Thursday, March 21, 2013

Pig wrangling 101



Wiggles with her litter at 1 week old.

Wiggles latest brood of Berk babies were weaned a few weeks ago and were ready for "greener pastures".  With the completion of our latest fencing project, we had a new twenty acre pasture just waiting for them. Now for the fun. To catch, load and unload eight pigs, comprising of 30-40 pound of solid muscle each. I have yet to built a ramp to aid with loading into our trailer and the pigs were still short enough to underneath of it instead of into it, so using the trailer was out. This meant we had to hand catch and place each one into the covered truck bed to transport them across the road to their new home.

I used the billiards analogy of "breaking a game of nine ball" do describe how piglets fly off in different directions the last time we had to catch these little angels, see Back behind bars from 1/14/13. They were all less than five pounds back then. Man how fast they have grown! If you have read the previous stories you know that Wiggles is a ferocious mama pig. So, before we even attempted this task we had to make sure she was WELL confined. She happily followed me and a bucket of feed into a barn stall. I then closed the wooden gate, latched it, reinforced it with a metal gate and pulled our Polaris Ranger up against it, sandwiching it all together. And then I set the brake to make sure it couldn't be pushed backwards. Can't be too careful when dealing with this mad mama pig!

Next, we backed our truck as close as we could to the fence and enlisted our neighbor, Larry, to operate the tail gate. We lured the piggies into their sleeping shed with some grain and tied a gate up to block their escape route. Now that we had all eight pigs locked up in a 12' x 12' shed and the truck backed right up to it, you would think it would be simple for Allen to pick up each pig, lift it over the 4' high fence, pass it off to me, then Larry would open the tail gate and I would place it into the back of the truck. Our plan was perfect. Oh how simple it all would be...I say in a tone oozing with sarcasm.

We pride ourselves on the gentle treatment of our animals and try to make every handling episode go as smoothly as possible. And trust me when I say there was NO better way to accomplish this task. Now while our breeding herd loves our attention and welcomes ear scratching and belly rubs, these little guys have yet to fully develop those warm and fuzzy feeling towards us. And after Allen caught the first one, the others become quite certain that they wanted no parts of this little joy ride!

Have you ever tried to contain a toddler in mid temper tantrum? Now, increase the muscle mass by 100%, give them four legs, each with a sharp cloven hoof, throw in full epileptic seizure body contortion and ear piercing squeals, rivaling that of Christina Agulara trying to shatter a crystal wine glass with her voice alone....get the picture? So, Allen has the first one in a full bear hug, which is the only way to physically contain that degree of wiggling madness. He heaves the heavy load over the fence where I had to fully bear hug the pig as well, before Allen could let go of his embrace. Somewhere amidst all the commotion my nose become keenly aware that our little piggies had a bit of the "nervous bowel" syndrome. I was now plastered in piggy pooh...oh the joys of farming!

 After the first two or three we got into a rhythm and it went rather smoothly. We got all eight safely loaded into the covered back of the truck and driven the short distance to their new home. Once there, the eight decided they were not coming out of the truck bed. That is when Allen had to belly crawl under the bed cover to the rear of the truck to pull each one out one at a time. Remember those nervous piggy bowels? The pooh that covered the truck bed now covered Allen as well. There are some days our work clothes never make it inside the back door. We have to strip down on the back porch, hose our clothes off with a garden hose and then toss them STRAIGHT into the washer...this was one of those days.


Enjoying greener pastures.

The eight little piggies are now quiet at home in their new abode. They have a large barn with an open corral all to themselves. We will leave them in there for a few days so they can learn where they will be fed and where their water is. Then we will turn them out into the large pasture with acres upon acres of green grass to be grazed and tons of dirt to rooted. There is even a giant mud hole just waiting for them.






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