As an environmental historian who has
researched both the environmental history of the Middle Ages and contemporary
ecological restoration, I brought these two interests together in a study of
medieval wood pasture regimes and its implications for modern restoration
(Jørgensen 2013). The study examines pig husbandry in English wood pastures
from about 1000 to 1500 AD. A wide-range
of data sources, including financial records, agricultural treatises, legal
writs, and artistic illustrations, are brought together to discuss medieval
swine rearing practices.
I address both the feeding of swine on
autumn acorns, which is a well-attested practice, and the lesser discussed but
still widely practiced grazing of swine in pastures. Because both feeding on
grasses/rhizomatic plants and fattening on acorns were required at different
times of the year, wood pastures were likely regular swine feeding grounds
during medieval times.
 |
| Illustration of medieval swine herding practices in an English manuscript from the 14th century. British Library, Yates Thompson 13. Image in the public domain. Courtesy of British Library’s Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts. |
Through a comparison with the Spanish dehesa wood pasture system (Parsons
1962, Joffre et al 1988, Clement 2008), I argue that these English wood
pastures were likely dominated by oak trees pollarded on long cycles. In
addition, selective planting and seedling cultivation during the Middle Ages
would have favored pedunculate oak, which provided acorns that were easier to
knock off of the tree for use as fodder. Therefore, I conclude that wood
pasture restoration projects in the UK might want to encourage pollarded
pedunculate oaks as the pasture dominant species.
Although English wood pasture restoration
has focused on the use of cattle and ponies as grazers (see the Grazing Animals Project for examples), swine should
be considered a viable wood pasture restoration component. Pigs have a different
affect on vegetation than the large herbivores: pigs are omnivorous foragers
that obtain much of their food by rooting as well as grazing on herbs, whereas
cattle and ponies are bulk grazers. For
those interested in wood pasture restoration, pigs may help control weedy
plants like bracken, loosen the soil bed, and maintain the open character of
wood pastures.
References
Clement,
V. 2008. Spanish wood pasture: origin and durability of an historical wooded
landscape in Mediterranean Europe. Environmental
History 14: 67–87.
Joffre,
R., J. Vacher, C. de los Llanos, and G. Long. 1988. The dehesa: an
agrosilvopastoral system of the Mediterranean region with special reference to
the Sierra Morena area of Spain. Agroforestry
Systems 6: 71–96.
Jørgensen,
D. 2013. Pigs and pollards: medieval insights for UK wood pasture restoration.
Sustainability 5: 387-399. http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/5/2/387
Parsons,
J.J. 1962. The acorn-hog economy of the oak woodlands of southwestern Spain. Geographical Review 52: 211–235.
Correspondence
Dolly Jørgensen, PhD
Department of Ecology and Environmental
Science
Umeå University, Sweden
4 comments:
Interesting suggestion of using pigs, partly for bracken control. They root around in the soil and both expose and eat the rhizomes. However, if they eat too much they can induce a thiamine deficiency and be pretty sick or even die!
see
Evans, W.C. (1976) Bracken thiaminase-mediated neurotoxic syndromes. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 73, 113-132.
MARRS, R.H. & the late WATT, A.S. 2006. Biological flora of Pteridium aquilinum. Journal of Ecology, 94, 1272-1321.
In Transylvania (Central Romania) Saxons and others regularly had 'pig herd' in each willage. They go out every day in an oak wood-pasture which was specially 'designed' for them (i.e. with wetlands along the spring to allow them a 'bath'). Old people told me that sometimes they put a metal ring in the nose of the pigs to avoid the damage of the pasture.
Only very old people remember this (i.e. those over 70, they say they had up tp 10 years at those times), so pig grazing stopped for many decades in central Romania.
Ringing was indeed quite common in late medieval and early modern England as well. A metal ring or sometimes bolt is placed through the snout to prevent excess rooting while still allowing for pasture feeding.
As for the bracken, while it is true that eating too much can be fatal for pigs, it appears from the historical record that a mixed diet with bracken in it is unproblematic for them.
To save our our environment we need to prepare our new generation. If they are be interested to work for that we find a better world in here.I think every one should be like it.
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