Thursday, December 18, 2014

Piglets




At last we have our new piglets. These two are quite small, only a few weeks' old. They are the first pigs to be in our new pig area, a large grassy paddock with an electric wire running round just a little way off the ground. They have rings in their noses to stop them turning the ground into mud!

They seem to be very happy and content in their new area, although as yet they are not eating any grass! Guess they haven't figured out what it is yet. Meanwhile they are eating all the scraps we give them, and chomping down the kumara (sweet potato) which they love.

They're small, but won't stay small for long!

4 comments:

BLD in MT said...

What cute little additions to the farm! How long do you keep them before you eat them?

Cabbage Tree Farm said...

We usually raise them to about 6 months' old. Much more than that and they become too big (and heavy!) to handle easily. Also the larger the pig is the more fatty the bacon becomes - we found that with our last lot as they were about a month overdue for slaughter and we are having to trim off loads of fat from the bacon!

Liz said...

Awww cute little fellas. I think 18 weeks is about the norm for processing pigs. These ones will get big very fast. Happy Christmas Bridget hope you and your lovely family had a great day

Cabbage Tree Farm said...

Thanks Liz, Merry Xmas to you and girls also :-)