May 8
Sunbathing pigs
Posted in Organic Farming Livestock Baby Animals Farming Techniques , The Weather by David Wilson
Animal welfare rates very highly with an organic system. The pigs, for example, have to be kept outside and here at Home Farm they are given plenty of space for grazing. On a sunny day they really enjoy lying out in the sunshine and sunbathing. Pigs are intelligent animals and if they are not able to fulfil their instinctive desires then they tend to go stir-crazy!
OUR HAPPY PIGS
If it gets hot they wallow in the mud which prevents them from getting sunburnt. Pigs don't sweat so this is a great way for them to keep cool. If you look in the summer when the grass is growing, sows will eat a surprising amount of grass.
All our feed is organically produced. For the pigs, the food is brought in from an organic livestock manufacturer which is expensive. Part of the reason organic food is more costly is you are keeping fewer animals to the acre, the cereals yield less so are therefore worth more money. Rearing costs are also higher. It's important to connect people with what they are buying as it helps them to understand where their money is going.
