For all those who have questions regarding raising pigs more naturally check out the workshop to be held June 23, 2011 in Kiel, WI. You can view the agenda by logging on to http://glacierlandrcd.org/?110260000000 for details. Yes, Wisconsin is a long way from many of you, but it will be well worth your time and money. I am working with Will Winter to make this an extraordinary event. In the event you would love to attend, but distance is a factor, please let me know, as we are considering bringing this same workshop to the areas where there is interest. Contact me at or call 920-579-1544. Educated we can do even more for this wonderful breed.
Raising heritage breed hogs, especially the ones with low numbers of individuals, brings with it more than a business proposition, more than a cost per pound of meat or return on investment. To be happy you must reset your expectations.
I often speak with folks that have raised modern crosses and are frustrated by the low profits, if any, and are looking at heritage breeds as a way to renew their hog businesses based on the selling price of heritage hogs. I have to caution them that they will probably be disappointed as their metrics for success, their baseline for what makes a good hog, is skewed by their experience with modern cross hogs. They consider things like average number of piglets per litter, weaning weight, time to butcher weight, ratio of meat to bone, and many heritage hogs just can’t compete. This makes a lot of sense; of course modern crosses are better because the breeders who created them were pretty smart folks. They started with heritage breeds and selectively crossed those that had larger litters, larger muscles, etc. It would be unrealistic to take a foundation hog and expect it to be as good a piglet or pork producer as the improved breeds.
However, as “better” hogs were created, they lost some of the traits their ancestors had. This also makes sense because modern breeders raise their hogs in environments where things like cold and heat tolerance and pasturing ability are not necessary. To maximize the survival of piglets you provide them the least risky environment possible. You artificially inseminate the sows to prevent mating injuries and maximize insemination success. You raise the sows in an environment that is designed to improve fetus retention. When farrowing time comes you restrain the sow so that she cannot possibly injure the piglets and you keep her restrained so that the piglets can suckle easily, balancing the numbers of piglets between sows so that teat competition is eliminated. You wean the piglets early on a specialized feed so that you can breed back the sows at the earliest possible opportunity. Then you feed the piglets with a special diet to encourage rapid growth, including antibiotics that enhance feed efficiency. All of this makes sense if the metrics you use are as many piglets as possible raised to butcher weight as soon as possible.
There is nothing wrong with this from a business perspective, except perhaps the result of a saturated pork market with continued pressure from customer expectations of consistent quality pork at a low price.
However, replace these specialized cross hogs with heritage breeds and this model won’t work. Your litter numbers will be low and growth rates will be slower. You will only be able to produce a limited amount of pork because the market that will pay the price to make this profitable will be very small. And the cuts that will come from your hogs will not look like the traditional cuts that most people are accustomed to.
This also is true on a smaller scale. Hog farmers that raise a few hundred hogs per year will see the same issues; low litter numbers, low piglet weight and growth rates, lower feed efficiency and non-traditional cuts. Those that have learned their craft from modern crosses will be very disappointed.
In order to be happy with heritage breeds, one has to reset their expectations and understand the unique value that comes from the old breeds. Heritage breeds are best for those who are living the “homestead” life, making the change to living on a small farm in a simple, natural manner. This holistic view of farming is often more beneficial to the soul than the wallet. It is a decision to appreciate the intangible value of traditional farm life; doing things the old way and appreciating the benefits of providing food from your own effort. Usually hogs are only a part of this plan; a square to be filled. People take a look at their farms and eating habits and decide to try to make the farm provide as much of their family’s dietary needs as possible. They eat vegetables so a garden is a natural; they eat chicken, beef and pork so poultry, cattle and hogs are needed. They may want to do some old crafts, such as cheese, wool and honey so their cow (or goat) needs to provide milk; they need sheep to provide wool and bees to make honey. Once they have defined their needs they then start the process of choosing the breeds that will work for them.
It is easy, and inexpensive, to choose commonly available breeds and vegetable varieties, and many folks start with that. But since the choice to homestead is as much about emotional fulfillment as anything else, some folks decide to choose breeds that better fit this concept; going “old school” by choosing heritage livestock and heirloom vegetables. A Holstein cow will provide beef and milk, and a Hampshire hog will provide lots of pork, but a Canadienne cow or Large Black hog brings the real satisfaction of helping to resurrect a rare breed. Rare breeds have connected groups of like minded people that brings the enjoyment of belonging to a community. I’ve made lots of friends, around the world, that I would never have met had I not chosen to raise heritage breeds.
Heritage breeds also have meat that looks and tastes different than the stuff that you find in the grocery store. The first time you see the dark colored pork from a Large Black you might think it was beef. But cook Large Black pork low and slow and you will be ruined; grocery store pork will just never satisfy again.
Some heritage breeds, especially the rare ones, can also help pay for the homestead life, and although that should not be the primary consideration, it is nice to be able to make a little more off the hogs so that I can have other livestock that don’t provide much return. My sweetie and I call it our “traveling money”; we get to go see our kids every once in a while.
It’s also nice that the livestock we have chosen can utilize the food that grows naturally on our farm. Sustainability is all about lowering the need for outside inputs; making your farm “sustainable”. We started with Duroc and Chester Whites but left those breeds behind because they required too much supplemental feed. Our Large Blacks need less than half of the supplemental feed.
I think that the current price for Large Black and other heritage pigs will endure for many years as more people are choosing the homestead life due to the economy. Even when companies start hiring again the lessons will be remembered; you’ve got to have more to your life than a title and a paycheck. Life in a cubicle is just not fulfilling; even a part time farm will make life more complete. And if you choose livestock that don’t require constant attention…
With any hog, the true future is not in the breeding market but in the pork market. There will always be farmers who provide high quality breeding stock but the most successful will be those that can make the transition to pork. Large Black or LB crosses will be the product; hogs that retain the taste and quality of LBs while providing better proportioned cuts. The Large Black has lots of pork belly and ribs but relatively small hams and roasts; cross it with a Tamworth, Duroc or Hamp and you get the best of both. We have several LB X Hamp litters each year and they all sell out quickly to people who want traditional cuts with old world flavor.
My point in this very long post was to try to explain why you simply can’t compare heritage breeds with modern crosses. Different strokes for different folks; the markets are different. When choosing what hog you want to raise you need to match the breed to your expectations. If you like the natural life, the simple pleasure of raising livestock in the manner they were raised in the 1800s, then choose livestock that retain the ability to do well in that environment.
Since I raise Heritage breed hogs I am always interested in how they were raised back when they were considered as every day hogs. I try to replicate the conditions that made them successful; try to provide them with the environment their ancestors had. It can be difficult since most of the references published today are all about raising hogs in large barns.
A very good source I’ve found is the Internet Archive, an online repository and search engine for digitized collections of books, photos and other media. Using this source I’ve found several old books from the 1800s that detail how hogs were raised back then; giving me some really interesting insights. Here is one paragraph from a book published in 1899 that may make you really appreciate the different economies of then and now:
For all of those who are raising these old hogs, I encourage you to do the same and learn about the “old ways”. Your research may provide some really good tips on how to make these old breeds more successful.
Did you know that piglets are born with little slippers over their nails?
Sometimes called slippers, or thimbles, piglets are born with pliable covers over their nails. These are meant to prevent injury to the sow while the piglets are in utero. After they are born the little slippers usually wear down or fall off within ten minutes or so as the piglets scramble around.
Other than a curiosity that many are not aware of, these slippers can be very useful to diagnose stillbirths. If they are still attached then it is likely that the piglet was stillborn or died very soon after birth. If they are not present, usually that means that the piglet lived long enough to wear them down.
Just another interesting fact to add to your toolbox!
I’ve raised a lot of pigs and learned a lot through my mistakes. My experience has shown me that the natural method is best for a number of reasons.
There is usually no need for preventative antibiotics such as in medicated feed. Don’t treat your pigs if they aren’t sick. Most medicated feed and milk replacer has oxytetracycline added. This is a good antibacterial medicine, but when given in constant doses over time it can actually open the pig up to some very serious infections. Use over time it can create resistant bacteria that cannot be controlled by the antibiotic. Additionally, most of the drug is excreted in manure and goes into your pasture.
We lost two cross litters last spring due to severe meningitis; infection of the brain by bacteria. The piglets all died over a period of a few weeks and our vet tried several different antibiotics to try and control the infection. It took an autopsy to verify what had happened.
When we would get bottle babies, we used to use non-medicated goat milk replacer. But it was so expensive that we decided to go with an all livestock milk replacer that was much cheaper. The two litters became bottle babies because their sows, first time moms, did not produce milk. We fed the 26 piglets with the cheaper milk replacer. The first few weeks they did great but then, one by one, they became listless, appeared dizzy, started paddling and then died.
Only after losing all of them did we realize that the milk replacer was medicated with oxytetracycline. What we had done was to kill off all of the good bacteria in their bodies and they became infected by an oxytetracycline resistant bacteria which eventually killed them.
Large hog farms routinely provide medicated feed to their hogs. The result is a large increase in the number of antibiotic resistant bacteria and a call by the FDA for producers to stop using medicated feed. This is a serious problem with clear indications not only for livestock but also for human health.
Don’t make the same mistake. If your pigs get sick have a vet diagnose and treat them. Don’t give them medicine when they are healthy.
Most illnesses can be prevented through good practices such as keeping their water fresh, cleaning their area daily, giving them fresh, natural (non-medicated) food and rotating them between paddocks or pasture.
Give them as clean and natural an environment as you are able to. Learn as much about pigs as you can. Read the old texts (from the 1800s) and gain from the experience of those who had never heard of raising pigs in a crowded environment or of using antibiotics. Your pigs will reward you.
Yep, it’s that time again. Time to get the old farm ready for the snow and ice. Part of that is to figure out where all of those hogs are going to spend the winter.
After driving to Home Depot and pricing all of the pressure treated lumber we would need to build sheds for all of the new hogs we bought this year, and freaking out at each 4×8 shelter costing over $200 just in lumber, we decided to go with hoop houses again. We’ve overwintered our mature hogs for the last two winters in these and most of the hoops are still standing (the ones that aren’t fell victim to little goats thinking they were mountains needing to be climbed…).
If you don’t know what hoop houses are, here is a good site with photos and instructions. They work very well for yearling and older hogs during the coldest of nights as long as there is lots of hay inside. However, we keep our piglets and their sows in smaller huts with heat lamps.
Here are some things I suggest you learn about now as you are likely to encounter them, if you haven’t yet.
Know how to give injections. Some medication must be given intramuscular, some must be given subcutaneously. Know how to give each type and where they should be administered.
Know which needle size to use with each common medication you are likely to use. Which is larger, 18 gauge or 22 gauge? How do you give an IM injection to a new piglet that has very little muscle? How do you restrain a mature hog for injections?
Know the different common sizes of syringes and which should be used for different dosages. Can you reuse a syringe for multiple hogs? If so, when? If not, why not? Can you use one syringe but change needles for each hog? How do you disinfect multiple dose syringes between uses?
Know about anaphylaxis and why you should have epinephrine on hand and ready to use when you give injections. Where can you get epinephrine? How do you administer it?
Know how to store different medications and how long they can be stored.
Why might Dectomax be better than other anthelmintics? Should you have a regular worming schedule? Why or why not? What choice do you have if you don’t want to use an injectable anthelmintic? What can you do to lessen the possibility of your hogs being overloaded with internal parasites (therefore not requiring anthelmintics)?
What is the difference between LA200 and Biomycin 200? Why does the difference matter? What symptoms might indicate their use?
What is “Scour Halt”? When and why is it used?
What is “Excede”? Why might it be a better choice than others?
What is the difference between bacterial and viral infections? Which is e-coli? What infections can be transmissible to humans?
What are the benefits and downsides of clipping needle teeth, docking tails, castrating boars? Does your farm operation require any of these practices?
Why do industrial farms provide antibiotics in their hog feed? Is that appropriate for your farm? What could the negative effects be if you followed this practice?
What is the normal temperature for a piglet / hog? How do you find out the temp of your pigs? What do you do if your piglet’s temp is 95.5° F? How about 105.5° F? Which might indicate a bacterial infection? Does either indicate the possible need for an antibacterial? How do you raise or lower the temp of a piglet?
How do you treat a tear to a piglet’s ear? A deep cut to its leg? A dislocated hip? A broken tooth? A prolapsed rectum? A scratch on it’s back that bleeds but has not gone through the skin? Which can you handle and which need a vet?
How do you bottle feed piglets? What conditions require that? How do you tube feed a piglet? What equipment is needed for each?
How long does a sow produce colostrum? How long after birth can a piglet get the benefit from colostrum? What do you do for an orphan piglet? Will a lactating sow accept and feed an orphan from another litter? What do you do if there is no sow available that is producing colostrum? What is the difference between powdered or paste colostrum and colostrum supplement?
How do you wean a bottle baby piglet? When does this start and how do you know a piglet is weaned?
What is a biosecurity plan? Why does it matter? What are the specific procedures for your farm? How long do you quarantine swine? Is there any difference between that period and one for cattle? If so, why?
This is a very long list of questions and topics; you may be able to answer these right now; but if you can correctly answer all of these then I would consider you ready to take care of swine. And you would know more than perhaps 90 percent of swine caretakers.
Where do you find answers to these questions? Of course, there is the Internet. But there are also some very good books out there. I highly recommend these:
Large Animal Clinical Procedures for Veterinary Technicians. Elizabeth A. Hanie.
Handbook of Pig Medicine. Peter GG Jackson and Peter D Cockcroft.
Pig Ailments Recognition and Treatment. Mark White.
IMO, the best thing that these books can do is to let a newbie understand just how important knowledge is and how to see when they are in over their heads. One of the common things that I have seen is that newbies (and veterans) assume they know more than they do. It happened to me and a lot of pigs died due to my hubris. Now I know when to call the vet.
I sometimes hear comments from folks that generally go like this: “You can’t trust a (boar, sow, hog); never turn your back on it!” “You can’t tame a mean hog!” “All of you ‘hobby farmers’ who play with your pigs are not real hog farmers.”
Today I added a post to my blog that explains why I treat my hogs as I do. Why I “play” with them and don’t have any fear being with them. I thought it might be interesting to this group so I’m reposting it here:
When I talk about some of the things I do, such as give belly rubs to my hogs, talk with them and look them in the eye, let them rub against me (not the most sanitary thing…), sit with sows while they are farrowing, check ears, feet and eyes without having to restrain the hog, some people doubt that I am being totally honest. This is because they think of hogs as aggressive man-eaters that can’t be tamed or trusted.
I’ve recently made a point of proving that my hogs are docile and easy to be around when people come to the farm. I bring the visitor to the fence and then I walk into the hog herd and start scratching them, rubbing their bellies, checking their ears for parasites, talking to them…
Silly, isn’t it?
The truth that I have learned is that if your hogs trust you, they will let you do your work. They will let you do all the things you must do, such as check them for parasites, examine and treat injuries, examine teats to ensure they work and know when they are about to farrow (even feel their babies move around inside them), check their piglets and treat those that need help. If your hogs trust you they will let you check their teeth, give them injections and oral medication, without having to restrain them. The truth is: my silly methods allow me to be a hog farmer without needing all of the expensive restraint hardware that modern farms require. My method, in my opinion, is better.
And it’s all about trust. Belly rubs, soft talk, ear scratching, just making sure to say “hi” to each hog every day, all of these techniques have a purpose. If my hogs know that I am not going to hurt them, that I pose no threat, then they trust me to touch them and check parts of their bodies as I need to. It makes my work easy.
I have taken in mature hogs that their owners described as “just mean”. Boars that would rip you to pieces if they could. Sows that fight every time they see each other. But within a couple of weeks after being on my farm they all have become very docile and content. This happens because they just did not trust their previous owners, due to the manner in which they were treated, but they learn to trust me because I don’t do the things that scare or hurt them.
So, how do I build this trust? It all starts with an understanding of hog behavior. Hogs may seem like predators with their large teeth, loud growls, and big size. But they are actually prey animals. Hogs are food for predators and their instinct naturally makes them distrust other animals like dogs, bears and people. The way to overcome their fear is to give them no reason to fear you.
It starts when they are born. I am there whenever I can to soothe the sow and let the piglets see that I am part of their new world. A couple of days after birth the piglets are walking around with mom, and I am there too. I don’t try to grab or hold the piglets (unless necessary for their health). I am just there. After a week or so they start walking over to me, sniff my boots, play around me, and then I know that I have not done anything to make them fear my presence.
The process continues as they grow (if we keep them). They become part of a herd that trusts me and the herd’s behavior reinforces their knowledge that I am not a threat. When the new pigs show me that I am accepted I then start touching them, scratches and belly rubs begin, and that becomes part of their daily routine. Then they start welcoming me when I visit and asking, through their grunts and behavior, that I provide attention to them. It is then that the process is complete. They don’t fear me, I don’t fear them, and I can do whatever is needed to assure their continued health.
When we talk to new pig owners my sweetie and I explain how they can achieve the same:
1. Take them home and put them into a healthy environment.
2. For the first week, don’t try to grab them or pick them up. Just go into their environment, provide clean water and good food, and sit with them for awhile. Talk to them, read a book, but don’t try to touch them. If they start coming to you, let them but don’t react other than to speak in soft tones.
3. After the pigs start welcoming you and touching you, then you can start touching them. Don’t grab them, don’t try and force them, just scratch their ears and necks if they let you.
4. Once the scratching becomes a welcome thing then start with the rubbing. Pet them as you would a dog or cat. Move your hands down their sides and rub their bellies. When they lay down for a belly rub, they have fully accepted you and trust you. And you can do what you need to.
We know this restraint (on your part) is hard. You want to pick up your new cute piglet, want to hug it, but doing so would make the piglet feel “captured”. For a prey animal this means danger! Don’t make it think you are a predator. The process is essential if you want to be able to easily check or treat the pig whenever it needs it.
Be the friend that your pig wants and it will trust you to do “weird” things.
As a group of rare pig breeders, we have reached a stage where we have a large enough population of Large Black pigs, dispersed across North America, to be more selective in our breeding programs. In the past you were lucky just to get a breeding pair; now there is enough diversity, and documentation of that diversity, for us to be more concerned with the health of the genetics of our breed. To be responsible breeders we need to now include the amount of future inbreeding in our herds as much as any other factor.
If you have been a breeder of registered dogs, cats, cattle or goats, you already understand what the Coefficient of Inbreeding (CI) means and its historical and scientific basis. A simple explanation of Coefficient of Inbreeding is that it measures the amount of inbreeding present in a single animal. The higher the CI, usually expressed as a percentage, the higher the amount of inbreeding. A 25% CI is equivalent to mating half-siblings. You may get 30% or 40% or higher CI mating brother to sister depending on how inbred the parents are. A CI of 10% or less is considered to be good for a rare breed.
Why does inbreeding matter? When you mate two animals that are closely related there is a high probability that certain traits are passed on to their offspring. These traits may be beneficial, such as a large amount of functional teats, or they may be detrimental, such as a susceptibility to certain diseases or internal parasites.
Being aware of genetic diversity is critically important for any rare breed. One of the best ways to keep diversity in the breed is to keep more males as breeding stock, rather than using AI semen that comes from one or two boars. If everyone uses the same boar or its semen, no matter how great he is, the breed loses the diversity of the genetic material that is so critical. Resist using AI (artificial insemination) except for importing some genetics you can’t get otherwise.
This is where the CI of our animals becomes useful. When making a decision of which boar to breed to which sow you can calculate the expected CI of their offspring. A simple plan would be to shoot for a CI of 20% or less; the lower, the better.
So how do you know what will make a good breeding mate for your pigs? The answer is not simple, but calculation of the CI is a start. As the Registrar for the Large Black Hog Association I can calculate the CI for any Large Black hogs to which the Association has the pedigree information. Just email me with your request.
There are several ear notch numbering systems but we use the one that has always been used by the LBH’s. The notches all look the same (a V) but the position of the notches is what determines the number it represents. This is best shown in an illustration but it may help if I also explain.
Look at a pig’s ear and imagine it has a line drawn half way between where the ear begins at the head and the tip of the ear. Some notches must be placed inside that imaginary line (near the head) and some notches must be placed toward the outside of the line (toward the tip). In addition, the notches will be placed either on the bottom of the ear or on top of the ear. The position of the notch can represent the number 1, the number 3, or the number 9. There are actually larger numbers but for now, these 3 numbers should serve you well.
The number one is represented by one notch on the bottom of the ear toward the inside (near the head). This one can be a bit tricky because the ear forms a crease as it comes out of the head and then folds over. You want to stay to the inside of the imaginary dividing line but not so close to the head that it is hidden in the fold. The number 2 is represented by two notches (notch 1 + notch 1 makes 2) on the bottom of the ear on the inside (near the head). So, if you see an ear with two notches close together on the bottom of the ear near the head, that is number 2. You want the notches close but not so close they grow into one big notch. Be sure and leave some ear between the two but you don’t want a big gap either.
For the number 3, we place the notch on the bottom side like number one but this time we move it out toward the tip of the ear. Do not remove the tip but make sure the notch is to the outside of the imaginary line. When you look at an ear with one notch near the tip, that is a number 3 even though you only have one notch. It is the placement of the notch that makes it a number 3 instead of the number 1. If you were to put two notches close together on the outside, you would have the number 6 because we add the two notches together, just like we added the two notches near the head to make the number 2.
Well, what if we need the number 4 or 5? We use a combination of the number 1 notch and the number 3 notch to add up to 4 or 5. For example, the number 4 would have one notch out toward the tip (3) and one notch near the head (1) and those two notches added together would equal 4, even though there are only two notches. That’s why it is so important to put the notches at one end or the other because if you place them in the middle, you won’t know if it represents a one or a three. For the number 5 you will have one notch toward the tip (3) and two notches close together next to the head for 2 (1+1).
Now you should be seeing a pattern. We never use more than 2 notches close together. Instead of using 3 or more notches close together, we move to a different position to represent a higher number. Six would equal two notches near the tip, seven would equal two notches near the tip and one near the head, and eight would equal two near the tip and two near the head (3+3+1+1).
For the number 9, we move to the top of the ear and place one notch toward the tip on top. To form numbers greater than 9, we use a combination of notches on top of the ear and on the bottom of the ear and add them up. The number 10 would be formed with two notches. Can you figure out where they would be? One notch on the top of the ear near the tip (but don’t remove the tip) and one notch on bottom close to the head. For number 11 we have the #9 notch on top and two #1 notches on bottom and so on until you reach the number 27 and that is a notch on top near the head but it will be years probably before you reach number 27.
A picture is worth a thousand words. Here’s a downloadable picture of Large Black pig ears with notches. (Link under construction)
Remember, the right ear contains the litter number. You will start with litter number 1 and add litter numbers each time you have a litter you are going to register. Let’s say you have 2 LBH gilts that farrow in March. This is your first litter so it is litter #1. When the second gilt farrows, you will name that litter #2. When fall rolls around and they each farrow again, you will have litter number 3 and 4 and you just continue counting as long as you raise hogs. This litter number will go on your registration papers even if you don’t notch ears. If you use tags instead, you will need to make a note on the application the tag number for this particular pig. Someone may later notch the pig’s ears with this number if the tag falls off.
The left ear is the pig number. We typically start numbering the females and follow with the males. You will not be able to keep up with which pig was actually born first and it really doesn’t matter. You just need to be sure and notch the whole litter before they are allowed to run with piglets of another litter because once you mix them, you will never be able to sort them out again.
LBH’s have tiny ears when they are born so we like to wait until they are at least a few weeks old before we notch them. If you have not already done so, please have them notched by 6 weeks. After that, they get harder to hold and handle while “working” your pigs. We find it efficient to notch, worm, and vaccinate all at the same time. We do not cut needle teeth or tails and have never found a need for that. We have had a few tails freeze off in bad weather but they heal quickly and do not seem to cause a problem.
Large Blacks are extremely docile and if handled often and gently, they will become big pets. Don’t let that fool you. Nature has preserved the pigs for thousands of years by instilling the herd and mother’s with a protective instinct. When a pig feels threatened (such as picking them up) they will squeal and the whole herd will be stirred into action. Your big pet may feel the need to bite you or push you over in order to save the pig. Safety should always come first no matter how tame you think your pigs are. If you can lure the mother away from the litter with feed and then close the gate, that would be best. You can also buy a light weight guard designed as a shield to hold between you and the hog. Hogs are extremely intelligent and they will not soon forget rough treatment if you try to keep them at bay with sticks or such violence. As a last resort, drop the pig and get out of the way before you get hurt.
We find it helpful to carry the pigs in a box rather than carry them in our arms. As long as you are holding a pig, they will squeal. Once you drop them in a box, they typically shut up and the herd calms down. To catch a young pig, try grabbing them by the hind leg and holding them upside down. They actually squeal less than when you hold them in your arms like a football. Once you have the young pig away from the herd, it helps to have one person hold them and the other person notch. Simply wipe the ear with a disinfectant like iodine and then place the notcher and squeeze it fast and hard. It should make a clean break and yes the ear will bleed but it will soon seal over without a problem. If you are concerned, you can find powders at your feed store designed to stop the bleeding.
Once you get used to reading notches, you can identify your breeding animals and mark it in your records when each sow has her litters. Notch the piglets before turning multiple litters out together and you should have no problem identifying individuals. If you happen to buy a new pig/hog that has the same ear notch as an animal you currently have, you will need to add some additional form of identification. Since we have many new breeders, we will see a lot of pigs marked with litter numbers one through 5. You can try adding a tag to the new pig. Even if it falls off, you will have a hole in the middle of the ear that the other pig does not have. If you don’t want to add a tag, then punch a hole in the middle of the ear anyway, just some way to distinguish between the two.
We feel that all pigs should be notched but all pigs do not need to be registered. Only the very best should be kept for the breeding pool but you can’t tell which are best until they get some age. Select the pigs that are to be kept for pork and notate in your records which pig numbers were not registered. You may have a litter that you notch pig number one through 11 but when they are weaned, you only want to register 6. List all pigs on the litter registration so the sows fertility can be documented and then just put “N/A” in the space for the pigs you do not want registered. For example, you will have all 11 pigs listed but you may only register pig number 4/2, 4/3, 4/6, 4/8, 4/10, 4/11 (of course assuming they came from litter number 4). You will pay for and receive 6 papers with these pig numbers and the association will note that your sow had 11 live pigs born.
Many of our breeders breed mainly for pork and do not register most of their litters. If you choose to use all pigs from a litter as pork, then there is no need to register this litter or give it a litter number. You may not even want to notch since all are going to the processor. Notching and registering is for those that may enter the breeding pool at some point.
As owners of these wonderful pigs, you already know how important it is to save this breed and keep it pure. By notching your pigs, naming them for their blood line and getting your breeders registered, you are ensuring their future. And as always, the association is here to help you along the way. Thanks for taking the time to get it right.
