The mystery pig
This is the first time ever that I won’t be seeing what kind of pig we’re getting. I was always the one judging the animal and over the years I have developed a keen eye for the right traits and personality. Unfortunately my hubby has to go on his own today. We are expecting these crazy high temperatures again so I can’t be away from home for too long.
We have a list of several breeders that my husband is going to visit. All of them have different breeds so I have no clue if and what will come home today. This time the choice is not really what we want but what matches our Kune since he’s alone right now.
Normally when we buy pigs we consider the needs at that time, like areas that need ploughing or how much meat we need for the coming winter. And kinda base the breed and number of pigs on that. We always aim to buy in spring and butcher just before the severe cold. Then at the breeders we select a healthy and friendly (not too active) individual and his or her pals. I found anything too active to become dominant towards humans as well, too lazy and it’s not a good forager.
Most pigs won’t have health issues but things to watch out for are any respiratory problems, ear mites (lots of head shaking) or skin issues. Pigs do not seem to handle any respiratory issues and have a hard time recovering from those. That aside most other issues can be cured. Ear mites is something I see sometimes in young pigs but is easy to treat, same goes for skin issues (usually dry skin). I will select pigs that are completely healthy but if you are new to pigs these are the things you will encounter most often.
I’m playing the waiting game right now. It’ll be another five hours till he gets back and I wonder what might come home...
Do you take in consideration how they have been fed, or handled? Does it matter how old they are or the time of year?
We do our own butchering and so the last 2 are a big consideration, and why we don't have pigs this year...
When you look at it from a pig point of view it's not that important how they have been fed. Pigs are getting into whatever they can find so their stomach can handle different things without problems. We humans might have our preferences for example we don't want anything that is fed GMO's.
Handling is something we take into consideration but normally we get pigs at 8-10 weeks old so they are much easier to train. We get them in spring and butcher before the severe cold sets in, which is roughly somewhere between november and february.
Age is a big issue right now because when it's time to butcher they need to have gained quite a bit of weight (with a healthy diet). If we were to buy anything at 8 weeks old there is no way he or she would have gained enough weight, meaning he or she would be left behind. A pig alone is a no-no.
This time we will look for anything between 4-7 months.
Here the bad cold hits by December, so that's our limit. Good point about matching pig ages, though. That was the whole point of the operation, no pig left alone...
Looks like he's going to respect you, as you are starting off as you'd go on with him. Hope it works well for all concerned. :))
He's doing great today. The two are buddies and he's making friendly pig noises now. Huge improvement so he'll be fine.