PIGLETS: THIS IS NOT A DRILL

[dragonlady7]

REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A DRILL, THERE ARE PIGLETS
Visit the farm's instagram to see: Red And Baby
there are PIGLETS
ok, ok, there's just one in that photo, but there are five sows and if that boar's any good there'll be a bunch more pigs soon
(last time Red farrowed she produced 10; Rocky's last farrowing was 14, so. We'll see. Listen there's a reason pigs hold the place they do in world agriculture.)

so

OK you can resume whatever it was you were doing that was important, just understand it's not more important than this. :D

Comments

[dine]

piggies! there's (almost) nothing cuter than baby pigs - I'm so glad you shared this photo, and hope there are soon a bunch more fun babies

[dragonlady7]

We're up to 2! I'm spectating from a distance, though, my next farm visit won't be for a while. My sister is not quite so obsessive a documenter as me. Also, she figures she should leave the mama in peace while the process is ongoing. She updated the family group text with the news that there were two "nursing lustily" as of last check-in.

[just_ann_now]

Eeeeeee piglets!

[dragonlady7]

Right???
Having the pigs born on the farm is nerve-wracking but really cute, and winds up being the only cost-effective way to have certified organic pork. (They have to be organic-fed from the last trimester of the sow's pregnancy, so. And certification is hard and meaningless, but the local market is rather beautifully crowded-- nobody's really complaining about the crowdedness, it's a rising tide that lifts all boats, and more supply allows for more demand it turns out-- so to stand out you do need to do something like certify, which most people aren't willing to do, so... anyway, the current batch of pigs are *not* certified because the old boar's sudden failure to do his job meant we had to buy in, but this batch that's about to be born will be able to resume certification. it's a lot!)

[krait]

Why are baby pigs so weirdly cute?! They look almost like fawns.

[dragonlady7]

It's unreal how cute they are. I think all baby animals have similar appearances in a way, though-- that's what mammals do anyway!!

[krait]

There are similarities across mammalian species, but not all of them are cute! Pigs are just lucky, I guess. :D

[sabotabby]

Omg so teeny and red! I didn’t know pigs came in red!

[dragonlady7]

Pigs come in so many colors! That sow is a Tamworth mix, and she's called Red because she is. (She's also mixed in with some... I think she has Berkshire and English Old Spot, though none of it is apparent in her appearance.) The old boar was a primarily Old Spot mix, and one of the other sows had a sire that was purebred Old Spot, but she's also a mix, and now the new sow and boar are Berkshires-- I think he has a pedigree, but no papers. And one of the recently-departed sows, who was the mother of the current sow with more Old Spot in her, was a cross from a breed that has belt markings. (She didn't, but it shows up in her piglets.)
Long story short, every year the farm's herd of pigs is a rainbow, with spots and belts and piebald markings, and from Red's genetics there's almost always a whole spectrum of different red coloration. One little gelt last year was so beautiful, with black skin and red hair, she shone like a pot! and we wanted to keep her but she was a jerk so no. Instead we kept a pair with red markings, but one is a kind of burgundy color and the other is bright copper. (They're the youngest breeding sows now, newly-named Stout and Merlot. They don't get names unless they get promoted to the breeding program; the tradition is that you don't name the meat or you get too sad about it.)

[sabotabby]

LOL. Growing up, my friend had a little pig named Henry, until, for a few weeks, her lunch was a ham sandwich named Henry.

[dragonlady7]

Yeah they've gotten more relaxed about naming the meat on the farm nowadays too.
now that they've killed a lot of animals the impact is... sort of numbed.

my bil still hates killing chickens, but he's the one who does it anyway. :( well it's not like anyone's going to enjoy that job, and if they do, you don't want them doing it or really doing anything anywhere near you honestly... various of the gross farm jobs, like, you get used to it and it doesn't bug you and whatever, but nobody's pumped about the actual death part no matter how delicious and like, well-integrated into the stewardship of the land the whole end result is.

[oracne]

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!