in this video I'm gonna show you a 20-acre Pig raising system from Polyface farms that actually Nets $60,000 a year on average of 300 pigs on land they don't even own it's a bumpy road good thing we brought this amazing Barbie Jeep weird our feature for today they started this morning on a whiteboard lecture with Joel on how he would do this on a 5 acre scale and then of course you can scale it up to 20 acres basically you take five acres divided up into ten half acre paddocks you move your pigs through that in a season by the time they get to the last one you move your pigs every five to twelve days and by the time they get to the last one you can bring them back up an aisle and start again at the first one the first place has had enough rest hey we worked with this great guy named Matt who showed us how he moves the pigs hey thanks Pete you're early yeah yeah a joke poly faces on lombardi time what's that when Lombardi to coach Lombardi said to be there at 6:00 you know at 5:45 oh I was in the military so I guess I guess 15 minutes were always kind of standard time right we just met with the gentleman Matt he's gonna take us up there we've got to follow him up the trail good thing we're in the trail rated Barbie Jeep that's right we got the Barbie Jeep put her four-wheel drive we don't have to so what we're hoping to get here is a more classic text but look it's a little more easier just was saying to see what he was talking about this morning with the various paddock moves weren't there how many paddocks were there yeah was there 10 yeah there was ten paddocks a general rule of thumb of ten if you're moving every five to twelve days by the end of time you get to that tenth one you can move them back to the first one so we're going to see that in real life right yeah he's got too many pigs and this used to be a briar patch okay when so polyphase rents this and I guess he's hired by Polyface yes you raise a contract farmer I think contract farmer okay one in there you saw the little ones down there in the right hand side those just arrived and these are getting ready to butcher okay these guys over here going to the butcher pretty win week or two I'd say okay we generally look I think Polyface likes him around but you know the range of three to four hundred pounds okay and generally right in the middle is like perfect so they're getting pretty fattened up and I'd say another week or two okay ready to go go ahead and pop in here grab their feeder it was great being there in an open field where you could actually see the difference you could see multiple Pat paddocks in one place put it back that one thing that was super encouraging there that you could see for sure is the successions here's where they moved to here's where they were on here's what it looked like the week before that and you could have go all the way back to five or six weeks this is where they are this is where they're going and had one spin it's just amazing not just for covers like this but I guess we've seen it happen ourselves that's but they don't the seed bank but not the rebate and drop this heater right there the tractor went through right here you would think you would just be able to open up have a gate on this electric wire but because this is sort of an invisible barrier that they haven't even been able to touch rub up on they're going to be hesitant to go through there even if that wires not there anymore fill up with grain I noticed it was empty these guys had eaten it so they've been telling me there they're gonna be ready for a move that's part of the secret I noticed there's trees in every paddock and that the pigs are enjoying them it's not a there's not a wallow in this paddock they don't create wallets if they happen because of rain and whatnot then it happens but they don't go sitting about creating them just take this out of here and then I'll let them through up there there's a gate okay thing with what's really important about this setup and I'm sure Java or Daniel probably told you guys is the wooden gates yeah so pigs you saw how I had that fence down and they wouldn't cross it it's even even if I completely chop that away and that that wire wasn't there they wouldn't cross it's like a mental barrier it's like it's like the elephant that gets chained to a little post when he's young and then when he's older he still doesn't he doesn't shame he could just rip it right out of the ground so the the reason we have those wooden gates is because if they can physically touch it and then see that it's not there then they'll go through me so we'll go see it in action right now yeah take this out of here and then we'll go ahead you took the chain off of this thing yep took the chain off and and it's no longer on hinges you just know I do a chain we just chain it to the post okay and I go over here take the chains off this one terrific so what I do is I leapfrog the gates okay so I always have one here and one on the back sorry and notice he's all alone there are 50 in here a panic yeah whoa you a nagger but so this is where they are this is where they were a week ago right holy smokes okay so did it now wait a minute a little bit of regrowth there and then back there is where they were so this is coming back nice now what the heck what hey yeah so when after they finish going through we bring in a little bush hog and we just knocked on all the thistles you see they're starting to hit I'm gonna see huh and so we try and get them all knocked down before they spread everywhere and then you get something nice like that instead of I know right look at that okay that high super green and you'll hit that again one more time this season yeah yeah and then it'll get rest all winter yep cool so when I move them the person usually the first couple moves you need a few people because they're just not used to it so you just get like two or three people walk down to the end and then push them up okay these guys are used to moving so really just makes one if you sweep down the paddock just matures scared over that line or anything you just do any warming right do you new like charcoal okay and that's only if they get sick right yeah but you don't do any preventive so it's asking them if you did any deep worming they do do charcoal Joel's tone set this morning but only if they get sick and what's the percentage if somebody gets sick what's the chances you're actually going to save them with charcoal especially when they're out on pasture okay they seem to really take care of their self themselves but yeah sometimes in the winter in the barn when they're in a little bit more cramped quarters they're in there obviously we're giving them food water and we have that deep bedding in the bonds yeah but they're a little bit more cramped they don't get as much exercise not as good nutrition because they don't have the fresh pasture to be on well give them some charcoal and how do you get charcoal you make we make I'm just learning it you're Seattle some cars thing oak is really good why no specifically yeah it's getting super hot do you mix it in their feet or do you give it free choice you can actually dump it straight in and they'll just eat it um but yeah if you mix it in with their food they'll definitely you'll be sure that they get it here you guys he's just walking this is he's getting some stragglers there but they know the drill I'm gonna leave him bringing up the rear get you guys a shot hood dialed in systems look are you serious it's like we're hurting cows right now are you serious look I'm serious this is amazing one guy moving 50 pigs no back hitch no nothing they got head down to the theater they're picking out on this huge grass this is what's possible with pigs even if you don't own the land the average in this county for renting $37.50 an acre a year to rent land in this county that's the average Joe came to an agreement with him for $100 an acre and that was partly because the landowner was nervous about pigs they're gonna stink they're gonna tear up the place so they settle on $100 Joel on this twenty acres is able to do 200 all the way through and 200 halfway through so he averages in let's say that's an average of 300 and a season 300 pigs so I always move your water last specifically with this type of water when you pull this plug it's gonna drain it's gonna dump all that water and if those pigs are still in here they're not gonna leave so I mean it's going to create like a giant water slide here and they're just gonna lay in it and then you're gonna have real trouble getting them to go into where you want those especially right here at the door right where you want everybody to go crazy muddy I mean it's heaven for them yeah this is a easy water move because it's right there notice you just drive over this with the tractor I mean you can lower dancing later drive it with the tractor psychological barrier oh you got a lot of traffic here yep and we had a little bit of a leak here during the winter for a while we don't have to start during winter but yeah this is what happens if you get a leak yeah you get your first customer buddy you guys have got this system bow cheap system - yeah Polyface really wanted to get high tech yeah they could yeah they have the means but they're still in the area of showing people that they can just yeah like the big expense here is land but you could also lease land $50 just do you know what they're paying they're actually paying some of the most expensive on this land right here but the amount of it's just people don't know what we can make off these pigs I mean you can make it $1,000 $2,000 off nice so that's $50,000 he can gross $1,000 per pick at the market for showing it by the cuts $1,000 per pig but that's gross what's the net like there's expenses putting this stuff up there's depreciation on tractors everything considered there's labor everything feed feeders water water line everything considered from equipment and the depreciation of that equipment to the feed everything considered they net two hundred to two hundred fifty dollars so let's say two hundred dollars profit sixty thousand dollars that's a great livin for somebody on land you don't even own what did this look like before you guys guys started out here is pretty much a giant briar patch that was above your head okay that's crazy cuz you know I would think if you're going to a landowner they're not doing much with their land they might be scared of pigs coming in but if they could come and see that this is their work this is what's gonna happen yeah and you know maybe you're not like Polyface and this is maybe the only thing you're gonna do and how you going to get a tractor and well even if that tractor is $17,000 or let's say it's twenty thousand dollars and you appreciate it depreciated over time so it's gonna last you twenty years so you expense a thousand dollars a year on to this trip you you make a 59 that's you know I'm saying guys that's how maybe you can adjust if I a tractor and maybe the marketing acts aspect is more difficult so if you don't if you aren't an established farm it's maybe gonna be hard for you to sell meat by the cuts maybe you have to pay a little bit more for your feed because you're not buying as much feed there's some margin here pay a little bit more for your feed having to buy a tractor getting to buy a tractor so then you're put here down to fifty thousand this is an amazing opportunity it's nice and peaceful and quiet doesn't stink if landowner was to say okay you guys have to go this stuff isn't that hard to tear up the posts are the most permanent thing that you have out here that's right you haven't invested a lot or any and permanent yeah I mean you might come and pull up your post would you right I mean you could or I mean if you didn't care you could just leave them it's it's not treated wood or anything it's just a locust pose it'll last a long time because it's locusts but you would pull up your wire you could probably pull out of here in the day or two and pull up the water line do it that we have a cistern up there this whole thing sort of is like a pressure tank yep and if you're Lisa and say you're leasing land in Virginia and for some reason oh you're your family rest your family is in Michigan and you want to move up there right okay and he's gonna find some leased land of Michigan yeah I mean tighten that the post didn't cost you anything but labor yeah cut him off his own farm it's it's a pretty simple system beautiful model yeah yeah I want to show you guys the succession the half acre paddock okay grass plenty of it this is where they just got moved there this is where they were so some moonscape not a whole lot some more where their feeder was there are some briars and weeds about to go to seed but he said they're gonna go in with a bush hog and mow those down so they were there for a week so a week ago they were in here this is what its gonna look like are you serious this is this this that is what this is gonna look like so they were in there for a week this a week ago this is just a week old this is a we go there's there's still Madhu on the ground there's still visible manure hasn't even been absorbed yes you guys ready to see two weeks boom oh my gosh look at the line I just crossed two weeks what Matt did you guys know in here so they didn't know this so that's why the libraries are still here you won't know this or Willie it's too late to mow this no I think it's it's still mobile see most of these haven't seated out yet those have a little bit about that but I mean at some point you don't you don't want to cut the grass right or do you um so like most animals they don't really like the super stemming stuff okay they like that fresh you know yeah three week old grass nice and green so if we came through here and you you can raise and lower a bush hog so we could chop all these off maybe six inches up okay and then it would give the grass or really good a night of it and ideally maybe three weeks before they come back in here right okay yeah so they started up here okay so then this is what so we're a week there this is two weeks been here a week old with the thistles two weeks old three weeks oh okay this is three weeks and then the fifth one down there so you got to see you get you guys got to see four weeks old right here four weeks old it looks like if you came here you wouldn't even know if you were a landowner you wouldn't even know pigs for been in here it doesn't sting does it stink right now doesn't smell here this is five weeks old growing there wasn't there when they started in here it only came in after they left because they they brought it a rag Missy Bank right yeah is this and that's good stuff everybody show me this good stuff okay so will you mow this before they come in here this one is not that bad the thistles in here pretty much not so you're saying okay I we never let it go long enough to see how long it I'm not tall it will get but it'll get pretty big do they like this the do they like to test you don't eat fescue as long as it's young weather every dis pigweed I don't think so all right why do they call it pig I guess Pig we eat pigs bring it up if they don't eat it there's some stuff that animals all right Joel's told me that cows will eat thistle if you chop it down and let it will and that's something this is five weeks five weeks oh my gosh five weeks if aggressive aggressive your shoulder and that's that's this beautiful stuff is it fair to say this is richer than when you found it definitely okay the pigs that the pigs are are bringing up the value of this land not taking it away oh my god so about what's the kicker here okay how much labor is it average about an hour a day I mean some days it's 20 minutes other days it's drew or three hours you know depending on what you're gonna do string trim underneath the electric wire whatever it may vary so Joel fought an hour a day and their labor with pigs is specifically here is the paddock traffic and that's the paddock prep is key to keeping pigs you mean the paddock correct the initially setting all this up no or doesn't maintaining the daily like so the weekly I guess you would say so I move these pigs about once a week okay what I do is I come in well you saw they weed whack it tighten all the fences and Electrify it a lot of men like this needs weed whack that needs weed whack so that will drain your battery like crazy okay so when you're gonna need that weed whacker they won't be back on this end for a while so none of this is hot I always weed whack the charged lines which run on the outside of the paddock okay so how you didn't get how you wouldn't make this hot is there's a jumper line right there yeah somewhere down there you've disconnected the jumper right right this is textbook this is more textbook there's like if there's the ten paddocks in here hey Matt are there the ten paddocks what are there ten paddocks this way a little over ten paddocks okay so it's almost his textbook teaching half an acre each let's get the drone in the air and look at these things okay I just put up the drum and it just started raining so that's a wrap I mean we did it we got our footage just in time for a rain for the rain Cup now we got a bit of time to edit and cut out these vlogs well I hope you were as inspired by that as I was this is really encouraging for farming that it doesn't have to be this low-income drudgery high-risk type thing and as for the landowner in this land it doesn't have to be the system was not stinky and actually when they got this land it was all briars and rambled variables and the house these beautiful grass pastures so it just shows you could make a great living doing this and leave the land better than when you
