Well first a update on Beaker-that little guy is just rock’n it back with his momma, he is growing, nursing, eating and is all full of himself.. sometimes you get really luck and if you can catch something early, it works out so much better then waiting to just see if it will work out on its own..
Well, you have heard me talking about the rising costs of grain and the fact that my piglets were born to a point in the wrong season (not knocking it, it was a wonderful joy to see them) but from a fresh food stand point, not so great..
So we are going to take something I have done on a small scale for the birds and for milking critters and take it to a much larger scale, I am going to be ramping up on sprouting fodder for the winter use.
I am planning on mainly using Barley but with a light mix of black Sunflower seeds, and wheat, along with a smaller amount of dried hay.. now you are most likely thinking, is it really worth the work..
To which I say, ask me in a month LOL..
I just think the idea of taking one pd of seed and turning it into between six to 11 pds of fodder (the amount of grow back really seems to depend on who you read) but on average for my own trials before, it was around 8 pds of fodder to 1 pd of barley, any way you cut it that is a huge difference.. this has been tried before with success for large blacks pigs
And the health punch is not to be overlooked, this will allow me to finish off my piglets without corn, and allow them to be raised on what would be very much like having fresh summer time feeding on pasture and greens, perhaps not as close as I would like but I have dried nettles, burdock leaves, horseradish and I have a good amount of seeds from different things I have collected in the garden, radish, as well as dried Plantian seeds stems etc.
So what do you think, if you could not have pasture raised pork, how would you as a small farm/local meat buyer feel about buying winter pork that was raised on mainly fresh sprouted fodder..
I’m going to do it either way as that is what I want for my own pork, but I am interesting in here feed back on how buyers would feel about this, given that a number of my regular readers are in fact those typical buyers in their own local areas, I figure you are the perfect folks to ask..
Just another Day on the Farm 
I would be all for it
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I am all for it as well and thinking of taking a drive over next week or the following week for pork chops >:)
Are you able to through some of the seeds in from some of the natural plants you have growing on the farm, or from some you have saved?
Also, Happy for Beaker.. name ala the Muppets right?
LOL, won’t have those pork chops for another four or five months.. but I am betting they are going to be amazing when they get here..
Yes, from the farm/garden/food forest plants..
Yup, with their mother being called Miss Piggy, the babes needed a muppet name 😛
Had better get back out and get some more things done, don’t know if this storm is all hype or not but want to get the winter shutters up and on just in case, along with a few other things..
Ps. Like that you are writing more these days!
Thanks FarmGal for the reply although I forgot to check off the notify of comments box, sigh. Wonder if you can grow the Nettles this way as well?
Writing more, yes, LOL writing lots more, it is therapy for me, hopefully you will like it even though it is a bit dark writing. So far I have decided to Hate MS products, every time I set it to Canadian English, it defaults to US English. So some in proper British then some in US, it is frustrating.
The more I write hopefully the better I am becoming, although that remains to be seen. I do seem to be developing the sentences better anyways. They were always my weakness, my green glowing stuff if you were.
Honestly not sure about the nettles, I tend to move them around by roots and don’t collect their seeds, so can’t do it this year for sure, but I have thought about moving in a pot of nettles and a pot of horseradish roots as well as mint for fresh use, we will see if I do it or not..
Sure hope it works for you, ’cause it sounds like such a huge improvement over straight grains… I’m betting the nutrient value has an astronomical improvement as well! (And I’d give your spoiled little porkers a free ride to my freezer camp any time!: ) I’m sure they’ll be just amazing!!
But meantime? SO glad to hear all is well with little Beaker.
(Oops! Not sure how this happened, but the second version is definitely the one I meant to send. )