How to Shift Hogs

🌻 Think like a Pig.

🌻Never hurry a hog. Let them proceed at their own pace.

🌻I prefer to lead them. You cannot herd hogs or pigs. They need to feel safe or they will bolt back. And following me feels safe to them.

🌻Moving hogs is like chess – always think two or three steps ahead.

🌻Make sure your pig is always looking in the direction you want him to go. Hogs are not herd animals. They follow their noses.

🌻Have treats!

🌻Talk the whole time.

Hogs are always grunting – they are always making sounds. My theory is that they are often saying ‘I’m here. This is me. I see you. This way. Here is food. I am here.’ Hogs do not have good vision so they rely on sounds.

As their person, their leader, you also must speak and make sounds. All the time. When I cross their fields or change their beds; I sing – or tell bedtime stories – so they know where I am at all times and don’t attack out of fright.

When I am moving hogs, especially these great big 400 pound beasties I also sing and talk the whole time.

⭐️Think like a pig.

🌞Never express frustration. Stay calm. Even if you are frustrated.

⭐️Give yourself a whole afternoon. That way you will not succumb to frustration. Hogs shift in their own time. They are not cognitive like people. Nor are they herd animals like cows or sheep. They will take their time. Individually. They are set up to follow your scent and your sounds. And this is good – a fearful animal is unpredictable and dangerous. But they also follow new scents. So let them explore as you go. They will pick up your scent and song again in a minute or two.

My sounds are singsong, like ‘hooney, hooney.’ Which means – no need to get up, stay where you are. ‘Piggy Piggy’ means food here. When I stroke them or brush them or give them treats I say their names. So when I move them from field to field I call their names. Or if they stay together Piggy Piggy. Though as you know they always separate when being shifted. They follow any smell and go back to following their leader after the investigation. So, it is more often that I call their names and bring them in one by one.

A hog will almost always hug the perimeter or walk through a pre established track. He will seldom walk into an unknown open field. Too dangerous. So be ready for a hog to take a circuitous route.

🌻Make sure to have a good feed at the destination so the first hog to arrive stays there eating his reward until the last one arrives. Then you can close the gate.

Having a second person to close each gates after the last pig has come through, and prevent retreat, is a good idea. We call this person ‘the caboose’.

Anyway. Yesterday R and I set up the new hog field. (The wild field with the root cellar). We carefully closed all the gaps on our route, double checked everything and called the two big pigs down into the wild field. We prepared well so we could take our time and let the pigs wander over. All went well and of course FreeBee arrived first and Jude a good ten minutes later.

Jude was a bit limpy by the end of their trek but I will give him aspirin for a few days. He is a big hog. And his ankles are not designed for this kind of weight. He needs to slim down a bit.

R and I also took the fake wall off the chook house and began cleaning out the debris in there. I established a new compost heap for 2024.

I have three little cattle beasts coming this weekend. Beef is very expensive this year. But I said to Doug, who supplies me with calf orphans each spring, that he needs a good year every now and then. He looks after me well. They will be nice animals. But where they cost me $150 last year these three are coming in at around $400 a piece. Each family buys their own calf then grows it out here.

The cows live here on our fields for three or four years – much longer than a corn fed cow – I do not fatten I grow – so they need to be healthy. They need a good start and I trust this cattleman.

OK.

I am late this morning. I had to set up Our John for his tractor jobs so I am ready for the calves. One must take advantage of this small window of opportunity and he is much better at maneuvering that tractor in the small spaces of the old barn.

BREAKING NEWS: The big tractors have arrived in the big fields planting the organic corn at last. It has been so wet – they are a little late. But they are here. Such a relief to get the crop in.

Have a great day!

Celi