Post by Mitra on Dec 19, 2012 11:55:15 GMT -5
The piggy boys, Higgins Wiggins and Diggins, were loaded onto a trailer this Sunday and taken to the butcher about an hour away.
My DH has always handled the loading, trailering, and unloading of our pigs each year for the last eight years, but it was all up to me this time. He would not be returning from out of state until a week after the pigs' appointment. I had anxiety dreams galore as the date approached.
But I had a plan, having "helped" with the process several times before and having tried different scenarios in the past (some successful and some not), I knew what I wanted to do. I was fortunate to have a friend, Raphael, with a small stock trailer. He brought it over several days before the pigs needed to leave and parked it next to their gate where they could observe it every time they ate.
These pigs were very shy and skittish from the get-go. At first I was worried to have such scaredy-cat pigs but as they got bigger and bigger, it was fantastic. I say that because they never got pushy. I was responsible for all their care/feeding etc. and it's definitely a problem when you can't go in with them to feed them because they are so pushy and friendly. My set up doesn't allow me to feed them over a fence so I had to go in. Each time I did, they'd come barreling out of their house and run full speed toward me but they would not touch me or the bucket I was trying to pour. It was awesome. I could stand between them and scritch their backs while they were eating but otherwise they did not want to be close enough to be touched. While this was enjoyable over the months that I was feeding them, I wondered how this would work out for loading them.
I knew I needed to build a chute that went from the gate to the back of the open trailer. I stalled on actually building the chute until the day before they needed to be loaded. In hindsight, I should have built the chute at least a couple of days before I wanted to load them so they could come out and check out the trailer. My DD and I built the chute out of cattle panels (2) and baling twine. When we were done at approximately Noon on Saturday, we opened the gate. The three of them were right next to the gate and they were really eager to get their daily dose of milk which I'd withheld that morning. We poured the milk into a tub in the chute and waited. Only one pig, Higgins, was brave enough to step over the threshold into the chute. He sucked up the milk loudly but the other two just couldn't bring themselves to do it. Once he was done with milk, he decided to check out the trailer which had a fresh bale of hay on it. He went right to work, rearranging the hay in the trailer and them rolling around on it. By this time the other two had given up and gone back to their lean-to for a nap. We left the gate open for them for the rest of the day. Only Higgins got on and off the trailer several times while the gate was open. The other two were having none of it. I had to have them loaded the next day so I was starting to worry a bit.
I decided I was going to withhold milk, water, and food to further encourage them the next day. I closed the gate overnight. The next morning they were hungry and very thirsty. They were waiting by the gate. The temps had dipped into the teens which makes them extra thirsty. I usually feed and water them first before doing any other chores including milking. But to make sure that they were motivated, I went about my business and completed all other chores first. They eventually gave up waiting and went back to their house to take a nap.
Once I was done with everything else, it was time to try to load them. It was about 10 a.m. Both my daughters came out to help get them loaded. We opened the gate and poured the food and milk into two tubs in the chute. Higgins immediately came out and started eating and drinking. The other two just looked so worried. They could not bring themselves to cross into the chute. We decided to leave them alone and went back into the house. The pigs all went back to their house too. We came up with an adjustment to the plan.
It was clear that the pigs needed to have their choices limited. In other words, if they didn't go in the chute, they should not have the option of going 100 yards back up to their house either. We brought a cattle panel into their enclosure so that we could seal them into the area by the gate where their trough is. We lured them back out of their house to the trough with peanut butter sandwiches. There was also a little teeny weeny bit of milk in their trough. As soon as they started licking that up, we closed them in. Now they had only two choices: stand where they were or go into the chute where there was lots of yummy stuff and a big tub of water waiting for them. They chose the chute. My daughters closed the gate behind them once they were in the chute. Then they moved the tubs up onto the trailer before the pigs could eat or drink much. But now that they'd started to eat and drink, there was no stopping them. They all got onto the trailer and my daughters closed the ramp gate on them. Where was I? I was in the house making some more PB sandwiches. I came out with a tray full of sandwiches only to find that my daughters had already gotten them in and closed the trailer It was 12:30. So it took 2.5 hours but it was the calmest loading of all the pig loadings to date.
I called Raphael who lives an hour away to come for Part II of pig trailering. Raphael was going to attach the trailer to his big truck and we were going to go to the butcher's together to unload them. To add more drama, we were also expecting the first snow storm of the season. It was supposed to start snowing Sunday night into Monday and we were expected to get almost a foot of snow. When Rapahel arrived, the first snow flakes were falling. I decided that I would drive my van as well, just in case (just in case what, I'm not sure).
We caravanned down to the town of West Gardiner and Raphael expertly backed up the trailer to the entrance of the door that leads to the holding pens. The place provides gates, panels, sorting boards, etc. to facilitate the unloading. There is nobody there to help you though. You just have to get your pigs into one of the stalls and write it down on the clipboard. Most of the stalls were already filled. Pigs, some agitated sounding, were making a real ruckus as we came in.
Higgins was first to unload and like a good pig he just came down the ramp, walked into the building with me walking ahead of him, down a long aisle, and right into the stall I wanted him to go into. A couple minutes went by and here came Wiggins, sniffing every square inch until he too was in the right stall. I waited a couple of more minutes until I heard pig squealing noises and Raphael yelling for me to come help him. OH NO!!!!! I locked the two in their stall and rushed out to see what was wrong. Diggins had come part way down the ramp and then decided he was going to make a run for it by jumping off the side of the ramp and squeezing himself past the panel we'd put in place, to get to the driveway/FREEDOM. Somehow Raphael had managed to prevent him from squeezing all the way out by smushing the pig with the panel/gate. Now the pig was trying to go under the trailer to escape but he couldn't fit his hulk under there. I told Raphael to take the gate off of him but set it so he couldn't escape. I knew Diggins needed time to try to regain his composure and come up with a plan for his next move. He was flat on the ground and squealing when Raphael took the gate off of him and repositioned it. It took another two minutes for Diggins to assess his situation and then he slowly started to get up. His only choice was to move forward. There were no escape options. Once he was up he started to inch forward, sniffing every square inch before he'd take a step. So we just let him do that and a whole 5 minutes later, he'd made it all the way to stall no. 7 where his brothers were. I opened their gate and Diggins went in. DONE!!!! I had brought a tub and a carboy of water for them, which I deployed. I filled in the info on the clipboard and Raphael and I and drove home. It was snowing pretty hard by the time we were done.
The next morning there was 8 inches of snow and an empty pig enclosure. That's always weird. A few hours later I got a call from the butcher because we were going to go over the cut sheet over the phone. Their hanging weights for 6 month old piggies was great: 262, 248, and 238 lbs. I was very happy.
Here they are a few days before their appointment. The snow in the picture was from a few days before. It had snowed about 2 inches then rained and then froze solid. That did not count as the "first snow" in my mind.
My DH has always handled the loading, trailering, and unloading of our pigs each year for the last eight years, but it was all up to me this time. He would not be returning from out of state until a week after the pigs' appointment. I had anxiety dreams galore as the date approached.
But I had a plan, having "helped" with the process several times before and having tried different scenarios in the past (some successful and some not), I knew what I wanted to do. I was fortunate to have a friend, Raphael, with a small stock trailer. He brought it over several days before the pigs needed to leave and parked it next to their gate where they could observe it every time they ate.
These pigs were very shy and skittish from the get-go. At first I was worried to have such scaredy-cat pigs but as they got bigger and bigger, it was fantastic. I say that because they never got pushy. I was responsible for all their care/feeding etc. and it's definitely a problem when you can't go in with them to feed them because they are so pushy and friendly. My set up doesn't allow me to feed them over a fence so I had to go in. Each time I did, they'd come barreling out of their house and run full speed toward me but they would not touch me or the bucket I was trying to pour. It was awesome. I could stand between them and scritch their backs while they were eating but otherwise they did not want to be close enough to be touched. While this was enjoyable over the months that I was feeding them, I wondered how this would work out for loading them.
I knew I needed to build a chute that went from the gate to the back of the open trailer. I stalled on actually building the chute until the day before they needed to be loaded. In hindsight, I should have built the chute at least a couple of days before I wanted to load them so they could come out and check out the trailer. My DD and I built the chute out of cattle panels (2) and baling twine. When we were done at approximately Noon on Saturday, we opened the gate. The three of them were right next to the gate and they were really eager to get their daily dose of milk which I'd withheld that morning. We poured the milk into a tub in the chute and waited. Only one pig, Higgins, was brave enough to step over the threshold into the chute. He sucked up the milk loudly but the other two just couldn't bring themselves to do it. Once he was done with milk, he decided to check out the trailer which had a fresh bale of hay on it. He went right to work, rearranging the hay in the trailer and them rolling around on it. By this time the other two had given up and gone back to their lean-to for a nap. We left the gate open for them for the rest of the day. Only Higgins got on and off the trailer several times while the gate was open. The other two were having none of it. I had to have them loaded the next day so I was starting to worry a bit.
I decided I was going to withhold milk, water, and food to further encourage them the next day. I closed the gate overnight. The next morning they were hungry and very thirsty. They were waiting by the gate. The temps had dipped into the teens which makes them extra thirsty. I usually feed and water them first before doing any other chores including milking. But to make sure that they were motivated, I went about my business and completed all other chores first. They eventually gave up waiting and went back to their house to take a nap.
Once I was done with everything else, it was time to try to load them. It was about 10 a.m. Both my daughters came out to help get them loaded. We opened the gate and poured the food and milk into two tubs in the chute. Higgins immediately came out and started eating and drinking. The other two just looked so worried. They could not bring themselves to cross into the chute. We decided to leave them alone and went back into the house. The pigs all went back to their house too. We came up with an adjustment to the plan.
It was clear that the pigs needed to have their choices limited. In other words, if they didn't go in the chute, they should not have the option of going 100 yards back up to their house either. We brought a cattle panel into their enclosure so that we could seal them into the area by the gate where their trough is. We lured them back out of their house to the trough with peanut butter sandwiches. There was also a little teeny weeny bit of milk in their trough. As soon as they started licking that up, we closed them in. Now they had only two choices: stand where they were or go into the chute where there was lots of yummy stuff and a big tub of water waiting for them. They chose the chute. My daughters closed the gate behind them once they were in the chute. Then they moved the tubs up onto the trailer before the pigs could eat or drink much. But now that they'd started to eat and drink, there was no stopping them. They all got onto the trailer and my daughters closed the ramp gate on them. Where was I? I was in the house making some more PB sandwiches. I came out with a tray full of sandwiches only to find that my daughters had already gotten them in and closed the trailer It was 12:30. So it took 2.5 hours but it was the calmest loading of all the pig loadings to date.
I called Raphael who lives an hour away to come for Part II of pig trailering. Raphael was going to attach the trailer to his big truck and we were going to go to the butcher's together to unload them. To add more drama, we were also expecting the first snow storm of the season. It was supposed to start snowing Sunday night into Monday and we were expected to get almost a foot of snow. When Rapahel arrived, the first snow flakes were falling. I decided that I would drive my van as well, just in case (just in case what, I'm not sure).
We caravanned down to the town of West Gardiner and Raphael expertly backed up the trailer to the entrance of the door that leads to the holding pens. The place provides gates, panels, sorting boards, etc. to facilitate the unloading. There is nobody there to help you though. You just have to get your pigs into one of the stalls and write it down on the clipboard. Most of the stalls were already filled. Pigs, some agitated sounding, were making a real ruckus as we came in.
Higgins was first to unload and like a good pig he just came down the ramp, walked into the building with me walking ahead of him, down a long aisle, and right into the stall I wanted him to go into. A couple minutes went by and here came Wiggins, sniffing every square inch until he too was in the right stall. I waited a couple of more minutes until I heard pig squealing noises and Raphael yelling for me to come help him. OH NO!!!!! I locked the two in their stall and rushed out to see what was wrong. Diggins had come part way down the ramp and then decided he was going to make a run for it by jumping off the side of the ramp and squeezing himself past the panel we'd put in place, to get to the driveway/FREEDOM. Somehow Raphael had managed to prevent him from squeezing all the way out by smushing the pig with the panel/gate. Now the pig was trying to go under the trailer to escape but he couldn't fit his hulk under there. I told Raphael to take the gate off of him but set it so he couldn't escape. I knew Diggins needed time to try to regain his composure and come up with a plan for his next move. He was flat on the ground and squealing when Raphael took the gate off of him and repositioned it. It took another two minutes for Diggins to assess his situation and then he slowly started to get up. His only choice was to move forward. There were no escape options. Once he was up he started to inch forward, sniffing every square inch before he'd take a step. So we just let him do that and a whole 5 minutes later, he'd made it all the way to stall no. 7 where his brothers were. I opened their gate and Diggins went in. DONE!!!! I had brought a tub and a carboy of water for them, which I deployed. I filled in the info on the clipboard and Raphael and I and drove home. It was snowing pretty hard by the time we were done.
The next morning there was 8 inches of snow and an empty pig enclosure. That's always weird. A few hours later I got a call from the butcher because we were going to go over the cut sheet over the phone. Their hanging weights for 6 month old piggies was great: 262, 248, and 238 lbs. I was very happy.
Here they are a few days before their appointment. The snow in the picture was from a few days before. It had snowed about 2 inches then rained and then froze solid. That did not count as the "first snow" in my mind.