The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: Ella_louise on September 29, 2014, 12:36:04 pm
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Hi all I'm doing an animal management course and desperately trying to find out the advantages and disadvantages of using pig boards and alternative ways of dealing with aggressive, nervous or young pigs. Any help would be hugely appreciated!!
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pig boards should be used with a hooked stick if you want to control the direction and speed of a pig, as in the show ring, but it does require some practise.
using a board on its own will herd the pig in a general direction and offer protection to your legs from sharp teeth. useful if you have gates or a race up already , ie at the mart or in a shed
you can control a pig with a bucket of feed, (even the sound of a rattling bucket) but this takes time to condition the pig that a) humans are safe to be around and b) a bucket means food ( ie a pig fed adlib by chute into a feeder wouldn't necessarily associate a bucket with food.)
bucket training means you can call the pigs in 50 acre woodland to come to the bucket unassisted. it really takes time and lots of handling for a pig to trust you and this system isn't an option for many farmers, or for pigs that are slaughtered young. rubbing the pigs bellies from an early age will often make them flop to the ground, and is a useful way to tame them.
using the bucket method works less well if the pig isn't hungry.
using a race/crush is an alternative.
hope that helps you.
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Bucket over head and steer with tail. Pigs that can't see, walk backwards to get away. Can be used for desperate manoeuvres.
Also a nose through mouth and over nose in dire situation.
Mostly just use a banana though!
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Bucket over head and steer with tail. Pigs that can't see, walk backwards to get away. Can be used for desperate manoeuvres.
Also a nose through mouth and over nose in dire situation.
Mostly just use a banana though!
But, please just steer gently with tail, don't yank :pig: I agree a banana is your best friend.
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Yes, sorry I meant 'steer' with no pressure, to be honest you do more pushing on the pigs bum than the tail, but you know what I mean.
We're lucky enough, all our lot are friendly, and can usually be called up to where they need to be. But a pig board is a really useful often.
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The only time I've ever had to use a board was when one of the youngsters left a gate open and a sow got out and cleared up god only knows how much duck and chicken feed!!
Food in this case was no help, she was stuffed! ;D
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Ella-lousie, have you any experience of pigs?
most people on here have medium-small rare or traditional breeds and these are tame, well-handled, and kept in very small numbers usually in a paddock outside their house, and most have their bellies tickled every day :roflanim:
however the majority of commercial pig keepers in uk have huge herds of fast growing pigs, which aren't handled much, slaughtered young and come from huge parents.
the handling requirements in these 2 situations is very different, and safety for the herdsman is very important. pigs can do a lot of damage as they are very strong and have sharp teeth/tusks. I remember hearing of a boar slicing open a mans thigh with his teeth with a flick of his head, so the dangers are real.
there are interesting pig handling items on Fearings website.
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I agree with SG. Smallholders and farmers engaged in small-scale pig keeping will often have their breeding stock for several years longer than a commercial herd and the animals are treated very differently. If you have 400 breeding sows you'd not have time to rub their backs just where they like it best! Sows that are calm and friendly towards their keepers make for piglets ditto. Growers kept in large groups will often be in a state of mild anxiety because there are too many of them to work out a pecking order and a pig in that frame of mind will be harder to handle and more prone to attack if panicked by loud noise, loading, etc. In a commercial environment with automatic feeding the appearance of humans may be associated with very negative experiences, such as tail docking or teeth clipping.
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You'd be surprised just how calm friendly sows on commercial farms can be. Obviously cant bum scratch 3,000 sows a day! But you do still grow to know individual sows & boars, albeit by tag number rather than a,name. And as long as they kept farrowing healthy to good litters, then a breeding farm will keep a sow for several years.
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But not seven or eight, I'll bet!
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Seven or eight what sorry? Years? No, possibly not. But I'm sure plenty of smaller keepers would think twice keeping any animal it ceased doing what it was brought in for in the first place. I'm not trying to cause any grief, just didn't want all big commercial farms to be seen as an uncaring machine that just churns through animals. All but one of the 27 boars were walked out each day with no board at all. And the one that did need one was just mardy, would have been the same on any size holding. He does have a name, McCain due to the size of the chip on his shoulder!