The Rural Voice, 1990-10, Page 22WILD BOAR IN BADJEROS
byJune Payne
Wild boar production is a good opportunity
for a family farm, say zvild boar producers
Hans and Erika Peipp, from Badjeros.
When Hans and Erika Peipp bought
their 200 -acre farm near Badjeros,
Ontario 6 years ago, the land hadn't
been worked in 15 years. What
wasn't covered by weeds was covered
with bush or marsh.
It was exactly the sort of property
they had hoped to find.
Hans Peipp, whose background
includes a university degree in
agriculture, 5 years as a bank manager,
and 15 years as a government
purchasing agent, had left Germany
for Canada with the plan to raise wild
boar in their natural habitat. Wild
boar has been a hobby of Peipp's for
30 years, and while in Germany he
had made a study of their habits.
Finding a farm that suited the
animal's needs was easier than
rounding up foundation stock. When-
ever Peipp would hear of someone
who was raising wild boar he'd find
that they were cross -bred and barn -
raised. He wanted pure stock and to
raise the animals wild. Unable to find
stock in Ontario, he bought 23 sows
and 10 boars from a Quebec hobby
farmer. Today the Peipp's have 75
sows and 20 breeding boars.
On their farm, 160 acres are
divided into enclosures of 10 to 15
acres each. Each enclosure encom-
passes pasture, marsh, and bush.
Within each fenced area live 10 to 15
sows and one boar. A limit of one
sow and her piglets per acre allows
enough space to satisfy the animals'
sense of territory and provides a large
enough land base that they won't
destroy their habitat.
During the summer, the animals
eat roots, leaves, and grass. Peipp
seeds the pasture areas with soybeans,
corn, mixed grain, and oil radish.
Once the crop has broken ground and
is a few inches high, he opens the area
up to the boars. Sections that get
rooted and eaten he seeds again so
there is a continuous food supply.
Weed seeds from combined wheat are
scattered in scrubland areas to gen-
erate another food source.
In the winter, the animals are fed a
ration of grain, apple pulp, carrots,
corn, and hay. Peipp keeps the grain
portions low so that the fat content in
the meat will also remain low. Every
day the food is scattered throughout
the compound in such a way that the
animals must go looking for it. At
least a third of their day must be spend
searching for food if they are to
remain wild and lean.
Peipp was growing his own grain
and corn for winter use, but has
recently made an agreement with an
organic farmer for this winter's grain
supply. The apple pulp he gets free
from a local cider mill. The agree-
ment with the mill was that he must
take all or nothing, so between
October and May he received 200 tons
of apple pulp. More than half of it he
spread on the fields and plowed under
as compost. Depending on location,
some companies charge $45 for a 20 -
ton load of apple pulp. One 7 to 8 ton
load of carrots costs $200 and lasts the
winter.
Wild boar can live as long as 15 to
16 years, and be used for breeding for
10 to 12 years. Sows are productive
for the same length of time, but their
meat is best when they are between 2
and 4 years old. At 2 years, the meat
is equal in texture and quality through
out the entire animal, and live weight
is 150 to 160 pounds (carcass weight
is 80 to 100 pounds). After 2 years
the shoulder meat becomes tougher.
Sows breed in the fall, from
October to December, then farrow in
the spring, approximately 4 months
later. Gilts enter the herd when they
are 1 to 1/2 years old. Pregnant sows
18 THE RURAL VOICE