear away from my bees. I just ordered 1.4 ft wide ground cloth to install under the fencing. Will pin down with landscape staples and hopefully this will end my issue with weed eating. Pray it works! Love and blessings from North Georgia
That’s a phenomenal plan!
@@AnneofAllTrades thank you! I'll let you know if it works!
If you're talking about nursery ground cloth, just be aware that lots of people have had trouble with fire ants making their home all under the cloth so much so that they've had to remove it and then try to get rid of the ants. Sorry to worry you but just something to keep a check on.
I am so happy to have found you❤ you are such an amazing teacher. Thank you so much for all you do
I’m so glad you’re here!
Informative. Subscribed!
Goats can clear brush too!
I came here looking for this comment. I don’t have experience but read goats first then the pigs
I love your videos, Anne! You are so talented and intelligent! I am going to welcome 2 wethers to my small hobby farm this summer and plan to use the stall design you shared in a video! Thank you for sharing your life and learning with us!
I just found your channel today and have been binge watching!
I have learned so much and there is much I want to try on our farm. Thank you! 🥰
I’m so glad you’re here!
Try 30% vinegar, one gallon, with a cup of table salt and 2 tablespoons of dish detergent. Works on my gravel driveway within 24 hours.
I’ll try that this week! Thank you!
@@AnneofAllTrades I usually spray it on the driveway with a pump sprayer.
@@AnneofAllTrades I use exactly the same method, you can see effects on the weeds with the hour! Cost effective weedkiller...and the smell dissipates quickly 😃😃
Awwww...... *adooooorable* pigs! They're soooo cool!
I love the spots on them!
Just got off of work and ready to watch an Anne video
Fantastic video content ! Thank you kindly for sharing .
EPIC THUMBNAIL & OF COURSE WE LOVE YOUR VIDEOS ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
You could try putting rock salt down, like pool salt, to take care of the fence line weeds. Personally, I would just let the goats and donkeys in there on a day you could keep an eye on them. (I actually have small bells on my goatie girls so I can hear them if they are out of sight and know where they are) Let them graze all they like. You could also just run a secondary 'carrier' line higher up on the wood fence so the weeds won't sap your electric.
You are my new favorite youtube 'gardener' channel! I just recently discovered your channel and I've already watched a bunch of videos I really like your smile and positivit. Great tips and tricks i've already seen and could benefit from. i'm just starting out my homestead / food forest farm from scratch. I would love to start out with two donkeys as farm companion animals.
I'm excited to see more from you and all the best, Greetings from slovenia! mediterranean europe.
Wow, thank you!
Those piggies are trying to steal some kisses from you the whole time😂❤ just found your channel and love your style and the philosophy, thank you for all the great info😊
New subscriber. I've had the same question about fence line weeds for years, and I am going to try the salt water several people mentioned!!
For 4H raised a breed called Landrace. A long side of bacon.
Pretty sure landrace means heirloom
Awesome!
I have 3 Kunekune (pets) they’re the best pets and very smart ,,, my 389 lb Lenny keeps the weeds behind the garage trimmed down very well! And yes very clean and potty trained ❤️❤️❤️
Sorry this is a little late, just seen your channel, putting wood ash down heavy under the fence should do the trick...be careful around water areas though, can cause a high acidic level in the ground water if your using a well for water. but in the woods like that you will be totally fine.
Hope that helps and great video!
That's not lazy, that's smart. Pig gets fed and you get the result without having to break a sweat. My Dad taught me "Work smart not hard.." 😁👍
Love, how u talk to your pigs. !! 😂😂😂😂
I stumbled upon this absolutely amazing, interesting video. I'm a city boy so I have no idea what you're doing and how you employ pigs to accomplish your goals. Genius, sheer genius. You seem to be a pretty amazing person.
So glad you’re here!
I've heard Greg Judy talk about how if the fence is hot enough it will keep the weeds back on it's own. Thanks for the video, I hope to pair pigs and sheep to run through the woods. Just noticed you're in the Nashville area! I'm in East TN! What breed of pigs are these?
We use salt water and spray it on weeds or around sidewalks so we don't have to weed eat as much. 😊
Did you make a video of the pond progress? thanks!
Never would have thought of pigs for that I've read and seen people use goats for scrub maintenance/removal
Goats and sheep only get what's above the ground. The awesomeness of pigs is that they not only eat what's above ground, but also dig under and clean out all the roots! Got an invasive species in your yard that you want to get rid off - permanently? Skip the goat and get a pig!
Do you get any scary giant feral hogs in your neck of the woods?
LOVE THEM!!!! Precious piggies!!!❤
I'm thinking that you might want to try letting your goats back in there. Sheep eat grass. Goats eat broadleaf plants, which is what virtually all of the plants in your "to-clear" area are. Great stuff!
With unwanted wood maybe make biochar. It can be good for the animals and soil
In regards to fence lines, I save my feed bags, fold them to the width I want with at least a few inches over lap. Then I cover them with wood chips.
@anne my wife and I absolutely love your videos! Extremely inspirational to say the least. One totally unrelated question, my wife really loves the hoodies that you wear… could you by any chance drop a link or name so we can try to get some as well? Thanks
Thick black plastic. Or 3 cups vinegar, 2 cups epsom salt and dawn dish detergent to one gallon. Worked for my grandma
there are a few birds ( turkey, guinea fowl, chickens, ducks) and of course the opossum that eat ticks. might be good to add to the pig rotation
Pigs eat birds. I have Guinea fowl, chickens and ducks, of the three, the guineas definitely eat the most ticks but they are dumb as bricks and so dang obnoxious.
@@AnneofAllTrades ohh ok. Well. Didn't know that they would eat them. I just remember seeing birds in the wild eating bugs off animals and thought hmmm ..
we run a lot of guinea fowl (40+) every year. Can confirm, obnoxious and dumb! 🤣
Use a good scythe for under fences or sickle bar mower. Scythe supply in Vermont or Maine uses good or great blade.
I'd try agriculture lyme put line under the fence. If it's cheap enough . Scythe easy to use and goes around things easy .
We have raised GOS pigs for years! They are the best hogs ever! We are in the Missouri Ozarks. If you need any quality breeding stock let us know! ☺️
Can they clear trifoliate orange? It grows in very dense thickets with large thorns. It produces a lot of oranges they could eat.
To stop the grass/weeds growing up against your bottom electric wire, get a roll of damp proof course (used in brickwork) and some landscape fabric staples and pin the damp proof course under the fence. If you get one that's 9"-12" wide vegetation wont be able to grow under the wire and ground out the fence
The wire doesn’t need to be that low. When it is a gate you use a lot can use insulated wire that you can bury so you don’t have to disconnect the electric every time you go through. I mow and string trim along 5he electric
It actually does need to be that low, because it’s what keeps the dogs from squiggling under the fence ;)
For the weeds under the fence…you can put cardboard down as a barrier and it will suffocate them and will break down over time. You can also add weed cloth or plastic under the cardboard and heavy wood chips over it. 😊
That’s what I do everywhere else, but unfortunately the fence is a mile long and the cardboard and mulch just don’t last long enough to make it worth it.
As for the grass along the electric cable at the bottom of the fence, I accidentally left a glass table top on my back lawn once. The weight of the glass combined with the hot summer sun absolutely obliterated the grass underneath! There was a noticeable bald spot for years, even after I noticed and moved the glass! Another thought, maybe some thick, wide, heavy steel plate painted black, laid on top of those areas, will clear it for you. Very interesting and informative channel I just found!
To keep growth ag bay, under the fence, i would listen to Anne of all trades, lol, and mow tight, carboard and mulch !
Around these parts, it’s been my experience that the grass overtakes the cardboard and mulch within half a season. Plus, the fence line is a mile long. That’s more cardboard and mulch than I have access to 😅
Enjoy your videos very much! I control my weeds with vinegar, salt and a little dawn. Works great for me. Do it on a sunny day!
A good way to control the weeds under your electric fence would be to lay down lengths of corrugated or flat iron.
Goat's are also very successful for cleaning wooden areas.
If you have a major problem with blackberries than a camel do the job.
A camel eat the thorns in no time.
This animal is extremely effective.
Absolutely tremendous animals
Ah yes... the fence weeding.
for your fence maybe a weedwhacker would do the trick if you're handy with it, it's my father's MO. My mom likes to spray it with herbicides, I prefer using ammonia rich liquid fertilizers (like liquid manure or fermented nettle manure) or quicklime/ash to burn the grass early in the season
OMG,the piglets got big!
Haha that happens, huh?
This is so surprising and amazing -- genuinely wondering why we do controlled burn of underbrush when we could have controlled pig-roaming?
Because that would take a little more smarts and effort than I think most counties want to employ ;)
@@AnneofAllTrades Hahaha. Touché! My intuition says that it would be safer and better environmentally, and, when you're seeing the wildfires happening year after year, I feel like we've gotta find a way to do better! Thanks for the super awesome video featuring one of my favourite animals ever! ((And, hello from Ontario, Canada!))
My Muskoka Bear Wear sweat pants salute you!
Hey! It's expensive... But maybe weed fabric with rocks over it? For the fence line??
My wife and I are soon to move to a 7 acre property to start a small homestead. How big is the area you put them in and what kind of charger do youbuse for the fence?
That bottle looks like an old Wishbone salad dressing bottle.....
I think you’re right actually. But I did run across an old still back here.
My uncle’s sows adored him and disdained the rest of us. I had pig envy.
Do you have to scour the area for poisonous plants like hemlock and white snake root first? Poison ivy probably not a problem but the others could make the pigs sick or toxic. Maybe turkeys could co exist. I used to have wild turkeys , I don’t know where they went but I have a lot of robins and no ticks from spring to late fall.
I'm told there's a lot of vinegar,Salt ,soap combination recipes that will take down stuff as ornery as poison Ivy poison, oak and so forth repeated sprays of that mixture, you can look up the recipe and choose the one that you want to safely with your critters .it'll take out the grass As well just get a compression sprayer of your choice to make it easier for yourself. I've used it with remarkable success on poison ivy at my old farm. You do have to reapply after rain.But a good foliar spray will do the trick. after a couple of days it'll brown out and be dead.
Did you have any videos on how you got them to work on the pond?
I filmed the process but the video isn’t done yet. I did talk about it in a collab video I did with Goldshaw farm though: czcams.com/video/tJ0d-01LYsc/video.htmlsi=5JGs8OnKXKbDEh2X
Would you follow up the area with goats? We always ran the electric line at the top (horses) and they grazed the fences for us.
I might, but it’s tougher to keep the goats contained back here
natural grass stop ... BOILING water ... yup boil a large kettle of water and pour it along he fence line ... it will kill the grass there ... in 3 months do it again ... also if you make a fire pit for all that scrap wood you now have a spot where you can boil that water ... if you dont want to carry a kettle ... setup a metal brake line or thin copper line along the fence line and have that fed by a bucket of boiling water... every 3 to 6 inches put a pin hole (about a finishing nail size in the top of the line ... as the water boils it will run down the lien and fill the pipe and leak out the holes dripping boiling water along the fence you can either run the pipe in a loop back to the boiler (hot off the top return to the bottom) and then you always have hot water in the line ... it also makes for a great hog house warmer in winter ... without the holes of course ...
So cool
When you said “boy howdy” all I thought was where’s that donkey 🫏 😂 I love that name!
The first time I saw him, I said Howdy! And he looked right at me. So that was that.
*Anne, a great video... How to clear the land.... use pigs 🙂.*
you can try using gravel or stones as mulch and put them below your electric fench. Grass cant grow under gravel mulch. make it wide probably 16 inches. dig out some earth under your electric fench if you have to in order to place the gravel stones nicely.
Unfortunately the fence is a mile long and we have creeping grass species like Bermuda grass that don’t care about gravel or mulch, I’d tried both and it was overgrown in a matter of weeks, but my next attempt is killing the surrounding grass with a concentrated vinegar spray and then replanting with clover which only gets 3” tall. Fingers crossed it works!
Pigs and goats here. The pigs aren't great at dealing with brush, but they won't strip bark and kill trees like goats will.
Is there a reason you don't have goats on the same area as the pigs?
Here in Texas a lot of people spray their fence lines with diesel.
Hmmm... could you use the same method under the fence, as you use in the garden pathways? - covering the grass with cardboard + wood chips?
A thought I’ve absolutely had, but the fence is a mile long. Slightly more than an afternoon of work and would require significantly more materials than I have available. And unfortunately, the cardboard and mulch only last a year here so it would have to be redone every year. I’m hoping to find a lazier solution ;)
@@AnneofAllTrades I see... I'm also thinking of planting ground covering plants? or digging a ditch ? but they aren't the lazy kind of solutions :) Hope you'll figure it out :) And thanks for the great content btw!
@@entirely_naturally others have offered the idea of soap and vinegar to kill the plants then replace with low growing clover. That’s what I’m doing at the moment.
@@AnneofAllTrades all right! Best of luck 🤞 keep us updated:)
Try vinegar and salt mixed together.
Where do goats come in? Would they be next? Then the poultry?
We used pvc soffet to create chicken tunnels along our fence line. It gives your fence a cool white base and they eat all the weeds growing along the bottom.
Would love to see a picture or video of this
Gloucester old spot and Middlewhite?
Actually not lazy just smart.
Can't wait to get me some piggies.....June will not come soon enough for the move to the homestead.
I was a park ranger and im fully aware of invasive plant species and animals and my property has undergone a huge transformation from adding native plant species and removing invasives; the change has been so dramatic it brought in birds and animals that are native to my area. What was once a typical common invasive bird spot and no other animals, now has insects, birds, reptiles, and many animals I didnt even know where here.
That’s the way we should transform the planet during our time here!
Yes they have two have a mud hole
Multiple layers of weed fabric covered by mulch with newspaper laid first against the soil.
Do you have any trifoliate oranges on your property? I have several acres of them and would love to find an animal that could clear those horrible invasives.
Only ones I’ve planted and keep contained. Lots of other spikey vines around though.
I've been thinking of adding pigs to the homestead, how do your pigs and LGD's interact?
They don’t really interact much but they are totally cool with one another. My friend Kate’s dogs are fantastic with her pigs and piglets