Love to read your newsletter. It makes me think about what you describe and search for subjects I didn't knew nothing about.
About bracken, there is also a study from Porto University where they talk about the toxicity for humans and animals: https://hdl.handle.net/10216/103340. I had no idea about it. Enjoy Lisbon!
Thank you Teresa, we will look at this study. Now we are working on addressing the problem without the help of animals during the next few years. I think that I will have to write more about the topic of bracken management as we develope more practical experience to go along side the theory.
Lisbon is very crowded, a big change from what we're used to but I'm happy to spend some time here :)
I love reading about your plans, so many exciting and interesting plans! You need a lot of energy and enthusiasm for the kind of life you are embarking on, and I can see both are in plentiful supply between you and Jackie. Having to constantly juggle things and adjust is also very important, and not easy. Enjoy your break in Lisbon and good luck with everything. On the pig front, I fully agree with you about the bracken. As I'm not an expert I didn't want to bother you with my findings from the Internet, but because I'm French I had access to research material that was perhaps different from the sources available in English and I found plenty of references both in France and Switzerland to the toxicity of bracken to animals, including cows and pigs, some dating back to 1987. Horses are apparently extremely susceptible to bracken poisoning. I can send you links if you want. One of the papers referred to a bracken toxicity sheet describing symptoms (from the Swiss Direction des Services Vétérinaires). I might be able to find this list if that would help you.
Thank you for the lovely comment. One of the papers that we read was actually a french study published in English, linked in this edition. It describes the sudden deaths of pigs on a comercial pig farm where pigs were pastured. They were able to identify the issue as a case of bracken toxicity by administering vitamin supplements that counter the effects of the toxicity. The post mortem results from those pigs suggests that our pigs suffered the same problem, though we have no concrete evidence.
We will work hard during the following years to address the bracken issue on our land and then try to bring pigs back.
A problem with our research before we got the pigs is that we followed our own bias and didn't fully research the topic of pig pasturing on bracken land. The fact that pigs do have a certain degree of tolerance to bracken has led many down the road of using them to clear the plant, including us.
I think that we've learnt some important lessons about pigs through the experience of raising them and I'll write more about that in the future.
Love to read your newsletter. It makes me think about what you describe and search for subjects I didn't knew nothing about.
About bracken, there is also a study from Porto University where they talk about the toxicity for humans and animals: https://hdl.handle.net/10216/103340. I had no idea about it. Enjoy Lisbon!
Thank you Teresa, we will look at this study. Now we are working on addressing the problem without the help of animals during the next few years. I think that I will have to write more about the topic of bracken management as we develope more practical experience to go along side the theory.
Lisbon is very crowded, a big change from what we're used to but I'm happy to spend some time here :)
I love reading about your plans, so many exciting and interesting plans! You need a lot of energy and enthusiasm for the kind of life you are embarking on, and I can see both are in plentiful supply between you and Jackie. Having to constantly juggle things and adjust is also very important, and not easy. Enjoy your break in Lisbon and good luck with everything. On the pig front, I fully agree with you about the bracken. As I'm not an expert I didn't want to bother you with my findings from the Internet, but because I'm French I had access to research material that was perhaps different from the sources available in English and I found plenty of references both in France and Switzerland to the toxicity of bracken to animals, including cows and pigs, some dating back to 1987. Horses are apparently extremely susceptible to bracken poisoning. I can send you links if you want. One of the papers referred to a bracken toxicity sheet describing symptoms (from the Swiss Direction des Services Vétérinaires). I might be able to find this list if that would help you.
Thank you for the lovely comment. One of the papers that we read was actually a french study published in English, linked in this edition. It describes the sudden deaths of pigs on a comercial pig farm where pigs were pastured. They were able to identify the issue as a case of bracken toxicity by administering vitamin supplements that counter the effects of the toxicity. The post mortem results from those pigs suggests that our pigs suffered the same problem, though we have no concrete evidence.
We will work hard during the following years to address the bracken issue on our land and then try to bring pigs back.
A problem with our research before we got the pigs is that we followed our own bias and didn't fully research the topic of pig pasturing on bracken land. The fact that pigs do have a certain degree of tolerance to bracken has led many down the road of using them to clear the plant, including us.
I think that we've learnt some important lessons about pigs through the experience of raising them and I'll write more about that in the future.