Pigs are fun!
Well they can be if you know what you are doing. Raising some pigs for your family isn’t all that difficult, but the key moment is when it is time to put them on the trailer, and take them to the processor so your family can have yummy sausage and bacon. This can be a make it or break it moment, not just in terms of “bringing home the bacon,” but it will also determine if you will ever want to raise pigs again.
Man vs. Pig… You won’t win.
Like many others, we learned the hard way that you can’t make a hog do anything they don’t want to do. When that fateful day comes, your hog is going to be 250-300 lbs live weight, and it is all muscle. Well, at least most of it is, and with their low center of gravity, trying to push or force a hog to do something it doesn’t want to do, is the definition of futility. If you try to run down, or overpower your hog when trying to get it on the trailer, your body will be in pain for a week from your sore muscles, and in the end the hog will win.
Stay Calm
The key to getting your hog on the trailer is to plan ahead, and to convince him to want to go on the trailer. The trailer can be a scary object at first for your not so little piggy. If your pig needs to step up to get on the trailer, or walk on a ramp, it will not feel natural to him, and it will be something strange that he doesn’t want to do… at first. Sometimes you can help the situation by building up the ground so the step up into the trailer is smaller, or you can put some straw or leaves on a ramp to disguise it, but the best tool you have is time.
Your Secret Weapon
Plan ahead, and put your trailer in place days, or the better part of a week, before you need them to be on the trailer. The pig’s natural curiosity over time will play to your advantage. That, and feeding them in the trailer will prove to be successful. Start by placing a feed pan just behind the trailer, and then every few hours or every day, move it closer to the trailer, just inside the trailer, a few feet in, and then all the way inside the trailer. A pig’s greatest motivation is their stomach, when they get hungry, they will overcome their fear. Use this to your advantage, and with time, your pig will be standing in the trailer waiting for you to close the door.
Pig Prepper, Think Ahead
We recently moved a trailer into our pig area so we could load them up for the first weigh-in of the Loudoun County 4H Fair. When using the Premier1 electric pig fence (for sale in the Dawson Gap Farm Store), we can reconfigure the fence so it meets the back of the trailer. This way we can prevent the pigs from getting under the trailer or doing damage somehow to the trailer. This time we put the trailer in place 6 days before we needed to move them, but this was just because we had a busy schedule during the week. This batch of Gloucester Old Spots were not afraid of the trailer, and hopped inside fairly quickly. Other batches have taken hours to warm up to the trailer, and some have taken a few days. The key is to keep it low stress for you and the pigs. Rest easy during the week, knowing that the pigs are already comfortable with the trailer, instead of dreading the upcoming day and trying to take care of it at the last minute. Everyone is happier this way, and you will be looking forward to raising pigs again in the future.
Find the Tools You Need For Success With Your Pigs
We enjoy helping others figure out how to raise high quality, all natural, Non GMO pork for their family. Many have the desire, but they are new to the game, and we want you to have a good experience with your pigs so you will do it again, and again. There are other ways of going about trailering pigs, but this works for us, so we are glad to share it with you.
If you would like to learn more about raising pigs, come to our Pastured Pork Workshop on May 15, 2017 presented by Jeff Mattocks and Casey Trinkaus of Fertrell Minerals. It is free, and all you need to do is RSVP, to reserve your place. Get the tools you need, so you will enjoy your farm or homestead experience, and we hope you will choose to use Non GMO Project Verified, Chemical Free, Swine Feed from Hiland Naturals when you raise your next hog!
