The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: Ladygrey on May 21, 2014, 10:30:46 am
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Picked up the saddleback weaners yesterday :)
I cannot believe how different they are to the kunekunes! so much easier to handle and so much calmer!
We caught them up by hind legs, placed them in trailer, brought them home, unloaded one by one, held by hind legs to put ear tags in, placed them in the paddock and not one of them said a word! not a single scream and they didnt wiggle and shake and try and roll and murder us!!!
After putting them in the field they then came up to say hello!
This must be the difference between flop eared and prick eared pigs but if we try and grab a kune to do anything with it it screams murder and thrashes like a crocodile the whole time then runs away and avoids us for a week...
(http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/Duckberry/DSC_0249_zps0ff74752.jpg)
(http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/Duckberry/DSC_0255_zps9599f93b.jpg)
(http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/Duckberry/DSC_0287_zps4a5d0eee.jpg)
(http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/Duckberry/DSC_0296_zps19d1edfc.jpg)
(http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/Duckberry/DSC_0297_zps0a911362.jpg)
The food I measured out looked loads for them considering how small they are, but hopefully its right!
Love my new piggies :excited:
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Very nice stock .They seem great .
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They look great - good luck with them. I am sure they will keep you entertained for hours!
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Envy you, l miss my piggies :( Enjoy ! :pig: cuties
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Ear tags should not be put in like that. They are just waiting to get caught and rip their ears, and certainly don't need 2.
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Nice looking piglets :thumbsup:
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:pig: :pig: :pig: :love: :love: :love: :pig: :pig: :pig:
say goodbye to that lovely grass...
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you lucky thing, they look gorgeous.
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They do look gorgeous I love Saddlebacks I must admit I never tag ours until the day they go as they are terrible for biting at each other's ears
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Ear tags should not be put in like that. They are just waiting to get caught and rip their ears, and certainly don't need 2.
Thanks everyone for your lovely comments :) they are absolutely lovely :)
Berkshire Boy I have always put tags in like that and never had one lost or ripped out in the past 3 years, but please tell me how I should obviously be doing tags differently then? also yes they do need two as my abattoir will only take pigs with one metal tag in each ear for some reason, so please dont tell me they dont need two tags
The reason why I tag pigs when they are young is due to the fact that I struggle to get them in when the pigs are larger for two reasons
number 1 the pigs ears are thicker and my hands are not very strong so I cant clip them in as effectively as I cant squeeze them as hard so its a really long long squeeze for me to get them in which is not good for the piggie , and then when doing them when the pig is bigger the pig cannot be restrained as well and I have had pigs pull away as I am trying to squeeze them in resulting in ripped ears.
Im pretty sure everyone tags slightly differently! this just works for me to do them younger, I also tag my lambs at 24 hrs old
Yup the grass will all be gone soon :) I dont mind, I want to re seed the top half of the paddock and rotovate it but the land is too hard, so hopefully they root that up nicely for me :)
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I wouldn't have tagged them either same reasons as BB. I always tag ours in the trailer as we're setting off for the abattoir.
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I wouldn't have tagged them either same reasons as BB. I always tag ours in the trailer as we're setting off for the abattoir.
Thanks, next batch I will leave then and you and BB can come around with your strong hands and crawl into my little P6E trailer and tag ears whilst being shut inside only able to kneel, may be fun to watch...
Until you guys do that for me I will have to continue tagging when they are young, as I do value keeping all of my limbs etc attached and keeping the pigs ears attached to their heads
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They do look gorgeous I love Saddlebacks I must admit I never tag ours until the day they go as they are terrible for biting at each other's ears
To be fair I should have added that my 6ft3in tall son does mine as I don't think I would be strong enough either. Enjoy your pigs :thumbsup:
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haha thats usefull :) :) :thumbsup:
I cannot squeeze the pliers together in one hand, so with one hand I have to position the ear in the tag whilst holding the pliers with my other hand, then let go and hold the pliers with both hands and hope the ear has not moved, I find this impossible to do in adult pigs that cannot be held still!
The plastic sheep tags I can do one handed :)
Someone needs to re invent the metal tag pliers.... :thinking:
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do they have to be metal tags? our pigs got slaughtered with z-tags no bother - rubber but as we got the heads back i can say the tags were in perfect condition post slaughter. the z-tag applicator is very easy and very strong, and doesnt move.
tagging bigger beasts is a bit more lively.
very fine looking weaners. :love: :love:
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Thanks shygirl, yes they are so so lovely :love: I love the shape of them :)
Unfortunately yes they have to be metal, one in each ear, I have sent pigs before with plastic buttons in but ended up with a pig with lots of tags due to it having to have metal in aswel as the plastic
They say its because the plastic ones melt, its a relatively new abattoir so maybe they use a hotter machine? I dunno....
Yes I have used plastic zee ones and they do nicely for my breeding piggies :) (when I had them)
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It seems that no 2 abattoirs are the same. My pigs go off with just tattoo marks, one on ech shoulder, and the abattoir is happy with that.
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Which abattoir do you use. We use Laverstoke which I think is near you and only had to slapmark them. I did this whilst they were eating a couple of days before taking them.
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Which abattoir do you use. We use Laverstoke which I think is near you and only had to slapmark them. I did this whilst they were eating a couple of days before taking them.
I also use laverstoke (or J.BroomHall) It either has to be a slapmark or double tags, I have it from an email from them
I have a big box of tags and a tagger, I dont have a slap marker or the marking fluid stuff and I havn't slap marked before, one day when my tags run out maybe I will ask someone to show me, I suppose I dont want to do it wrong somehow and being told by them before that the plastic tags dont count and they want double metal instead I have stuck to them.
Maybe one day if they all start getting ripped out or something I will have to invest in a slap marker and learn how! so far the tags have done me fine and I never knew that I was doing them all wrong
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Thanks for confirming that Laverstoke does accept slapmarks - I was worried that I too would have to tackle two large pigs to get ear tags in later this year. Your piggies look really nice and saddlebacks are a lovely breed.
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We are nearing the end of our first experience with our 4 saddlebacks and they have been a joy. They are tame enough to let you touch them whilst they are feeding but are certainly not pets. With all of the wrestling they do I wouldn't have thought tags would have lasted very long with ours! Good luck with them.
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When we had pigs up to last year, we used Laverstoke all the time, just with slapmarks. If you are going to keep pigs for several seasons or more, I definitely think it is worth investing in a slap marker as it is so easy to do and you can just do it the day before they go. I reckon with metal tags Laverstoke require the two as they routinely slice the pig down the middle, so each half is then separately identifiable. On one awful occasion I got a couple of pigs up there, and realised when I arrived that I had completely forgotten to slap them at all so they had no form of ID whatsoever, but the lovely Polish blokes up there made an exception for that one occasion, rather than making me go all the way home, an hour's drive each way, to get them slapped.
Your piggies look fantastic and very happy - we used to keep Saddlebacks too, and like Kelly I am missing them like mad, a huge void in my life. But it had to be, so instead I follow what all of you are doing on TAS instead, and just love seeing such gorgeous pics.
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They look very good. I hope all goes well. We have just gotten rid of the last of our large black pigs, so am a bit sad about that. Anyway i hope all goes well and good luck.