The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: Baswold on February 03, 2010, 03:03:23 pm
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At what age is it best to slap mark a pig and would you do it while they are eating.
Thanks
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:pig: are you talking pigs for slaughter if so we do ours the night before while they have their feed. they don't seem to notice its been done
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If they are off to slaughter do it when they are eating, pref a couple of days before, trying to do it on the morning your going to the abattoir often your running late and things go wrong, some pigs are now being slapped marked 10 weeks before they go off, tattoo paste/inks are improving a lot...
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Can someone please explain how it works.
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The slapper is covered in tattoo ink (in our case a messy business) the pigs are slapped on both shoulders and we also slap on both rear ends as well. The tattoo ink goes into the top skin leaving an indelible recognisable number. When you collect your carcasses check that all pieces have your tattoo m ark on them. (We have before now had a pig back in 3 pieces which is why we now tattoo 4 places). You need to be quite firm with the slapper to get a good imprint.
Pigs if eating will probably not even notice. If you have black pigs use green tattoo ink.
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Thanks HM I think that I will get one, not too happy with eartags. Would be good to know that I have definately got right pigs back
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Its the only way to definitely know. My friend got back 1 gos complete with tail and head and an elevage pig minus tail (they cut them off at birth) and no head (they cut that off at abattoir to cover their error).