Our initial livestock

Pot Belly Pigs bought from Animal Farm Store in Star City. Yes, they were sold with ribbons:) The sow has given birth to three female piglets! Watch out for the photos of the piglets. They are free to range under Mahogany Trees.

First set of Native Pigs from Bicol/Quezon border. They traveled a grueling 8 hour trip inside a passenger jeepney. 


We tried a 25kg live piglet for lechon. No fat at all and the meat is lean. 
Currently, we are adding new native pigs in our farm.

This is our initial stock of white pigs. Got them as piglets - around 1 to 2 months old. We then slowly transitioned them into eating natural based food with no antibiotics and growth hormones. These white pigs grew up to be runners. They seemed to enjoy the freedom of the range. Running, digging, wallowing, and chillaxing anywhere they want.

Hands on farm work

 Our Farmers mixing ingredients for the indoor area of the pigs. It's made of Coco Coir, sawdust, carbonized rice hull (CRH), soil, effective microorganisms, and a dash of salt. This creates a healthy, full of beneficial bacteria, environment for the beddings. In turn, manure is broken down into compost. 
Pigs are snout diggers so we give them beddings that can mimic their natural environment. It has been said that bad bacteria and pathogens thrive in concrete flooring because of the moist environment due to constant watering of the beds. Since pig manure is good for composting, we dont wash them away. We then use the bedding as a substrate for our vegetables. Talk about zero waste and recycling.

Our compost heap:) Chicken/Pig manure, spoiled veggies, banana trunks and leaves, coco coir, saw dust etc.

Making CRH(Carbonized rice hull). This serves as a home for beneficial bacterias to thrive in your substrate. The brown stuff are the processed chicken manure. This is to be mixed to the compost and future Vermiculture bed.

Back breaking labor! We first had to transport the garden soil to the raised bed area which is about 30 meters away from the bed area. We bring in compost, crh and processed chicken manure in sacks.Then we mix the substrates like compost, soil, and crh to create a raised bed. We then stacked rubble from the other buildings in the farm that has been demolished.  Each row is about 1x20m. Each area can accomodate 4 rows. It's very labor intesive but worth it. No rubble was wasted :)

  Our first area for herbs. We started tilling and cultivating the soil manually. We then mixed the soil with compost, processed manure, and CRH. We also removed unwanted stones in the area. The small pond is for a pair of Red Eared Sliders turtle.

From a commercial farmer to a natural farmer

Converting a commercial farm to a natural farm is not an easy task. But for sure, it's worth the effort.

Our first days of conversion: I used one building inside our property and  the Mahogany area for free range pigs. Pictures were taken December 2010.

This used to be a Pig House. We removed all the steel dividers.

Mahoganny Tree Plantation. This will be the future ranging area for the livestock.

This used to be a Sow/Gestating building. The roof was demolised. All that were left in the area were the cemented floor and the rubble from the dividers. This will be the future site for the raised bed vegetable garden.

 

Proposed Herb Area. Oh and by the way, those are forage seedlings and cutings for the livestock.

 I will be planting Rensonii, Malunggay, Flemingia, Indigofera at Cassava:) Future foods for future livestocks:) It took time to cultivate the land because the substrate is hard clay.

Forage area/ Pasture to free range white layers. We then planted Kangkong, Talinum, Peanuts, Carabao grass.

This is our on-ground vegetable beds. We added our mix of compost, carbonized rice hull and some processed chicken/pig manure. 
Old school garden tools still does its job.