ROCKY MOUNTAIN KUNEKUNES

Pasturing

Kunekunes love clover, alpha and orchard grass. They graze without rooting up the ground, because the have a short upturned snout. I have heard that if the grass is really wet, they can root it up. Although we have never had any troubles with them rooting up the ground. We irrigate our 8 acres with hand lines. We run the pipe in 24-hour sets, meaning we leave one line in place for 24 hours before moving it to the next line. I know our pasture gets plenty wet. Still we have never had any troubles with the Kunekunes rooting up the ground. It is recommended to have an acre to every 5 to 6 pigs. We have our pastures broken up into around 1/2 acre lots. We had three adult kunekunes on that 1/2 acre, plus 2 goats and they could not keep up with it. We had to turn the horses in several times to let them thin it down and I even mowed the area a couple times.
Kunekunes make great orchard pigs because they eat the grass without harming the trees.
We have a small apple orchard and plan to build a fence around that area next year for the kunekunes. I would not recommend them for apricot and peach orchards, as I have heard the pits are poisonous or some nuts that the shells are poisonous.
Next year we plan to introduce different grasses and experiment with them. We plan on adding more alpha, some peas, and maybe wheat or rye.
Shade is definitely needed for pigs in the summer time. Pigs cannot sweat, so the only way for them to cool off is to get out of the sun or to get into water. We have a large elm tree in the pasture. I will be planting more trees next year as well. My wife and I often set up our lawn chairs under that big elm and sit and watch our kunekunes for hours. They have to be by our side, so they lay down at our feet. They are completely content with lying there for hours.