When moving pigs, it helps to give them the carpet treatment
Moving pigs from one electric fence paddock to another sometimes works great, (when an opening is planned between the electric fence posts), or it can be difficult, (when I did not do the above, or it was not possible to do that, as I have a limited amount of electric polywire and posts, etc. etc.).
So, what’s a farmer to do?
I have tried turning off the fencer, laying the wire down and covering it with a piece of ply wood or OSB. It works, but the pigs are suspicious, as the wood does not feel like the ground, and I often have to cover it with soil or sod to get them to step over it, and it takes awhile.
Then, one day in the pasture I noticed an old piece of carpet. The carpet was long enough to lay down over top of the four strands of wire that I typically use for the pigs. So, I gave it a shot . . . I hardly had the carpet down for a few seconds and they came over to inspect it and without hesitation crossed over to the next paddock! They were all in the new paddock in a matter of minutes. Because it’s old carpet it is soft and pliable and obviously feels more like the ground to the pigs. Now I keep the carpet handy and it makes my paddock moves so much easier.
Debbie Kile, Barrhead, AB
Home-made cutting fluid
Last spring, I was working on a tight schedule to finish a greenhouse project that involved drilling a lot of holes in sturdy galvanized steel tubing. A neighbour advised me to dip the drill bit in cutting fluid to allow it to cut the metal more quickly and with less damage to the drill bit. I didn't have time to go out to buy any, but since he mentioned that commercial cutting fluids are oil-based and sometimes boast of their sulphur content, I mixed some agricultural sulphur pellets with 10W30 motor oil and found that this combination allowed me to cut the metal a lot more smoothly, and better than the 10W30 alone. I also tried spreading this mix on a hacksaw blade with good results for cutting steel tubing. I didn't really measure how much sulphur to how much oil, but it concentrates in the bottom of the jar, and more sulphur seems better. Just break up the pellets with the drill bit — a proper mortar and pestle might be better. The glass jar shown here is probably a poor choice of container; I'll go for a sturdy plastic next time.
Heather Ramsay, Umi Nami Farm, Metchosin, BC
Resourceful farmer Heather Ramsay made her own cutting fluid from oil and sulphur pellets.