The Long Goodbye - pigs off for haircuts

Its a sad time when it comes to saying goodbye to our porcine friends. This last week has been about preparing them for their departure and this can be a gloomy set of tasks.

On Tuesday evening I began their trailer-entry training programme. It is quite basic. Position the trailer in its departure point and stabilise it with bricks and both ends. Then for a few days feed them from the trailer. This was learnt from experience. The first couple of batches of pigs weren't so well drilled. I had to practically carry one of them up the ramp and into the trailer. By the second batch I had worked out that a week long feeding routine was probably the answer. However, 6 days in and they still wouldn't go up the ramp. It took me a while to work out that while the trailer felt stable to me, the considerable weight of 4 pigs made it behave like a seesaw. I learnt this by finding myself at the wrong end of the seesaw one morning before work. It was much like the closing scene from the Italian Job with me at one end and pigs at the other.

Then there is the tattooing. Another melancholic task but one I'm getting closing to mastering or at least competency. Back in 2007, the first few pigs I tattooed were a massive inky mess. I had tried to apply large amounts of the ink to each pig and then slap with the spiked slap-marker. Keeping track of which pig had been labelled was a joke as they jostled each other for position at the feeding trough.

I have advanced my skills in two ways. Firstly, don't apply ink to the pig, only to the slap marker. Fingers crossed that works well enough for the meat inspector to read. Looking at my hands now, it appears that even small quantities of ink go a long way and last well.

Secondly, identify the pigs before hand with two clothes pegs clipped to the wiry hair on the back of their necks. (kiwi's refers to this hair style as a mudflap) Then as each pig it slap-marked, remove the clothes pegs, one for the right shoulder and one for the left. Bingo. The job was complete in less than 20 minutes. A great improvement on the first tattooing experience which was an all morning affair with more than a hint of farce.

With only days left, rations have gone up to 12kg per feed. They seem blissfully happy rooting among the leaf litter and under the turf and they are certainly enjoying this exceptional spring weather. Two more days sunshine and then we'll pack-up our snouts and go. They'll be missed.

Pigs Start to Explore Their New World

These new pigs have been with us two weeks now and it was only Wednesday that the snow had finally all melted. Last weekend I repaired the damage done by the cold weather to the copper watter pipes. Three splits. That's on top of the 14 odd that Dad and I fixed about a month ago. I've resolved to replace all the copper with alkathene sometime over the summer.

With the water lines back on and the ice gone I have stopped filling buckets from the kitchen each morning. The pigs now have their water trough in service I just had to show them where to find it and how to use it. I wonder if the electric fence is might be a bit too fierce because they've been rather shy about leaving the straw bedding in the stables. Throughout the last week I have fed them each morning (in the dark) a few meters further from the stables each day. This morning I found them in the depths of the woods, knee deep in mud, probably rooting around for frogs or something else delicious that you find in mud. Anyway, here are some pics I took with Sabine this afternoon.

Classic pig snouts, just like a child would draw. Nice muddy faces too.


Sabine did well taking that photo, she was having her wellies nibbled at the time.

Our Ten Gloucester Old Spots Arrive

On Saturday 7th February I took an icy drive across the South Downs to collect our 10 little weaners. I met Becky, the owner and breeder, on her farm. She had spent the morning rounding up the naughty squeelers and trying to catch them. As I arrived she had them in a trailer full of straw and they had dried out nicely from their muddy games. We wrestled each one into the back of my Land Rover having first given a shot of worming medicine and a spray of blue paint to satisfy the transport regulations.

Back in Farnham, they settled down quickly into their straw lined stable and had a good rest while waiting for the snow to melt. After a while they decided to take a sniff around but it was only this morning that I was able to let them have the full run of the woods now that the snow has started to melt and they can see the fences.

If you can find the time and are in the area, please do come and see them. They love to nibble trouser legs and rub wet noses against the back of your hand, they still can't decide whether to be shy or curious so it's quite a game befriending them.

Feeding times are 5:30am and, when Adity has the energy, around 4pm with the kids after school. Not many visitors for the 5:30am slot...