View Full Version : You know autumn has arrived when there are pigs in the woods
Came across these little porkers in the woods yesterday when we were walking the dogs. They get turned out at this time of year to eat acorns and beech nuts:
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6058/6213808558_9b87692bdc_z.jpg
Kevin
Mrs. Hermit
10-7-11, 11:00am
That could make dog-walking quite a bit more interesting if the the dogs gave chase--or it the pigs did!
That could make dog-walking quite a bit more interesting if the the dogs gave chase--or it the pigs did!
Well, these little piggies were very inquisitive and my dogs didn't like them much. Some dogs do cause livestock problems around here, chasing and even mauling the forest ponies, but pigs are only out for a couple of months so you don't hear much about pig v. dog incidents.
Last week my wife saw a group of smaller piglets which were out with their mother on the other side of our village. A dog that tries any funny business with a piglet while the sow is around is unlikely to do it again, but this group have obviously been weaned and were on their own (thank goodness - a protective sow is a very scary thing indeed). That night we saw them again at the bottom of our road, and then this morning they were in another area of woodland about half a mile away, so they aren't straying too far.
Kevin, dreaming of acorn-fed pork
treehugger
10-7-11, 12:48pm
Very cool picture of something that is so far from my suburban Californian experience. Thanks for posting!
I know if my hounds came across some pigs while on a walk, they would at first be startled, then interested, then...? Who knows. We encountered a miniature horse out for a walk at a festival once (it was shorter than my dog) and Mandy was *very* interested. She badly wanted to sniff the horse's butt (normal dog behavior), but the person with the horse strongly recommended against that.
Kara
Oh, that is such an amazing photo. Do they just wander around free until slaughter time or does the farmer have to round them up at night?
How cool! I always love it when there are still enough woods to let these types of wild animals roam. I wish there were more places like this!
Thanks for the comments!
treehugger, it's all a matter of what they are used to. My dogs see ponies every day at very close quarters, because they roam freely in the forest all year round, so they mostly ignore them. Evie, a Miniature Schnauzer, does like to take a closer look at the foals, but she was chased by a protective mare this spring, which has made her a little more cautious.
Funnily enough, a lot of horses don't like pigs. Must be the smell or something. When my wife left school she worked in a livery yard here in the village, so she would ride out several times a day on different horses. At this time of year there was a huge ginger sow which used to be let out, and it was extremely friendly and would always want to come and say hello. Some horses didn't mind and would even sniff noses with this sow, but others would freak out and jump around, and not just the flighty arabs and thoroughbreds either.
Acorn, the pigs belong to New Forest commoners, who are exercising the ancient 'Common of Mast', also known as Pannage. The season started on 10th September this year, because a very heavy acorn crop is expected, and it will last for not less than 60 days, so they will live out until the Verderers (New Forest officials) decide that Pannage is over, then their owners will bring them back in. They reckon that a few hundred pigs are put out on the forest these days, but back in the 19th century it was up to five or six thousand.
Kevin
treehugger
10-7-11, 3:34pm
Very cool that that ancient tradition is maintained. So, how does an acrorn-fed pig taste? I mean, can you tell the difference between that pork and those fed strictly on commercial feed?
This thread reminded me to ask my husband (I'm at work; he's at home) to take the (not acorn-fed) pork shoulder out of the freezer so I can make chile verde this weekend (our tomatillos are finally ripe!). Thanks!
Kara
That is a good question Kara. I've only had what I am certain was acorn-fed pork once, which was actually an air-dried ham which I ate in northern Spain, up near the Picos de Europa mountains, but I'm sure that any free range, outdoor raised animal must taste better than intensively reared meat from an industrial farming operation.
The piggies in my photo are probably bound for expensive London restaurants, but I'll ask around and see if I can find out who they belong to and whether we can get hold of some when the time comes.
Kevin
Love your picture threads, Kevin! The most tasty pork I've tried was dairy-fed. So sweet and flavourful!
That is interesting to read. In our neck of the woods with 25% tree cover which is rare in Ontario, no animals are allowed into woodlots of any kind as the damage done to young trees is substantial. I wonder what the difference is in legislation? Does the historical precedent over-rule the normal standards of forest care?
Mrs-M, thank you. It's good to know people enjoy this kind of thread.
razz, the answer is yes, and no! The common rights go back almost 1,000 years, and reflect land management practices which are much older than that, so people have been doing this for quite a long time.
The kind of woods you see in my photo are categorised as 'ancient and ornamental' or 'wood pasture' and they are not fenced. As far as possible they are left to their own devices and are not actively managed. There are also what we call 'inclosures', which are fenced timber plantations (some of them 18th and 19th century plantations established to grow oak for the navy), and within those the newly planted areas of young trees have additional deer fencing. The ancient and ornamental woods provide an important source of forage for the ponies and cattle in the winter months, when there isn't a lot to eat on the open moor and heath. The pigs are only out for a couple of months and they are mostly interested in the acorns and beech nuts anyway, so I don't think they cause a lot of problems.
Kevin
Kevin, do those pigs belong to a local butcher? I wonder how old they are before they are slaughtered. They look to have a pretty nice life foraging in the forest, though I don't know how they live the rest of the year.
Maybe not as happy as this guy though :)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2047118/Babe-pig-lives-private-island-Bahamas.html
Thanks, Kevin, that was something I simply had not imagined having such a long history but the 'commons' was an important part of community life for centuries. I have just bought a series of lectures on DVD from the 'The Great Courses' about medieval life in order to understand just this type of practice and its history.
Acorn, they belong to a commoner, which means someone who own or rents a property that has common rights attached to it. There are 6 rights, but the ones most frequently exercised these days are Mast, which is what my photo shows, Pasture, which is the right to run ponies, cattle and donkeys on the forest all year round (there are about 5,000 ponies and 2,000 cattle in 125 square miles of forest), and Fuelwood, also known as Estovers, which is the right to cut a certain amount of firewood.
The owner might also be a butcher, because you can't make a living from commoning alone. I've asked my father-in-law to make enquiries about these pigs when he goes to the local working men's club on Friday night - one of his friends used to be a New Forest keeper, and he is sure to know who owns them.
razz, well in that case you know that centuries ago there was common land attached to most villages in England and how it was taken from ordinary people by way of the Enclosure Acts and illegal enclosures. It survived here and in a few other places, mostly I think because this was a royal hunting reserve, complex management structures associated with that status, poor soils that limited what could have been done if the land had been enclosed, and sturdy opposition from the commoners themselves. It's a blessing, because there are no other places left where a Medieval, lowland, extensive form of land management still exists on such a scale.
Kevin
Maybe they are truffle hunting pigs. You can see if they dig up truffles and then sell the truffles for a few thousand dollars each! Much better financially then eating the poor little guys. If not then I guess it's "This little piggy went to market. This little piggy went home". And this little piggy went 'wee, wee' wee' all the way down Kevin's throat" :-)!
When the pigs saw us they rushed over to investigate, and for about a quarter of a second it crossed my mind that I could have wrestled one to the ground, but I'm sure I wouldn't have been able to keep hold of it. In any case:
1. Home butchery is a messy business, and
2. There just wouldn't be room in our freezer...
;)
Kevin
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