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Walking Pig Fence
Walking Pig Fence Usually we herd pigs with sorting pens but once in a while it is easier to move them by wrapping a section of fencing in a circle and just walking the pig along. This is due to a pig...
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Sows to Underhill
Sows Moving to Underhill Yesterday we finished the last of spring migrations, moving late gestation sows to Underhill, one of the paddock areas in the south field. They’ll have their piglets there and...
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Pig Skull Found
Pig Skull Click for the Big Picture I find bones fascinating. This is what we discover inside when all the squishy parts have been stripped away. Carnivores chew on them and sometimes leave one...
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Spitz Head and Shoulders Above the Crowd
Berkshire Boar Spitz with Finishers In the photo above Spitz, our Berkshire boar, is greeting the finisher pigs who were migrating over from the south fields where they wintered into his domain in the...
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Umbilical Hernia
Pig with Umbilical Hernia Not everybody’s perfect. Once in a while someone’s belly button doesn’t get properly tied by the doctor and you get an outie or it even comes untied, or unbuttoned, in which...
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Escape Route
Whey Rock Escape Route Pigs are not actually all that intelligent despite the anthropomorphism put forth by Hollywood. The fact is, pigs are very, very good at being pigs. But pigs are not dogs and...
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Moving Pigs in a Fence Panel
Normally we herd pigs using our hands or sorting boards but occasionally the situation calls for tighter control such as when a pig is being uncooperative. In such a situation a piece of stock panel...
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Mud Bath
Peanut Butter Relaxing in Spa This is one of our sows, named Peanut Butter, relaxing in her beauty bath on a warm sunny day. It is not uncommon to see them sticking their tongues out like this when...
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Old Sow Piglets
Octavia with New Litter of Piglets QuarterMane† Octavia is one of our older sows and this is a small litter for her. She may be on the downslope at the end of her fertility run after nine years. The...
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White Pig Tanning Lotion
White Pig with Sunscreen I mentioned about the various uses of mud[1, 2] the other day. This sow is showing off her beauty secret. She’s nude, although you might not know it from the thick layer of...
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The Rubbing Tree
The Rubbing Tree This tree is in one of the lower south field farrowing paddocks. As you can see it is a favored rubbing spot for the big sows who are farrowing and nursing down there. When cutting...
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Nest of Dirt
Dirt Nest I’ve mentioned how sows build nests before. Some of straw, some of sticks, some of stones. This sow built hers from soil. Cool soil to soak off her body heat in the warm summer days. While...
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South Field Sows
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...
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Yukka Yogurt & Pig Morality
FDR – The Paralyzed Pig That’s FDR in the photo. She’s a gilt weaner piglet named after the late great President. He had polio. I’m not sure what her problem is but she can’t use her back legs. Still,...
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South Field Sow Labor – Name that Sow
Sow in Labor This lady is birthing, that is to say farrowing piglets. I came across her in the lower south field which is full of a dozen late gestation sows and 49 newborn piglets from this week. She...
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Willing to Walk
Big Sows – Far Nest This is not a July picture. We do not have snow now – not this year in July. Thank you! It has happened. It has snowed in July but that is not what this is about. What this photo...
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South Field Sows, Chickens, Ducks & Piglets
Sows Waiting This spot is a junction of many fields. Sometimes that fence is open to allow free passage or for herding of pigs from the lower to higher mountain fields. Today it is closed with the...
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Piggy Back
Me and My Pig – Walter Carrying Roaster Pigs get to a size where carrying them gets a bit more difficult like with this 80 lb roaster. The fact that he objected to being picked up added to the...
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Brimming with Milk
Black Sow and Piglets This is her first litter, thus she’s what is termed a Parity 1 sow. Before the litter was born she was a gilt – that is to say a ‘Miss’ in the parlance of pig production. In...
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One Day of Rotational Grazing – Shoats
Shoats in New Paddock These are shoats, small pigs after the weaning stage. They’ve been rotationally grazed through the weaning paddocks, just completed the lower garden paddock for its fall gleaning...
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