A Kunekune rotates differently from other pigs
A Kunekune is built to graze rather than plough, with a short, upturned snout that crops grass instead of levering up whole sods the way longer-snouted pigs do. Rotation still matters, because even a Kunekune concentrates her wear in favourite places: the shady corner, the wallow edge, the ground under her feeder. Move her to a fresh patch while the current one still looks like pasture, not after it looks like a yard. Small sections moved every few days suit her better than one large field she camps on for a month.
Fencing and layout for a Kunekune rotation
A Kunekune respects a low portable electric fence once she has been trained to it on solid ground first, and two strands set at her nose height usually hold a contented pig better than height does. Train her to the fence inside a secure pen before relying on it on open pasture, and keep the fence line visible with tape so she can see what she learned to avoid. Each Kunekune section needs shade she can lie in at midday, a wallow or a reliably damp hollow for skin care and cooling, and water she cannot foul by standing in it. Place her shelter so it can be dragged or rebuilt at the fresh end of the rotation rather than anchored in the worn end.
Timing the moves on Kunekune pasture
Move a Kunekune when the grass in her patch is grazed down to a few inches or when she starts nosing and testing the turf instead of cropping it, which is her signal that the easy grazing is gone. Rest the vacated patch until the grass has regrown thickly and any rooted spots have been levelled and reseeded; a patch rested only briefly carries her manure's parasite eggs back onto short grass where she eats close to the ground. In wet weather, shorten each stay, because Kunekune feet and snouts churn soft soil far faster than dry soil, and a churned patch recovers slowly.
Feeding points move with the pig
A Kunekune rotation fails quietly if the feeder and trough never move. She will graze the far corners lightly and live around the feed station, wearing a bare, manured apron of ground that collects flies and mud. Shift her feed and water to a new spot inside the patch every day or two, ideally onto the least-worn ground, and let the wallow sit at the patch's low edge where drainage helps rather than floods. Kunekunes gain weight readily on rich grazing plus rations, so as pasture quality rises through the rotation, trim the supplemental feed rather than letting both run at full rate.
Watching a Kunekune for rotation problems
A Kunekune on a sound rotation stays clean-legged, round without being fat, and busy grazing through the day. Skin that stays caked and irritated suggests the wallow did not move with her or the patch stayed wet too long, and a pig that roots aggressively on fresh grass may be short of grazing area, minerals in her ration, or simply bored in too small a section. Lameness, loss of appetite, or a sudden stop in grazing are reasons to call your veterinarian rather than simply move her and hope. Recording each move on KinsLe, where Family Sharing lets every helper see which patch your Kunekune is on and which comes next, keeps her rotation steady even when someone else does the evening fence shift.