# Pigs for stump removal.



## Sour Kraut Farm (Sep 26, 2012)

We recently had about 10 acres of small pines cleared and now are left with lots of stumps. I've read some that pigs will help root those stumps out, especially if you put salt on the stumps. I have 2 questions about this. 1. Has anyone done this or have experience with it? 2. What would be the best breed of pig for this?


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## gerold (Jul 18, 2011)

Sour Kraut Farm said:


> We recently had about 10 acres of small pines cleared and now are left with lots of stumps. I've read some that pigs will help root those stumps out, especially if you put salt on the stumps. I have 2 questions about this. 1. Has anyone done this or have experience with it? 2. What would be the best breed of pig for this?


Be a lot cheaper to have someone come in and remove them. 
I have pigs in parts of my woods. They haven't rooted out any stumps yet.
Salt is not a good idea. It doesn't take much salt to kill a pig.


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

I do not find that pigs are anywhere near as active at stump removal as I have heard claimed. Our pigs should be very well motivated, they are pastured and don't get candy (e.g., commercial hog feed grain diet). Yet they would rather eat the clover and other forages than mess with the stumps. After the stumps have rotted for half a decade and have some good grubs in them I do see them begin to work the stumps but it takes about a decade for them to really clear them out.

As to breed, most of our herds (~400 pigs) are primarily Yorkshire with some Large Black, Berkshire, Tamworth, etc in them. We also have or now have pure bred Berkshire, Large Black and Tamworth and none of them showed any greater inclination to stump removal. They graze, they go for the easy forages on the top.

Drilling in molasses, salt and corn - each tried - does not seem to make any difference.

Cutting the stumps low to the ground, keeping them moist, dumping on some manure do help with rotting. I've yet to try mushroom plugs - that is an idea to look into.

I leave the stumps in the ground so as to keep the nutrients. The livestock graze around it. I'm not trying to make corn fields - our land is too steep. We have clear cut about 70 acres which we're gradually turning into pastures. Grazing works. Slower than a bulldozer but a lot quieter and it keeps the land better.

Cheers,

-Walter Jeffries
Sugar Mountain Farm
Pastured Pigs, Sheep & Kids
in the mountains of Vermont
Sugar Mountain Farm | All Natural Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids in the mountains of Vermont


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## Sour Kraut Farm (Sep 26, 2012)

Thanks Walter. We would like to turn the clearing into part pasture and part blueberry operation. We were wondering if we kept the stumps low, and brush cut down with a bush hog, if the pasture would come on its own. We are going to start chickens on there next year, but wanted to start the blueberries next fall too. 

My 3 concerns with leaving the stumps are 1. Can we plant blueberries around them, 2. We obviously can drill seed with them, so will the pastures come on their own? and 3. We need to put a road through the field to get to our house lot, will laying crushed stone over them be ok, if we fill in the holes as they rot with more stone.

We had a man stop by and quote us $5K to grind the stumps, but we don't want to spend that kind of money right now, as we're planning to build a new home.


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

I find that our pigs love blueberry bushes so fence carefully. They also devour blackberry canes, raspberry canes, thistles and burdock. They must have tough tongues and lips. What we are doing is putting fence lines that are parallel to each other about 4' to 6' apart between paddocks. In these narrow lanes we grow fruit trees, nut trees, bushes and such to provide late fall forages in the form of drops. The fence lines are high enough to allow little pigs as well as chickens, ducks and geese to creep in the lanes to get first pick on drops and lush growth.

Our blueberries have grown fine around the stumps. If you want the stumps to go faster, put dirt, manure and water on them. Most of all, patience.

For the road, do remove stumps as you want to get a very good base with no rotting organic material in it. I would suggest digging down, putting in large stone, smaller stone, gravel and hard pack a.k.a. staymat also called inch and a half minus - stone with the fines. This packs down hard after a bit of driving. Big trucks driving on it help a lot. Be sure to crown or slope the road, have ditches and good culverts as needed.

I would not waste the $5K on stump grinding. For that you can build a house. Our cottage cost $7K to build and I could do it for less. Cottage | Sugar Mountain Farm

Cheers,

-Walter


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## Sour Kraut Farm (Sep 26, 2012)

Again, thank you for the info Walter.


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## gerold (Jul 18, 2011)

gerold said:


> Be a lot cheaper to have someone come in and remove them.
> I have pigs in parts of my woods. They haven't rooted out any stumps yet.
> Salt is not a good idea. It doesn't take much salt to kill a pig.


I have roads all over my farm. A road in woods is ok if you can go around some of the tree stumps. Cut as close to the ground as you can. If the pine stumps aren't to big you can plow them out with a bottom plow if you have a tractor. I have roads where i have cut pine trees out. The pine stump cut close to the ground will rot out in a few years. Oaks takes a bit longer to rot out. I have put gravel over small pine stumps. If stump is under 5 inches most times it will fill in as it rots otherwise just put a bit of gravel in the hole.
The big problem with stumps while bush hogging is trying to cut to close to the ground and sharing the pin. I have to carry a couple extra pins when bush hogging. I tried drilling a hole in some of the stumps to try and hurry the process. Forget it. Not worth the trouble. Good to sow a mix of grass in the pasture that will grow good summer and winter. Here in S.E.Mo. Orchard grass 20%, tall Fescue 50%, white Clover 10 %, perennial Ryegrass 20%.
I use about 25-30 lbs. of the above mix of grasses per/acre.


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## 65284 (Sep 17, 2003)

Many years ago, when I was a youngster, an old timer in our area used to remove stumps by driving a steel rod about 1 1/2" in diameter a foot or so into the ground about every 18 inches around the roots, wiggle it to make a hole, then filled it with corn and tamp. The hogs would root out the corn and expose more of the roots, he repeated this until he could pull the stump with his team of Belgians.


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

Too much work when you have 70 acres of stumps. Easier just to let them rot in place.


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## lonelytree (Feb 28, 2008)

Buy a used stump grinder. Learn how to use it on your project. Advertise on craigslist and do other peoples stumps for a fee. Added income and you get low budget grinding. Remember to charge enough to make money after maintenance, fuel, etc.....


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## downsized (Aug 28, 2012)

Your stumps are carbon, find sources of nitrogen to speed composting. You want a 30 carbon to 1 nitrogen ratio for composting. Here is a page with information on sources of nitrogen: Sources of Nitrogen for Organic Farms

If you start throwing fresh grass clippings on it, straight manure (especially bird), blood/fish meal... once you get the composting started well, the bugs will have at it and then pigs might have a go at it going for the bugs.


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