trouble with fallow

Andy, a shallow springtooth harrow, 2 inches or so might be best to uproot the new growth. One problem with a disk is that it keeps chopping the rhizomes up into smaller and smaller pieces and each piece can send up a new shoot if the conditions are right. Cleaning trash out of the harrow is not much fun either. You might want to consider tillage until Oct 1 and then going with a cereal rye cover with early spring tillage to take out the rye.

You don’t want 50 pigs? That is ridiculous.

@Countymouse 20333 wrote:

I read that one group used 3 pigs in a 12×12 corral that would be moved once every day… I don’t know if this is a “normal” stocking rate for this purpose, but it gives me numbers to work with. That’s 48 square feet per pig per day (12×12/3), or about 1440 square feet per pig per month. 3 months would be 4320 square feet, so to work 5 acres in 3 months would require 50 pigs (43560×5/4320). I don’t think I want 50 pigs… Does this answer seem ridiculous?

Andy,

I don’t know about pastured pigs; I have never owned any pigs that were put out on pasture. However, we have feral pigs in our area. There are about a dozen and a half that travel in a pack that routinely travels in our area; despite the best efforts to trap, shoot or fence them out.

The rooting that they can do in a night is astounding. I’d say they can root anywhere anywhere from 1/8 to 1/4 acre per night and do a pretty thorough job of it. Devastating when they get in your pastures for several nights. Not sure if feral pigs can root more than domesticated ones, or not.

Side note on this thread,
I had the opportunity to watch tv a few weeks ago, kids and I watched green planet or something.
Fascinating show on feral pigs, their size, how quickly they are multiplying in the southern states, and how they have adapted to conditions. Also how they appear to have Russian genes, that somebodies have been importing big guys from Russia, originally for hunting purposes!

In s. indiana where there was a lot of karst topography, it was tough to have a pond hold water for years on end. Locals would rent pigs for a year and pen them in a leaky pond area, the hoof action would reseal the ponds….

Two things I will contribute.

The pigs are a good idea. We are using them now on a forest to pasture conversion. Single strand poly wire with good voltage. We have 2 sows and 7 offspring, and we expect to cover 5 acres this season. I have found that I need to limit feed to keep them curious, which is probably one answer to the difference in the number quoted earlier. I have also used them in our gardens and they are a great “permaculture” tool.

As far as fallow, I have found that trying to get ahead of weeds in a dirt fallow is very hard. I think you would have much better luck to get the cover crop on right away and let the crop do some of your work for you by out competing the weeds and other grasses. Then if you have to work that into the soil several times with subsequent cover crops, broad leaf combos like buckwheat, or clover, oats, fields peas, rye…..

On another note, and this is just a very small plot, we are sheet composting on an old garden that is completely overgrown with grass. I lay down a layer of 4+ sheets of newspaper, then cover it with stable waste from having the horses in the barn before and after work this summer. I also cover that with mulch hay. It seems to be doing a good job of killing the sod, and providing a reservoir of future organic material. Some grass seed is sprouting from the manure though……

Not an expert, just attempting to survive.

Carl