Put Your Pig Pants On
As a kid my nickname was Stinky. My sister still calls me that in fact. But Stinky would be an appropriate nickname for me here at ARI because one of my duties on the farm is working with the pigs. It has been great learning and a lot of fun even if Anna says I need to wash my clothes twice daily. We've got around 50 pigs at any given time and after butchering the meat comes back to the ARI kitchen to feed the community.
I have enjoyed working with these animals and more than a few times I have remembered the creation story: And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so.
Here are few pictures giving the lowdown on what I have been up to in the pig pen.
The mothers have their own pen up the hill from their wily offspring.
The necessary utensils for mixing feed. The mothers get a combination of concentrate feed and fermented rice
Big mama hungry
Fermented rice is good so long as the pigs don't get drunk
These guys are in the Denmark-style pig pen to be fattened
Post-breakfast naps are very necessary
Mixing a fermented feed using rice powder and Okara (the protein-rich byproduct of tofu which we get for free)
Piglets a few days old
ARI's large animal vet Jil taking care of business in the castration department
Serving pigs sake – what a fun job!!
Great to get the updates – hope you guys are doing well.
Looks like your making way too much work out of pig production. We always castrate at 1-5 days old. One man one side cutters clip clip pull pull done. NEXT!
Haha! yes, the students on the farm were gone so we waited some extra days to do it. The bigger ones were tough to handle!