I have heard that you could use pigs to pack a pond. Has anyone had any luck with this or seen it reccomended anywhere. Thanks

-- Franklin Sides (fsidesjr@att.net), July 20, 2001

Answers

I've heard that before, and I also have heared that they will ruin a pond also.

-- Russell Hays (rhays@sstelco.com), July 20, 2001.

I've never heard about them ruining a pond, but I spoze if they rooted up around the water outlet or something that could happen.

But for a new pond, supposedly the combination of their sharp little feet and some special quality of piggy poo is supposed to help seal the bottom of a new pond. I may try it here - but where I hail from (SW Ohio) ponds are child's play. It's getting that new basement covered and properly drained before it turns INTO a pond that's the trick there ... LOL!

-- Sojourner (notime4@summer.spam), July 20, 2001.

I've heard that pigs can damage an existing pond just like any other animal - by shredding the stuff around it and destroying the plant life immediately around the pond. Eventually the bank gets too eroded.

I've also heard that when building a new pond it's good to run pigs in where the pond will be for a while. As mentioned above, the hooves pack the dirt extra tight. This is why a lot of people don't do free range pigs: the soil in the fields becomes packed and won't let water in.

I tried to do a search on this once to get more info on pigs sealing ponds and couldn't find anything.

-- Paul Wheaton (paul@javaranch.com), July 21, 2001.

Pigs pack pasture: Film at 11!

I've never seen or heard of that happenening. I wonder about the circumstances that could lead to that sort of problem. Greg Gunthorpe pastures his pigs and doesn't seem to have any problem. Thing is, pigs - even ringed pigs - root. I know people who turn them into their fallow gardens and let them root it all up. Their garden is gleaned, "pig plowed", and fertilized all in one fell swoop. Maybe its because there's food for them there to root for, can't say. Jerusalem artichokes and pigs go well together. They're tough to totally root out, and the pigs love them.

-- Sojourner (notime4@summer.spam), July 21, 2001.

You don't need the pigs, they will just root up and distroy the joint. You can purchase the products in the pig manure that do the sealing of the pond for you. Here in Oregon where we have clay soil, we didn't need to seal it but in other places a little help is required. Geese will do a bettr job of packing down the soil with thier flat feet and not do so much damage. However, I wouldn't go purchase animals just to do this when you can buy the products you need. Hope this helps. :-)

-- Little Quacker (carouselxing@juno.com), July 21, 2001.

Little quacker, why buy in what the pig will generate FOR you for free? Bentonite is expensive, has to be trucked in in my area, and it takes a lot of it - and it STILL has to be packed in.

It (pigs sealing the pond) really does work, I know people who have done it and I plan on doing it myself (if I can ever get the conservancy guy up here to evaluate potential pond sites). I've heard geese and sheep will do the same thing, but sheep shouldn't be kept in those conditions, and I personally (no offense) hate geese.

But, I really really like bacon and ham and pork chops. LOL!

-- Sojourner (notime4@summer.spam), July 21, 2001.

A mob of sheep, tightly packed and driven many times over a particular piece of ground, will pack it very hard. Their hooves chop up everything, grind it fine, then tamp it down. This became so well- known in Australia that they automated the process. They developed a "sheeps-foot roller" - a big cylinder with lots of short cylindrical protrusions from it. Used all the time when building new roads. Maybe you could hire one of those, and something to pull it if necessary, for a day. The people who are doing the other heavy- machinery work on your pond would probably have access to one.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), July 22, 2001.

I hear you Sojourner! LOL!! I guess I hate to see critters brought home just for this kind of thing and worry about what happens to them afterwards. Never thought about the "Freezer" solution! I have turned into a weenie where butchering is concerned since retiring so I'd wind up with a bunch of pigs or even worse, geese, for permanent residents! Of course people could do what we do here for brush goats. Just pass 'em on to someone who needs brush cleared. :-)

-- Little Quacker (carouselxing@juno.com), July 24, 2001.

You know what, it never occurred to me that folks WOULDN'T be eating the pond-packing-pigs-post-packing.

Around here there are a couple of different guys who will come out to your place, slaughter your hog or steer, and then cart it off to the meat locker to be hung and butchered. I personally have less than no interest in trying to slaughter large livestock. Anything I can't pick up one handed, I'm not trying to slaughter by myself. LOL!

-- Sojourner (notime4@summer.spam), July 24, 2001.

Joel Salatin talks about using pigs to keep a pond from leaking in his book "You Can Farm". It's in the chapter about water.

-- Sherri C (CeltiaSkye@aol.com), July 25, 2001.