Walter Walking South Field Sows
The objective was not to feed the sows a treat of bread but rather to train the near weaner piglets to follow me. We wean the piglets in batches. Each day one of us takes a walk through the field with a little bit of bread and leave a trail. The sows follow me and the piglets follow the sows learning to follow me in the process. At this point the piglets are expecting a treat when they see me coming.
This taming training is important because piglets born out in the mountain fields don’t get huge amounts of contact with people. The see us in passing but are more wild thang than cute pets.
The field training gets the piglets to follow me to where we setup a creep. The larger piglets go in and we close the gate. Smaller piglets can filter back out to continue nursing. Weaned sows then get moved to one of the boar herds where they’ll dry up, reheat and rebreed when they’re ready – typically in about seven days.
Outdoors: 77°F/58°F Sunny
Tiny Cottage: 66°F/63°F
Daily Spark: “I’m going to see if these rabbits hold water” sounds very strange out of context.
