Rain, Grass and Markets

Last post I asked for a bit more rain......well we got it. We have had some really lovely rain - not as much as some, but plenty for us! The place is looking so green and the grass is just growing so well in this heat.

This is some of the new development and has only had pigs in it for a while. It was originally fairly lightly grassed, but has come back a richer green colour.

Leauceana looking very lush - this is what makes our beef tasty and tender.

Our original pig farm was on approximately 18 hectares and surrounded our house. It comprised 21 separate paddocks with some smaller paddocks that we used as farrowing paddocks. The external fencing is ring lock and the internal fencing is electric.

Last year we underwent a significant development program and set up a whole new area for pigs. Pigs are very harsh on the land, mainly around their watering points and wallows. They also deposit an incredible about of poo. This is fantastic fertiliser and to make the best use of this, we need to give the paddocks a spell and the graze other animals in them.

One particular section has had goats and sheep in for the last few weeks before it rained. We were running very low on grass and were madly trying to finish a new section of ring lock fencing to move these animals into, so we had them in here as there was timber that we could cut down to feed them on.  The internal electric fence had been turned off and the goats soon knocked the wires off the insulators etc, so we decided to pull out the internal fencing - we've called it un-fencing.

We may stick rake this paddock as it looks a little untidy, and then plant some sort of forage crop. This will use up some of the fertility that has built up over the years, and also even out some of the bare areas.  We'll gradually do this with all the old pig paddocks.

Pigs are quite harsh on country - they need to have a wallow and they take a long time to recover.

We will leave strainer posts in, just take out the steel posts and wire and if we decide to run pigs back in there in about 4 or 5 years, we can just redo the electric fencing.

Some fences yet to be pulled out. You can see why we need to renovate the paddocks - there's a few bare areas.

Some new wearers just put into a new paddock. We keep them in a large pen for about 1-2 weeks and then let them out into the paddock proper. They were very excited to see this grass!

Before I finish up this post, I must remind you that we have the markets this weekend in:

• Yeppoon - Community Markets at the Showgrounds 
• Rockhampton - Kern Arcade Carpark Markets 

We will have Pastured Pork, Lovely free range Lamb, Gorgeous grassfed (and finished) Goat (Rocky only) and Bush Friendly Beef.