Katie checks on her babies while they stay warm under the lights. It's a bit chilly right now but they will be running back and forth and staying close to Mom.
The hog's snout is very sensitive to touch. Some producers put rings in hogs' noses to keep them from rooting, or digging up the earth, with their snouts. In the wild hogs feed themselves by digging for roots to eat. Katie will have no piercings.
Pigs are so smart and curious and like to keep busy.
Don't quote me on this, but I have been told some farmers entertain their pigs with beach balls and old tires. Pigs also enjoy listening to music.
The four week old piglets already have great muscle tone.
Pigs are fast and strong. Bet you didn't know they could run a seven minute mile.
During the War of 1812, a New York pork packer named Uncle Sam Wilson shipped a boatload of several hundred barrels of pork to U.S. troops. Each barrel was stamped "U.S." on the docks, and it was quickly said that the "U.S." stood for "Uncle Sam," whose large shipment seemed to be enough to feed the entire army. This is how "Uncle Sam" came to represent the U.S. Government.
In some areas hogs would be turned out to find their own food. Hogs would roam freely, eating what they could find— acorns from the ground or roots, which they dug from the ground with their snouts. On Manhattan Island, New York, the hogs rampaged through grain fields until farmers were forced to build a wall to keep them out. The street running along this wall became Wall Street.
More than double their size in just four weeks. Rusty, the Duroc, has much to do with that. The Duroc is the fastest growing of all the breeds.
In the past hogs were fed table scraps and had a reputation for eating just about anything. The meat from hogs fed that way was very high in fat. The hogs would eat corn, grass, clover or even table scraps that would have otherwise have become garbage. The word “hogwash,” meaning something that is worthless, came from this practice.
Commercially pigs are weaned when they are two to four weeks old. They are called “nursery pigs” until they reach 50 pounds and “growing/finishing pigs” from then until they reach about 240 pounds. After that they are called hogs. Hogs are usually taken to market when they weigh 240-280 pounds.