So, apparently, THIS



lead to THIS



Nine live born Berkshires at 0300 May 1st. Not bad for a gilt! She had trouble on the fifth piglet as it was malpositioned. Thankfully I was able to reach in and give her a successful assist.  We lost one piglet (squashed) before we got the sow out of the farrowing hut and over to an enclosure more suited for a pig her size. My fault on that.

Now comes the ear notching and the castrating. Bacon is a long way away but we're making progress!

Nice mess of pigs you got there.

Yesterday was castration and ear notching day.

We decided we'd kidnap individual piglets and take them to the barn to work on them. There's a particular way to hold piglets that works pretty well to keep them from squealing when you pick them up. Squealing piglet and nursing sow = bad juju.

Things when well until the fourth piglet.

I was two steps out of the hutch when the little gilt I was carrying let out a squeal that sounded like I was jabbing her with a red hot poker. It was LOUD.

The gate was about 50 feet away and the foot race was on. I could hear the sow behind me and she wasn't losing any ground. I popped through the gate and spun around to get it closed. We have a 18 inch piece of hog panel on the ground inside the gate to keep piglets from slipping through the gate. That piece saved my slow ass. When I turned to close the gate, the sow was in my face. Had that piece of hog panel not been there she'd have been on top of me. Fortunately that gate has an auto-latch so I was able to close it before she got over the hog panel.

Lessons learned:

1) Sows look slow and ponderous but they sprint faster than a middle-aged man.

2) Gilt #4 has some serious pipes.

3) Life is good.

Yup, "enraged" is a good way to put it. It makes for quite a sight.

You're right about the ears. I'm not sure what the future holds for these gilts and I like keeping my options open. I do the boys' ears too since I have to castrate them anyway.

Thanks. I'm really pleased with this litter and the sow in particular. She's an excellent mom who has provided a tremendous amount of "teat time" over the last week.

I enjoy working with livestock for a lot of reasons. One of the big ones is that it teaches my kids that they have important responsibilities to our animals and that those responsibilities come first!