This Little Piggy

Laaaa, la, la, la, la laaaaaaaa. It’s springtime on our Farmersville farm and this fair-weather farmer’s wife has come out of hibernation to start enjoying the sites, sounds and, yes, smells of rural life.

Sound like animals grunting, metal clanging, water dripping, babies squealing… and after my husband quiets down after getting  the patio furniture out of the garage, there are also farm noises to enjoy.

This is a nice time of year on the farm because we have lots of piglets, or baby pigs as we erroneously call them. My husband has been helping birth baby pigs since December, getting ready to sell them to 4-H kids for county fair projects, both here in Montgomery County and across the country. (Should you be in the market for a pig, visit our farm website.)

The weather was so nice this weekend that all the little pigs were out playing. My daughter and I decided to risk a little pig snot on the camera to bring you this pig’s eye view of farm life. Keep an eye peeled for a cameo appearance by the mama pig’s tits.

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NX71j_H7KA’]

A few bits of pig education:

• The pigs shown in this video were crossbred pigs, which is why you saw a variety of colors and patterns. We also raise purebred pigs, which just like dogs or horses, have official breed registry papers.
• Pigs can sunburn. Similar to people, the lighter their skin, the more likely they are to sunburn. And just like people, the first warm days can tempt the pigs to stay out too long and get pink, even blister. This is one of the reasons pigs like to get in the mud, it’s like SPF 50.
• Pigs mature in roughly six months. Today’s little pigs will be mature in August/September, just in time for the Ohio State Fair or Montgomery County Fair. In September, some of these pigs will become parents, bred to produce next spring’s little pigs.

By next month, these pigs will be around 35 pounds and ready to leave our farm for a summer of good care by local 4-H kids. Before the auction, each little pig will get a bath, well, more like a shower by eager young workers with soap and brushes, and a haircut.

So as you can guess, springtime is a busy season here on the farm. There are lots of new pigs to feed, clean up after, and even barber. Enjoy springtime in Dayton and stay tuned for more updates from rural western Montgomery County.