As many of you know, we are all into raising everything we eat. That includes animals. We have been raising pigs for the last two years. However, in the past we have always made a point to get females because we didn't want to mess with castration. This go round we could not find a single female feeder pig. What a dilemma!!! My honey, Mr. I wanna be a real farm man, decided I can do this. So we brought home two of the cutest little pink pigs that were MALE.
Well, today was the day. After, much research the boys dug in. The pictures aren't great because I didn't even go out there. My Lindsey took all of the pictures. She is a girly, girly, girl but will get all in the middle of anything the boys have going on. It's too funny.
First, they caught the little pigs and put them in the pet carrier to hold them while waiting. They then laid one little pig in an old wheel barrow and held him tight. They cleaned the sac with soap and water. Little pigs are dirty, dirty and we do not want infection.
They are proceeding to make the first very small slit in the testicular sac of one of our little piggies. My son has a very tight hold on our little man.
Here they have already cut the very small slit and are pushing the testical through the slit.
Here's the testical out of the sac. They are about to make a clean cut to seperate the testical. (I know TMI) UGHHH!
They did this on both sides of both pigs. After finishing with each pig, they cleaned the whole sac with iodine to ward off infection.
A few notable things about the whole process were, our pigs did not squeal much like we had seen in videos. My son even wore ear plugs just in case but they really weren't that bad. I don't know if it's because ours are more tame or what. Also, there is little to no bleeding and now the pigs are back in the pasture running around like usual. One is a little slower and stiffer but I am amazed at how well they are doing. Praise the Lord!! God is merciful!!
~~~O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His lovingkindness is everlasting. 1 Chronicles 16:34 ~~~
12 comments:
We too are google farmers...or at least "will be farmers" 3 chickens and a veggie garden don't don't quite classify us for farmers yet...maybe next month when the 2 goats arrive??...We are also bug the neighbors, the ppl at the feed store or anyone that looks like we can learn something from...Can you imagine how hard homesteading was before the benefit of the internet.
Great job on the boys...I would have stayed inside with you too ;)
Blessings Kelsie
Oh the joys of farmlife! :))
WOW,you go guys.I will pick anyones brain for information when needed,how else r we to learn the real things.
I love it that you showed all and told all.
GREAT job! So far, I've not gotten the nerve to do that without my Ag teacher friend being there to supervise, so your men should be congratulated!
You are probably correct about the squealing. The Ag teachers at my school were amazed at how calm and quiet our first piggies were for them when castrating, and they concluded it was because they were so used to people. And then later we had some piglets that we did not spend much time with at all and they squealed like crazy!
Keep up the good work for His glory!
You have a BRAVE family. :) What would we ever do without google?
I would have been inside with you. Amy probably would have researched everything and "helped" the guys with her animal knowledge.
Thank God for the internet, it has been a world of information on our farm as well. Proud of the guys for taking on something they have never done before. Im sure they feel like real farmers now!!!! Are the pigs free ranging in the pasture? Wondering if you all are feeding them anything besides grass? God luck....
How awesome! We are wanna be farmers to, never thought of calling us google farmers though. lol. :)
You made castration sound so easy.
Woo hoo! I'm back online after 2 weeks of broken network card and no internet!
Very interesting post. Loved the "google farmers". I think that describes a lot of us. We recently castrated our two bucklings, but the method was very different. It's something we need to learn about and perfect though.
Great post! I love how your entire family is so adventurous and helpful for everything on your homestead. And you did a great job documenting this particular adventure!
We're google farmers too! Good job family. We haven't castrated pigs but will have to down the road for pigs, sheep and goats.
We are also pasture-raising our pigs.
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