Where there’s Muck there’s Brass.
Proverbs often neatly convey a truism and none more so than the 16th Century’s Muck and MONEY one!
The earliest widely available coinage was brass and much money could be made doing the mucky jobs of 16th Century England. Recycling is nothing new, until the advent of mains drainage night soil men toured our towns and cities collecting “muck” to sell on as fertiliser. Something most farms need.
We joke that we farm a beach here, light sandy land that drains really fast. It is though perfect for outdoor pigs. The ones here are managed in a creep rearing system which means piglets are housed in large airy outdoor pens, tented at one end with a deep litter of straw. As the piglets grow the pen is extended and the litter is topped up, absorbing all the waste as it is produced. The pens are rotated around the light land so that the litter can be spread and ploughed in to improve the soil. It’s a time honoured system which means we can grow root crops successfully. Potatoes, carrots, onions and leeks all owe the pigs a thank you. It is not “Organic” farming but farming organically, an utterly traditional way of putting nitrogen back into the soil. With a healthy dose of fibrous straw to improve the tilth it also makes our farm less like a beach.