A New Idea on How to Take Swine to Feed on Crop Residues in the Field

Inspired by the commercial success of the extensive farming of black pigs (cerdo iberico) in Spain, there is a revived interest in Italy for the old black pig breeds which were once common. In the year 2000 a community of towns on the hills of the province of Foggia (North Apulia) started a project with the purpose of recovering the local black breed (Suino Pugliese) and encourage farmers to raise it in the traditional way. Twelve farms collaborated with the project. The quality of the meat proved to be outstanding, but the extensive form of husbandry initially programmed was never realised because all the pigs were in fact raised in enclosures and fed artificially. This articlesuggests how to complete this last step by using motorised transport for taking the pigs out to feed on the crop residues in the fields.