Would this work?
http://www.stockmangrassfarmer.net/c...age.cgi?id=425
Follower hogs eliminate cattle worming for Gulf Coast grazier
by Allan Nation
HOUSTON, Texas: Running free-range pigs with cattle has eliminated the need for cattle worming while providing a profitable salable product for Texas grazier Brett Jones.
Jones who ranches just north of the George Bush International Airport in Houston, started running pigs with his replacement heifers in 2002.
He said he has not wormed the heifers in two years whereas previously he had to worm his cattle twice a year in the hot, humid Gulf Coast climate.
Pigs are a dead-end host for cattle parasites and provide an excellent way to keep pastures low in cattle parasite infestation. “Pigs really relish fresh cow manure,” he said.
The pigs are normally run at a roughly one pig per three beeves ratio. At this ratio, the pigs are able to live solely on cow manure except during the winter when he supplements them with day-old bread.
They are never fed grain.
“We don’t do anything special for the free-ranging pigs except provide them with a summer wallow,” he said.
Jones said red hogs take the heat the best and are the easiest to get the hair off of at slaughter.
“It’s phenomenal, the hogs do well and the cattle do better. It’s a win-win situation.”
He said heavier pigs in the 170- to 200-pound range make better follower animals as they are easier to fence. However, pigs as light as 80 pounds can be used.
Some of his pigs are not harvested until they weigh 400 pounds or more. He said the heavier the pig the better it does on pasture.
He uses three-wire permanent electric exterior fences with the top wire at 40 inches, and the bottom at 6 inches and the middle wire halfway between the two. Such a three-wire spacing allows cattle, goats and pigs to be grazed together.
Interior paddock fencing is all 40 inches high with no lower wires as only the cattle are rotationally grazed. The pigs and goats are allowed to free-range.
The goats primarily live on tallow trees, hedge and smut grass (a weed) and compete very little with the cattle for grass.
Cattle, goats and hogs are generally not susceptible to each others internal parasites and become dead-end hosts for each other when mix grazed. He said mixing species was nature’s way of preventing disease and parasitism.
He found a fence energizer that puts out a continuous charge rather than a pulsed charge is best with pigs. With a pulsed charge the pigs seem more willing to test the exterior fence.
Jones said ringing the pigs’ noses was absolutely necessary to prevent pasture destruction. He said the best nose ring was the one with a point on it from Jeffers Supply in Alabama.
This pointed ring can be used one to a pig. Otherwise, two ordinary nose rings were necessary per pig.
“If you start seeing furrows in the pasture, you’ll know a pig has lost its nose ring,” he said.
Jones direct markets all of his pigs live to local Hispanics for between $110 and $170 a head. Spent sows are also direct marketed for $100 a head for whole hog sausage.
“The only advertising I do is a small sign on the highway,” he said.
Jones also sells live goats and cabrito (young male goats) to the same Hispanic customer base as the pigs.
In 12 years of raising hogs on pasture he said he has never lost a single animal to disease.