Pigatiller

Buying land next to a freeway does have some advantages. I sell most of my animals to people who drive by and see them and then come back and ask, and it's easy for people to find me. The drawbacks include bits of cars that fly off and land in my fields. The freeway is elevated 20' above my land.

The pigs grab stuff like hubcaps and bits of chrome trim and drag them all over the place. So now and then I go out and give them a real pig toy like a tire or an old tarp -- they really like tarps -- and take the metal stuff and recycle it.

This is a pretty typical scene. The pigs go out as a group and tend to root up the same area. I figure there's something really tasty there, or maybe it's easier to root when another pig has broken up the ground. But I'm glad to see them do that. This area of the field will be my cornfield next year, I'll plant it in April, so the more they break up and fertilize the soil, the better it is.
Here's a view of the field "before" pig, to the left, and "after pig" to the right. They've pretty much turned it over and plowed it with their noses. When you keep a pig in a large pasture they will root and turn over and maintain an area as mud, but by and large they don't' change the ground level. So I do a couple of passes with the disc and it's good to go as a seed bed if I want to keep it in pasture. Overseeding with a pasture mix is pretty effective. The original grass will predominate, but you'll see good amounts of your overseeding, too.

Pigs are the only tillers you'll ever own that get more valuable the older they get.