Village Squire, 1976-10, Page 11to disease or sow ineptness. Sows that routinely step on their
young seem to be oblivious to their squeals. Whether their
'hearing is any good or not, I don't know I have never
administered a hearing test before they go off to market, a -little
quicker than usual.
Soon after birth, the teeth are clipped. Milk teeth, eight little
sharpies that hurt the mother's teats. And iron is administered at
the same time to prevent anemia. The piglets wriggle and squeal
and sometimes pee. It's not easy to hold a squirming pig, keep
your eye on the relationship between your legs and the sow's set
of chompers, and still get more iron on their mouth than out of it.
The required amount should fit on the surface of ,a dime. I pile it
on a flat stick not a dime.
The piglets that.survive are weaned at about eight weeks of
age. Now deprived of mom's milk, they gobble pig starter which
they are already used to. And water
Water is important for pigs. They like to drink without limit. In
fact, they go crazy, squeal and tear the place apart,• if they can't
get it. If they get bored, they work their water bowl loose .and
then stand and watch the water flood the pen and then the barn
and then the field... One sow I know fills her water bowl with
excrement - regularly. I certainly couldn't say she was concerned
about her water. Pigs love water mixed with dirt. In plain
language, mud, especially in the summer heat. They also like you
to get a hose and spray a fine mist of water on them. Also in the
summer heat. They aren't too keen on being wet in winter
because then they tend to freeze.
In order to grow up, to market size, pigs have to be fed,
although, sometimes it seems that all you're -doing is shovelling it
in one end and then running around to shovel it away from the
other end. it seems particularly futile when it costs more to feed
them than you get at market when the price slumps. However, if
You've got pigs, you have to feed tem
Pigs are monogastric ,(simple stomached) animals that are
relatively unable to digest .easily, so that pig feed has to be
prepared
Corn is ground as it's put into the silo and it coats everyone
.111
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VILLAGE SQUIRE/OCTOBER 1976, 9