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Pigs

01/15/2012

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I urge you to read the "retirement notice" posted on The Tiny Texas Ranch's web page, "Large Black Hogs." Why? Because Kay explains why Ken and Kay are retiring.

Nap time with Ken and Big Black Sally
_In this "recession" economy, the work we've all done to bring your "sustainable agriculture" is being undone. Small farmers are facing greater than ever challenges. As Kay said in her retirement message, the cost of feed has jumped as well making pig farming on the sustainable farm scale challenging at best. _Here at the 3-Bell Ranch, we're facing a 30% increase in our irrigation fees. For this ranch, that means we need to come up with another grand to maintain our current irrigable acreage. In 2008, when the price of diesel jumped to $4/ gallon, this entire valley dropped to its knees. Getting to town was the cost of a gallon of fuel.

Your dollars are pushed and pulled in every direction. And with your stretched dollars you must make decisions about who gets what dollar more carefully than ever. But if you value food produced by farmers who genuinely care about the sustainability of their land and their animals, find a farmer ... or two... or three... and support them by buying the labors of their gift to us: real food grown on real ground with real fertilizer.
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Pig Wrangling, 101

12/05/2009

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There is a nasty hill,  here on The 3-Bell Ranch range. It's too steep for the tractor to go up or down (without giving me cardiac arrest), and it's got a few dozen old apple tree root stock sprouts that require constant weed-wacking or pruning. And I'm "over it." I decided the best thing to do would be to fence the hill and turn it over to pigs. After a bit of research, I determined to get either Kune-Kune pigs or Tamworth pigs. A young Tamworth gilt showed up at an affordable price, and so I made the trip to Rochester, WA and came home with a lovely little red pig.
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Horses must have a genetic history of pig wars. To a one, the entire herd unraveled at the introduction of Izzy to our land. Ellie was the first to decide that there was nothing to fear but fear itself. Stormy is the last one to come around.

They study my pig-training sessions and find it a most mesmerizing experience.
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I heard years ago that pigs are smarter than dogs. They were being used in Seeing Eye as guide-animals and did better than dogs. One can see that pigs think about The Big Picture. They don't get weighted down with the petty details; rather they go for the point of the exercise.

So far, Izzy is learning to come when called, heel, sit, stay, circle left and circle right. She is not yet able to do these on voice command alone, but does each of these things with the aid of the "target" (my "carrot stick" with a plastic bag fastened onto the tip), a clicker, and little chunks of bread.
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