Pig Pile, Perhaps

I took advantage of some free time and drove down to my farmer friends place yesterday. I hadn't visited or spoken to him since just before Thanksgiving, so a visit was long overdue.

The weather wasn't too bad;cold and a little windy but bearable and as it turned out I was put to work not long after I arrived moving and stacking bails of hay, which kept us warm. We also had a burning barrel going, so when we'd take a break we would gather around it to keep toasty warm.


Burning barrel -

We used the burning barrel to keep warm but the pigs used a different method. These particular pigs are penned with an enormous pile of compost, which is by design. Pigs are rooting-type animals therefore in their search for tidbits of food they'll root through this pile of compost in short order. This accomplishes a number of things; the pigs are kept busy doing when they enjoy, they're able to find snacks for themselves and the pile of compost is constantly rotated and turned, which aides in the composting process. Also, the composting process keeps the pile itself hot and the pigs take advantage of this and dig themselves in to keep warm.


Steaming compost pile with napping piglets -


The same steaming compost pile with napping piglets, only a close up -