Once you've bought your pigs you'll need to
get them home. Although young pigs are small, bear in mind that they can be
strong, boisterous, produce extremely smelly dung and don't have any obvious
"handles". They also make an incredible amount of noise - an
ear-splitting shriek - when being handled. Fortunately they turn it off as
soon as you put them down.
Try not to handle them within earshot of the
sow, which might just spring to their defense. The easiest way to move young
pigs is simply to pick them up by the back legs, with their back against you,
and carry them. Even at eight weeks, weaners are heavy so try and get
the trailer as close as possible.
the trailer as close as possible.
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Ideally, a trailer is best but whatever you
use, it must be able to be properly cleaned and disinfected and should have a
non-slip floor, so that the piglets don’t hurt themselves. For a few weaners, a
large trailer is too big and they may hurt themselves, so use hurdles to keep
them in an enclosed area. When you get the piglets home, keep them in a small
area overnight to let them settle down. The following day you can start getting
them used to you.
How to get pigs to the
abattoir
From Day 1, call them to be fed and get them
used to the sound of food rattling in a bucket. A few days before you need to
load them, feed them in the trailer or at least on the ramp, then in the
trailer the next day. If you can do this, it will make the real thing much less
stressful for you and the pigs.
Adult pigs are usually moved using a board to
guide them and a stick to tap them with to keep them moving. If you are
building a race to move them along, make sure it has solid sides and is fixed
at ground level – if a pig can see through it, it will try to push through and
remember a pig uses its snout a lot, so it’s very powerful – easily able to
lift a poorly fixed hurdle or barrier.
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SOURCE: HOW TO MOVE YOUR PIG - CHRIS FARM NIGERIA
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