In September of 2014 we decided to break out the checkbook and buy some market pigs. Our 11 year old wanted to try raising a pig. His older brother was only half enthused. So an hour and a half drive in our 15 passenger 8 kids and a dog crate we came to the farm. We asked questions about what to feed how to raise and ended up with 3 piglets 8 wks old. We named them Mary, Paul and Sally. Oh those piglets were fun. Squealing when you scratched their little backs and running like crazy around the 12x12 pen. They were very easy to keep the water and food in one corner and a bed in another with hay and they found the corner across from the stall door to be the "bathroom" for them. This was easier then our cows, horses, and goats that would sometimes mess in their hay! Before we realized they were ready to go. It had been so much fun. So we decided to keep Sally. I loved Sally. She would away grunt and "talk to you." She would see me and call me. I would say "Hey Sally how are you?' and she would oink at the pen's edge hoping I would come over and give her a back scratch. As I would scratch her back she'd grunt in delight. She kept growing and was coming regular into heat and we could tell she would stand to be bred. We were told it would be hard to AI (artificial insemination) but she took the first time!! We were so excited we would have baby piglets!! However about 6 weeks into her pregnancy she got very ill. We ended up giving her small spoonfuls of applesauce and apple juice I had canned for us to get her to eat after she expelled the babies. We had the vet come a few times. We tried medicines and shots.The vet wasn't even sure she would recover. He felt that it was feed that contained mold. It will make a mama pig deathly ill and the piglets almost always die. Thankfully Sally came around and became her normal self but she would not go into a standing heat. Month after month we waited. We finally thought she was close and order semen again, but this time she was in heat but would not stand. We tried one more time. She again would not stand. We knew then what had to be done. It was the heartbreaking decision as we knew we could not keep a 400lb pet pig. She would have to be sent for processing like we originally had planned. I loved her like I do my dog.
There is a bright side to the story. When Sally got sick we decide to get a registered breeding pig. While raising the 3 piglets my older son actually got quite fond of them. He chose the breed he wanted to start with. We bought a Register Duroc from the original farm we had bought Sally (who was a Yorkshire cross). The second time Sally would not stand we bred Missy the Duroc. The babies won't be registered but at least we didn't waste the second AI. Missy is very big now ready for babies Feb 13th.We took Sally to Warsaw Packing yesterday and this morning got a weight. She was a very healthy 274 lb hanging weight. I will miss her. I should have taken a good bye picture. Everyone else can't wait for bacon. This is the bitter sweet life on a farm.
The top picture was not long after we got Sally, Mary and Paul. The next is Missy this summer and this is Missy now. I plan to tell the next chapter of life in winter with baby pigs!!
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