Food & Swine

good old OINK

I’m happy to report that the oldest sow in our fun little ‘herd’ has pigged.  She did a great job and she’s had 8 live pigs, and they are pretty nice!  She had a couple that didn’t make it but that’s pretty typical with a sow her age.  (She is 9 years OLD!)  I’m pleased and I think that is a great number for her to take care of and the bonus of that is we can throw the smallest pig of Cinnamon’s litter over onto Oink so she can help bring that little guy along a bit.  Oink has plenty of milk, she’s a white sow and they’re usually more dependable with their milk production.  Cinnamon is a tad more powerful with plenty of muscle and red pigs are notorious for not having an overabundance of milk like the white sows do.  Cinnamon is doing a fine job, especially for her first time but Oink will always reign supreme in milk production so she can bring along Cinnamon’s littlest dude, no prob.

Here’s the ‘guy’ we bred Oink to this time, isn’t he handsome?

Blount Force (A Game x Honky Tonk)

Polich Show Pigs Sire Page

BLOUNT FORCE

Oink came to us from a friend in the northwest part of Iowa.  His children farrowed litters off of her for showing in their county fair.  My husband had always loved her since he first saw her.  When the producer we got her from said his kids were all done showing and off to college, we jumped at the opportunity to own the ‘then’ 6 year old sow.  She hadn’t had many litters and she was docile and quite pretty if you ask me.  We met Oink in the parking lot of the gym we go to.  My husband came squealing in on two tires because we couldn’t wait any longer to see her, we had to meet in town.  I’ll never forget unbuckling my daughter in the parking lot to let her out and go see her first pig, our first pig.  That was a great learning experience, to have old Oink on the place.  She’s a beaut and we love her.  I’m glad she’s made it through another litter and I know she’ll never make the ‘trip to town’, she’ll die happy on the place.  She’s great.

This photo is from the 100+ degree day Oink had her first litter of pigs in July of 2010.  She sought out this area in this small unkempt shed. Joy!  Standing in the water pan is essential.

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Video coverage? I need to find that!

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Halle was so intrigued and assisted each pig, after being born, to the side of the sow to eat.

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Maybe I’ll show this one to Dad…

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No no honey… put it over there!

 

Apparently we startled her, she tossed him (about 8 inches) onto the side of the sow.  Oops… here’s how you set them down carefully darlin’.

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Hadn’t had babies to mess around with for about 20 years.  This is not a set up picture, just a guy getting some cuddles in with a newborn pig, no biggie.

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Joy.

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“Yumbilical” cord much?

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Eventually we had to go home, clean up and lose the shirt.  It was HOT!

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We love colorful litters like this.

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This was the pig our daughter called “Old Gray”, still one of her favorites.

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We’re hoping Oink can teach Cinnamon a thing or two in the mothering department.  Cinnamon is doing so well but we’re hoping she ‘talks’ (low, soft grunting noises to encourage the piglets to eat/lets milk down etc.) a little more like Oink does.  Now that Oink has pigs on her side, maybe some learning will go on. Near as I can tell, it is like having a puppy around an older, more experienced dog.  One can only hope that the pup will pick up some knowledge from the older dog.

More updates on Oink to come, last litter (early summer) she had a bit of a rough go.  She came out of it just fine but I am always cautiously optimistic because of her age.  I hope to get over and take some pictures of the newest ‘littles’ today.

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