PIGS are roaming freely in woodland and keeping weeds down in a thoroughly organic fashion.
Charlie Forbes Adam, manager of his family’s Escrick Park Estate near Selby, is keen to rid the woodland area around it of the rampant and non-native weed Himalayan balsam.
The answer has been provided by Fraser Aitken, who rents one of the estate cottages and has his own meat enterprise, Grassfruits, a small business with an online farm shop aiming to produce and source sustainable pork and chicken.
Pigs are good at eating any vegetation and have been rooting up the Himalayan balsam completely, along with bracken.
Mr Forbes Adam said: “We are delighted with the results achieved after only a year and we can already see a dramatic difference to the woodland floor.”
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