# Will pigs kill forest trees?



## raymilosh (Jan 12, 2005)

Hi all
We raised 3 pigs in a 1 acre paddock. It was about 1/3 field and 2/3 forested.
We fed the pigs restaurant scraps every day or three.
They tore up the field like nobody's business. It looks like they spent relatively little time rooting in the woods and didn't go down into the soio, but rather nosed around under the leaves.
We're considering fencing in about 25'x125' as a permanent "pen for raising 3 or so pigs every year. It is mostly forested.

I don't want them to damage or kill the trees.
I have heard people say it's OK ot raise them in the woods and that they'll do the trees good. I've also seen how they root up the soil in the fields and think they'd do the same in the woods if that's all the land they had access to.

Does anyone raise pigs in a forested paddock? For how long? Are the trees OK? Under what circumstances would the trees be more likely to be damaged? Is it better to just give them a paddock out in the field?

ray


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

I would institute intensive managed rotational grazing whether they are in pasture, brush or trees. I get much better results this way than just letting them wander. This way they graze.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
Pastured Pigs, Sheep & Kids
in the mountains of Vermont
Read about our on-farm butcher shop project:
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/butchershop
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/csa


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## HeritagePigs (Aug 11, 2009)

Walter has it right. Create several paddocks so that you can move the hogs frequently and they won't kill the trees. The idea is to let them eat the surface forage and forbs, root around a bit and then move on. By doing this you can turn an overgrown mess of woods into a nice open forest where you can then go in and manage the trees. The hogs will eat most of the small weeds and bushes; their rooting will stir up the leaf cover and allow light and air into the soil. You can also cut down any trees that need to be removed; the hogs will love the leaves. When most of the forage is gone, it's time to move them. They will kill some small saplings, but if your forest is like the typical (no natural fires to renew it), then it probably needs clearing.

If you can make the paddocks so that they also contain some pasture, all the better.

The only caution I have is to be careful if you have any poisonous mushrooms growing there. Check with your county extension agent to learn what grows when; keep the pigs out while the bad mushrooms are there. We haven't lost a pig yet, but have lost several goats before we learned of this risk.


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

In the past our paddocks were primarily pasture with patches of regen, small trees/saplings and some brush. This was excellent for the pigs.

They tend to uproot the brush and turn those areas into grass/glover pasture.

In the regen they kill the smaller trees but stuff over several inches thick they root around and leave the small trees clearing out below them so it is walkable to their height.

If they pick a tree as a rubbing post they'll kill it. Even a big tree. If you disagree with them you need to fence to explain it. Otherwise let them do it and cut the tree high for firewood after it dries standing. The stump will last five or ten years depending on size.

If you really want to kill off the regen and such get goats and sheep in there too. Sheep are much harder on small trees than pigs. I have read that goats are even more aggressive at detreeing an area.

Once it is pasture, if you do the rotation thing, the pigs tend to graze rather than dig.

Mushrooms is an interesting question. I love mushrooms but don't harvest my own as I don't know enough about them. The pigs eat mushrooms growing on the stumps and we never seem to have lost a pig from poisoning so perhaps they can taste or smell which ones are poisonous. Poisons tend to have a bad flavor - it is the organism saying, "don't eat me!"

This past year we cleared more forest which long ago had been fields. We just got done fencing about a mile and a half of outside perimeter and are now doing interior divisions. When clearing we left shade trees in all the areas and when fencing I'm leaving access to woods all the way around the perimeter so the animals can get shade. There is a lot of old dead wood from the ice storm of 1998 and the pigs are loving digging through those areas. We lost 150 acres of sugar maples plus some of spruce. Good to see them making good use of those downed rotted trees. I imagine they are full of grubs.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
Pastured Pigs, Sheep & Kids
in the mountains of Vermont
Read about our on-farm butcher shop project:
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/butchershop
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/csa


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