Steve Pellatt
From Little Acorns, Mighty Pigs do Grow!
The Pannage, New Forest National Park
Not my normal subject matter as I’m sure any regular followers have already spotted!
The other week I was driving between silver birch locations in the New Forest and went around a bend to find several cars sitting in the road / pulled over. Now in somewhere like Yellowstone National Park that’s all too common but not over here in sleepy Hampshire! In the New Forest you might get the odd car slow down to look at a pony but not a full on ‘Yellowstone line’ of traffic.
I then spotted a whole ‘group’ of pigs rooting around in the grass verge and partaking in that well known game of “Why did the pig cross the road?”. Quickly parking up (yes I know that it’s a bit hypocritical!) I grabbed the camera and set off to snap a few of them doing their best to clear all the acorns from the forest floor.
So what do you call a group of Pigs? I suddenly realised I didn’t know. According to various Google experts:
A group of young pigs is called a litter.
A group of hogs is called a passel or team.
A group of swine is called a sounder.
Not being any sort of expert on things porcine I will leave it for others to decide.
During the autumn months, it’s not an uncommon sight to see pigs roaming the forest floor and roads in the New Forest National Park. The reason for this is one of pannage!
Pannage is the practice of releasing domestic pigs into a forest, and goes all the way back to the time of William the Conqueror, who founded The New Forest in 1079.
The pigs are released into the forest to eat fallen acorns, beechmast, chestnuts and other nuts; green acorns in particular are poisonous to the New Forest Ponies and cattle which roam the forest the majority of the year.
Up to 600 pigs and piglets will work their way through the forest eating the acorns and nuts from the forest floor. It is the only time of year that the pigs are allowed to roam the open forest, the rest of the time they are kept in their smallholdings by the commoners. In the 19th century the number of pigs released for pannage was as high as 6,000.
Pannage is no longer carried out in many areas of the country but can still be observed every year here in the New Forest National Park. Pannage lasts for a minimum of 60 days and is vital because acorns are poisonous in large quantities to cattle and ponies and can lead to cholic. Pigs however are believed to spit out the toxic skins and enjoy eating the acorns.
You can usually find the pigs roaming the New Forest from around the third week in September, or whenever the acorns begin to drop from the beautiful oak and beech trees. The exact Pannage dates are decided by the New Forest Verderers and the Forestry Commission based on seasonal variations. During times of exceptional acorn falls, the pannage season is usually extended by the Verderers.
New Forest pigs must also be fitted with a ring through their nose which still enables them to forage through leaf litter and surface vegetation but stops them from rooting into the ground with their snouts causing damage to the Forest. Some of the different breeds of pig that you can find out on the New Forest include: Tamworth, Gloucestershire Old Spot, the British Saddleback and the Wessex Saddleback. There isn’t a specific breed of New Forest pig.
During the pannage season some of the local artisan bakeries, farm shops and shops sell piggy-shaped biscuits to celebrate this most ancient of New Forest practices. After pannage, some local butchers sell special pannage pork!
Whilst I do like to experiment with a bit of wildlife photography I don’t think I have the patience needed! Landscapes and some street photography are where I feel happiest.
© All rights reserved to Steve Pellatt. Please do not use this image on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit written permission.
From Little Acorns, Mighty Pigs do Grow!
The Pannage, New Forest National Park
Not my normal subject matter as I’m sure any regular followers have already spotted!
The other week I was driving between silver birch locations in the New Forest and went around a bend to find several cars sitting in the road / pulled over. Now in somewhere like Yellowstone National Park that’s all too common but not over here in sleepy Hampshire! In the New Forest you might get the odd car slow down to look at a pony but not a full on ‘Yellowstone line’ of traffic.
I then spotted a whole ‘group’ of pigs rooting around in the grass verge and partaking in that well known game of “Why did the pig cross the road?”. Quickly parking up (yes I know that it’s a bit hypocritical!) I grabbed the camera and set off to snap a few of them doing their best to clear all the acorns from the forest floor.
So what do you call a group of Pigs? I suddenly realised I didn’t know. According to various Google experts:
A group of young pigs is called a litter.
A group of hogs is called a passel or team.
A group of swine is called a sounder.
Not being any sort of expert on things porcine I will leave it for others to decide.
During the autumn months, it’s not an uncommon sight to see pigs roaming the forest floor and roads in the New Forest National Park. The reason for this is one of pannage!
Pannage is the practice of releasing domestic pigs into a forest, and goes all the way back to the time of William the Conqueror, who founded The New Forest in 1079.
The pigs are released into the forest to eat fallen acorns, beechmast, chestnuts and other nuts; green acorns in particular are poisonous to the New Forest Ponies and cattle which roam the forest the majority of the year.
Up to 600 pigs and piglets will work their way through the forest eating the acorns and nuts from the forest floor. It is the only time of year that the pigs are allowed to roam the open forest, the rest of the time they are kept in their smallholdings by the commoners. In the 19th century the number of pigs released for pannage was as high as 6,000.
Pannage is no longer carried out in many areas of the country but can still be observed every year here in the New Forest National Park. Pannage lasts for a minimum of 60 days and is vital because acorns are poisonous in large quantities to cattle and ponies and can lead to cholic. Pigs however are believed to spit out the toxic skins and enjoy eating the acorns.
You can usually find the pigs roaming the New Forest from around the third week in September, or whenever the acorns begin to drop from the beautiful oak and beech trees. The exact Pannage dates are decided by the New Forest Verderers and the Forestry Commission based on seasonal variations. During times of exceptional acorn falls, the pannage season is usually extended by the Verderers.
New Forest pigs must also be fitted with a ring through their nose which still enables them to forage through leaf litter and surface vegetation but stops them from rooting into the ground with their snouts causing damage to the Forest. Some of the different breeds of pig that you can find out on the New Forest include: Tamworth, Gloucestershire Old Spot, the British Saddleback and the Wessex Saddleback. There isn’t a specific breed of New Forest pig.
During the pannage season some of the local artisan bakeries, farm shops and shops sell piggy-shaped biscuits to celebrate this most ancient of New Forest practices. After pannage, some local butchers sell special pannage pork!
Whilst I do like to experiment with a bit of wildlife photography I don’t think I have the patience needed! Landscapes and some street photography are where I feel happiest.
© All rights reserved to Steve Pellatt. Please do not use this image on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit written permission.