Rosie Update: New Grass is Always Greener

See Rosie's curly tail? When a happy pig is eating, that's how she smiles.

Yesterday we moved Rosie and the Gang to a fresh patch of grass and woods.  They receive feed pellets every day, but they flourish when they have plenty of good grass, too.  They had eaten almost everything growing inside their previous enclosure, so they were eager to get to the greener grass on the other side of their fence.  Derek ran electric wire around a new quarter-acre spot, then he lowered the electric wire on the adjacent side so they could step across into the tall grass.  They poked around for a few moments, then they began to race, round and round, uphill and down, kicking up their feet and grunting (Yes, a video of that would be nice, but Derek only has two hands and he was using both of those to secure the fence).  Fresh grass to eat, fresh brush piles to explore, and fresh dirt to dig in call for a celebration!  After they tired of running, they settled down to eating grass, exploring, and digging holes.

Pigs are designed to dig.  They are four-legged tillers that run on grass instead of fossil fuel.  Using their snouts and powerful neck muscles, they will dig broad nests to sleep in and mud holes to splash in.  They will dig deep holes as they look for grubs, worms, and roots to eat for dessert.  They will even dig up tree roots to find bugs, and only pigs know what else, underneath.

I don't know what's down there, but Rosie does.

Rosie and Company have gradually tilled up more than 2,000 square feet of ground since they arrived at Greene Family Farm.  (Rosie dug the first hole.) We will smooth that patch out and plant a new vegetable garden.  They very kindly fertilized it as they worked, and they even ate the wire grass, roots and all, as if it were candy.

We have picked out some fall and winter garden patches for them to till up this summer, and we have some patches of woods that we will let them clean up, so weeds and briars don't take over.  They will spend the summer doing what they love best, and they will be expanding and improving the farm as they go.

Rosie knows that the only way to eat the whole pasture is one bite at a time.