Oregon Blacktail Deer Eating Pig Feed

Growing up, one of my favorite TV shows was the A-Team. Almost every episode ended with Hannibal lighting a cigar and chortling “I love it when a plan comes together!”

As you should know by now, I have a whole bunch of crazy ideas for raising pastured pigs in the forests of Oregon. And every time I see one of my hair-brained swine-herding ideas working, for even a second, I want to light a stogie and declare “I love it when a plan comes together!”

And that’s what happened last night when I found the Oregon Blacktail Deer eating the pea and wheat sprouts at a previous pig feeding spot.

One of my first ideas for stewarding the Oregon forest while raising pigs was to replant the pig paddocks like deer food plots. I knew that the pigs would dig up the forests and I would need to manage the undergrowth to prevent erosion. Initially I thought that I would replant everything like a deer food plot.

Along the way we have learned that we can simply feed our pigs whole peas and whole wheat on the forest floor. The pigs eat the feed while clearing out the unwanted undergrowth. The peas and wheat start to grow to provide future additional feed for the pigs. The peas and wheat also do well with our mild winters and will sprout and be ready to burst forth in the spring. At least that’s the plan.

A side benefit of the situation is that the deer love to eat the wheat grass and pea sprouts! So we’re stewarding the forest to be better adapted to supporting pigs, with a side benefit of creating a habitat that will better support our native Oregon Blacktail Deer and Roosevelt Elk.

I knew the deer had been in this location eating the regrowth peas and wheat. I had spotted them multiple times near this spot, but never actually seen them eating the sprouts. I finally captured them last night and it felt good.

I love it when a plan comes together!

Keep up with all of our crazy ideas and how they play out on Facebook and Instagram.