La Boca has ongoing projects with a variety of animals including goats, chickens, turkeys, sheep, cows and pigs.  Each animal plays a vital role in our ferility cycle and local food production.   LaBoca Animal Powered Compost System Pigs are the primary compost workers here at LaBoca. Their pen is central in our animal barn and all the manure and brown matter in the barn goes into their pen. We drill holes into the bed of compost with a steel bar and dribble whole corn into the hole. In their quest for the corn the pigs turn and aerate the compost. The bed of compost can be over three feet deep and the pigs get their whole head down in it and toss large quantities in the air or on the people watching sometimes as well. Once it is finished we load it into a manure spreader and spread it on the fields. Last year we spread our first batch of pig finished compost onto one of our hay fields after the first cutting. Our second cutting was so dense the horse drawn mower was working harder then I’ve ever seen it.  If we want to make potting soil we throw some of the pig turned compost into the chicken coop just across the aisle of the barn where the chickens clean out any grain the pigs missed and clean up the pig manure as well. Then it goes through a screen and we have wonderful potting soil. One of the best parts is watching the pigs express their “pigness” as they dig for the corn. You know the saying: “Happy as pigs in ----.” Well, this is where it came from. - Eric     La Boca synthesizes a number of integrated farming techniques. At La Boca, our vision is to provide training and education to all who are interested in learning these types of techniques including other farmers, apprentices and community members. During the growing season, La Boca chickens participate as “chicken tractors” in the garden consuming weeds, old crops, and fertilizing the soil. Pigs also enjoy taking over the fields in the Fall to "clean up" old crops,  route for weeds and consume leftover the corn stalks.