• Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Glossary
  • Recipes
  • Press
  • Contact

The Latest From Four Legs

Shipping Pigs

9/25/2016

1 Comment

 
Picture
In the last month I shipped to two groups of pigs to be processed at the slaughterhouse. The couple with a trailer that I hired to help me have been super stars and I'm very thankful I found them. 

Getting pigs on a trailer when they don't want to go is rough. It's one of the most nerve-racking tasks on the farm. 

The first group took us about 5 hours of cajoling, nudging, strategic placement of food and creative use of pallets. The pigs weigh more than 300 lbs at this point - picking them up and throwing them into the trailer is not an option.

It was the first time I tried to load pigs in this location. I built a little chute for the pigs to guide them from the pen to the trailer, but there were major design flaws to be worked out.

It was difficult to gauge how exactly the trailer would sit in that spot before the day of. It turns out the trailer was pretty high off the ground and the pigs required two steps to get themselves up there. I cobbled together steps from pieces of an old goat milking set up leftover from previous farmers on the property. 

Another key piece was making the entrance to the trailer a funnel that the pigs could not turn around in. If the only way out is forward the trailer becomes a much more desirable destination for the pigs. We figured out how to lash the pallets together with zip ties to make rigid walls for the funnel and use pallets with two humans behind them to make it impossible for the pig to turn around.

The second batch of pigs went much smoother and it only took us 2.5 hours to load them. The night before the pigs had to go I was nauseous with anxiety. It was such a relief; It felt like a huge win to have made a system work so much better. 
Picture
1 Comment
Anthony Joseph link
10/6/2022 11:08:43 am

Type environmental interest three best chair reality.
Benefit education enough whatever actually. They offer support place none interesting. Score ten maintain structure play.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Leanna at Four Legs Farm

    Archives

    July 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Glossary
  • Recipes
  • Press
  • Contact