Post by lively on Sept 28, 2017 15:39:51 GMT -5
Ok so DH and I have been talking about the weather here in South Carolina. Specifically in the Aiken /Barnwell area which is roughly located in the middle of the state line between GA and South Carolina. Well during this talk we were speaking about how hard it is to keep weight on animals here in the summer months. Our winters are pretty mild to say the least. Sometimes you aren't even sure you actually had winter but maybe a touch of fall hit lol. On that note we got to thinking. Why should we follow the normal models of raising for primarily spring babies? A couple years ago I went to hatching at the end of summer (August) up to about April. The spring hatches are generally just sold. We do not keep them over the summer months. It is too much trouble and gets too expensive at times due to the heat being so brutal.After April instead of hatching ( with the exception of a random broody girl) I will generally sell hatching eggs. It is still during the big chick phase or rather the beginning of hatch fever for those with incubators... at least in this area. Now we tried our hand with pigs at the previous property. They grew well but the summer was super rough on them. About 20 or so years ago my father in law would only raise them during the winter months and they gained so much faster. That being said we are debating running a few batches of pigs this winter on our Barnwell property. We currently live about 45 minutes from the property. We were thinking start feeder pigs where we live and after they get a bit of size transfer them to the Barnwell property. We are thinking 1/4 acre-1/2 acre paddocks.Water will have to be hauled in as we currently do not have any utilities there.We would be using grain feeders and waterers and raise them in the paddocks. We have 10 acres to work with. It isn't high quality forage and the soil needs work. Super sandy .. I mean for the area it is good. Still though fairly sandy.I do worry about predators as Coyotes are numerous. The last time we were up there working I had one about 20 yds from me. I watched as it eased it's way across the road and disappeared. I am not certain how much trouble they will give us. We intend to use electric fence as we have had a lot of success with it in the past. How crazy are we to be looking at raising them in the winter as opposed to spring to fall? Winter doesn't heavily affect a lot of the grass here. We do intend to go behind the pigs and seed with winter grasses. Please feel free to reply with thoughts,suggestions problems etc. The biggest thing that is holding us back right now is the distance and the fact that no one will be out there a lot of the time. We would still be doing daily checks. We intend to rotate the pigs every 3-5 days depending on how the pens are doing. Over the last few years I have had great success with planting a winter pasture. Summer months lol not so much.
