First Sale

Sandwiched between mammy and daddy

So six weeks have literally flown by and today four of the babies left for their new home in Bettystown. I had been dreading this moment. Not because I was sad to see them go, I actually was delighted. Their poor mother is a shadow of her former self and I am pumping feed into her. But I was dreading catching them and risking getting eaten by an angry sow. 

As with everything you worry about, it all went off relatively smoothly in the end. Oh but by golly there was a lot of ear piercing squealing. My son reckoned if a health and safety officer was about, we'd all have had ear muffs on. Add to this the first one caught and put into the back of the straw-filled jeep attempted to jump back out. Thankfully the new owner was deft and caught her mid-air getting zapped by the electric fence in the process.

The second was thrown in and the new owner by now ready and waiting almost decapitated me slamming the door shut.  My son who has the gentle, patient hands of my grandfather caught the next two and slowly (with me screaming move, move, MOVE.....I tend to get a wee bit stressed on these occasions) added them to the boot.

Momma was concerned at her babies' squeals but her love of her grub was a stronger lure. So she left her trough, grunted a bit and acted agitated but then remembered her food. Daddy was just wondering why he had been fenced off again and was unable to rob his misses' grub. The babies by now buried in deep straw murmered a few times and then there was silence.

Paperwork completed, money exchanged and a bit of a chat about feeding and they were off.  Immediately the talk turned to - will we do it again?  I being a bit more cautious said wait until we get the rest sold. I'm keeping three for myself, family members and some friends. And Lady Lavinia needs a bit of a rest now, lolling about in the sun and gaining some weight. But I would be very tempted to buy a Gloucester Old Spot sow and breed her with Laertes. 

Watch this space.

Having fun in the snow

Snow pigs

Laertes, Lady Lavinia and the Little uns

The happy family

Laertes the boar (son of Oldfarm's Polonius) and his misses, Lady Lavinia produced nine lovely, healthy piglets on the 28th January. It was one of the coldest days of the winter so far with snow on the ground. I saw her in the morning briefly before leaving for work as she was dragging in wet, dirty grass into the new house we had moved into the field for her (nesting). It was to be the designated maternity wing. 

We had awful trouble with the last house as neither would sleep in it for days. They actually slept out in the cold rather than go in. This was despite me climbing in to show them it was safe and desperately hoping they wouldn't decide to come in on top of me. But they just looked in at me as if I was mad (which I probably am.)  So I was surprised to see that she accepted the new house so readily. Laertes was much more wary and didn't venture in at all. 

When I got home that day I sneaked down to have a peep. I could see her back and just assumed she was still in labour, so I went to get her some more straw as it was freezing.  When I came back and started to put the straw in, I saw a piglet peep up from behind her. At that point she jumped up and there was a lot of squealing as she blundered about, not being sure where to put her feet down without standing on a baby. But don't worry; those squeals. Even new born they were well able to let her know if she had hurt them.

She started to nose up the straw in a pile around them to keep them warm and then came out for some food and a drink. She was surprisingly relaxed with me being close but I didn't tempt fate and try and get a photo of them until the next day. 

One day old

They reminded me of guinea pigs I had when I was a child who grew to number 24 from two. Their colouring and markings resembling Dolly Mixtures. Lady Lavinia is half Irish Grazer (Tamworth) and a Gloucester Old Spot cross. Laertes has Saddlback, Duroc, Hampshire and Landrace in there so you can see they are a good mix.

Then I was given all the old advice, so much that my head was in a spin. I consulted Oldfarm and was reassured that I did not need to pull their teeth, dock their tails, keep Lady Lavinia in a cage so she wouldn't squash them or carry out any other barbaric practices. I was even told they would need an infra red light. Actually, if I had had one that mightn't have been a bad idea but I'd say mum would have over heated. But no, they are a hardy outdoor breed and when I put my hand in gently on them when they were asleep, they were as warm as toast. She hasn't any cut nipples although she is a bit bemused at my inspecting them when she's eating and she hasn't squashed any. And this is despite her being a new mum.

I separated Laertes for the first few days just by a strand of electric fencing and he was thoroughly miserable and stood looking over it at her and his babies. So when he actually stopped eating I let him in and he just did a lot of sniffing about. He seemed to know what was going on and was very gentle with his babies as they cavourted underneath his 300kg frame. The big softie lies outside the house during the day and then at night quite happily returns to his own house in the next field.

Playing in empty buckets

These piglets are unlikely to see their first birthday as they will probably be ready for slaughter around 8 months or when they reach 75kg. But, they will have a lovely life outside as nature intended, rooting and wallowing and sunbathing and living in a family group. And they will produce the most amazing tasting pork and bacon, the like of which you have probably never tasted before.

If we eat meat then we should raise animals with dignity and respect. They deserve no less.

Buy free range, buy organic, pay a bit more for meat from animals that have had a decent life and haven't been kept in the dark in a concrete shed their entire life prevented from behaving naturally. How can meat from pigs raised like this be healthy?

Life is Good

Since Laertes is a lazy article - to quote herself, I'm taking over our social media accounts. I'm getting bigger and stronger every week. Only trouble is so is himself and he is able to head butt me into the middle of next week.

My name is Lady Lavinia. I nibble herself's boots and she shouts "stop nibbling" at me.  I suppose we can relax here now and enjoy the sunshine as herself says she's keeping us for breeding (whatever that means).

We are loving this warm sunny weather and spend a lot of it sleeping.

The ground is dry and dusty now. It was awful in winter. I hated getting into bed with mucky trotters.

This is himself and this is where you find him most days now. He gets sunburned but he doesn't seem to care. I don't because I root up a big hole and surround it with dried grass and mud and snuggle down into it.

We get fed twice a day now. Breakfast is barley and organic pig nuts. She's been adding garlic powder for a few days now. We are not keen on it but are usually so hungry we eat it.

I try to nibble the grass under the hurty white stuff. Herself keeps saying she is moving us to the next field. Wish she'd hurry up.

Then in the evening she wheels out the wheel barrow and gives us fruit and vegetables. Laertes love avocados, beetroot leaves and tomatoes. I love tomatoes too so we fight over them. We both like melons, grapes, in fact everything sweet.

We get another bucket of barley and pig nuts with more garlic powder in the evening.

Every time a human appears we gallop over because you never know what you might get. We are always on the look out for food.

We have to learn how to wallow yet. Herself keeps saying she'll show us how to do it. Can't wait to see that.


Pigs have the life.

Give me an oul follow over on Twitter. I'm @rasherandsausag and I will be a lot better than Laertes at twittering.