Visit to the pig farm

I didn't really have much expectations going to the pig farm for the first time. As a city kid, my nearest contact to pigs are really pork that I bought from the market (fresh market and from the butcher mind you!) or in the sealed packets that you get from the supermarket.

What exactly were we supposed to expect to do in a piggery was not something I dwelled on. That and the fact that it has been quite a packed week in school, I was more than happy to ensure that I made it on time to the farm rather than overthink what I was going to do on the farm.

On the farm

The professor and the farm managers started off giving us a lecture on the types of pigs on the farm, the breeds that we breed today vs what was originally introduced by the European settlers in the country. The differences on the breeds of pigs and how the industry have evolved over the years was also introduced to us.

Well moving on from the academia of things, we all went out to take a look at the sows on the farm. What we were presented with were 6 different sows with numbers painted on them and we were given a description of the fat scores and we needed to score the sows. The importance of being able to recognise the fat score will make a difference to how much you would feed your pigs.

We were also given a small demonstration on how to herd the pigs, you basically use a wooden board to block the head of the pig and try and guide the pig to where you want them to be. As the saying goes, stubborn as a pig, to get the pigs moving along, you may have to smack them on the side, push them along but bear in mind their skins are quite thick so you aren't really hurting them (obviously some common sense needs to be employed, not asking you to take a whip and smack the shit off the pigs). After which when the pigs go along the direction you want them, you give them a nice back rub or a scratch behind the years.

Pigs are surprisingly affectionate, they do enjoy getting rubs and scratches from the humans. Additionally there is a hierarchy within the group. The lead sow is more dominant and would push out other sows to get to the food sources.

Next, we were brought to a small shed to practice our herding skills on the piglets. This is the real hands on part where I went in to the sty and try to herd the piglets of our selected colour (they had a washable paint colour on their backs) and we had to get all 5 of them in & out plus we also need to guess their individual weight.

We left for another shed were we were introduced to the boars in the piggery which were used for breeding and we all had a nice discussion on the cost of boars, the benefits of artificial insemination and since this was a teaching farm, while they will perform artificial insemination, the boars are kept on the farm as a teaching point for students.

Next to the boars was a room where the sows and their 1-2 week old piglets were kept (now say it with me - awwwwwwwww) we all managed to learn how to pick up the piglets and obviously take a selfie.

Overall it was a good day on the farm, we definite learnt more on piggeries  ;)