Pigs Help Conservation Efforts at Dittiscombe Estate

Dittiscombe Estate has recently taken on two pigs to help their conservation efforts. Foxy and Hughie are "hired trotters, rootling for nature", and their powerful snouts and thick winter coats make them great for breaking up the ground during the colder months.

Pigs are excellent at kick-starting nature recovery by disturbing plants and soil and creating structural diversity. As they rootle looking for grubs, worms, and other things to eat, they disturb roots and open up the soil. The existing seed bank can be exposed, and patches of bare earth create opportunities for seeds to germinate.

Pigs also eat vegetation including grass, roots, fruit, nuts, and acorns in season. They will also eat low tree and shrub leaves and can open up scrub by lightly damaging low branches. They avoid eating bracken (which is toxic), and docks but will eat bramble and buttercup roots, and ground elder. Disturbing the ground around plants such as bracken, in combination with cutting or rolling, can inhibit its growth over time, but the pigs are not a quick fix for bracken, and they are not hired out to eat bracken fronds or rhizomes.

Depending on your land and what you want to achieve, the pigs can either lightly graze and rootle to break up the ground, allowing grass to recover quite quickly, or they can stay longer and do a heavier rotavation knocking back existing plants and preparing the soil for replanting. This will take longer and some weeds may still reappear afterwards. In heavily worked areas soil can become compressed. Pigs can also be used for puddling in clay when creating ponds.If you are interested in hiring Foxy and Hughie for your land, get in touch with Pigs in Clover owners Drs Desley White and John Severn at desley@cowsinclover.co.uk or john@cowsinclover.co.uk.

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