Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Piglets

We finally located a livestock auction that sells feeder meat pigs.  I had no idea this would be so difficult in the area we live.  Growing up just 40 minutes south of where we currently live, everyone had pigs.  There were a few commercial pig farms too.  Now that we want some of our own, you'd think we were trying to purchase something illegal.

But lo and behold, we found them.  The auction house sell pigs on the 4th Tuesday of each month.  So in preparation for the bid day, Dan built a frame to go around his pickup bed to contain the pigs for the journey home.  Of all days, I had to go into the office on auction day, so Danny went with Dan to make the purchase.  They headed out around 9am to make the hour and fifteen minute trek south.  After getting setup with his number at the auction house, they proceeded in for the showing.  They watched a few sales trying to figure out how the process worked then they brought out a lot of 5 pigs - 4 gilts and 1 barrow.  The auction started and after a little bit of no bids the auctioneer lowered the price.  Again, no bids so the auctioneer lowered the price again.  Dan decided to bid.  Within seconds, the auctioneer deemed Dan the winner.  We had our pigs!  They drove to the back of the building, loaded up the pigs and started making their way back home. 

Dan and Danny arrived home around 1pm.  They setup the electric fencing, got feed and water setup and started unloading the piglets.  When Dan set them down they appeared to have never seen the green stuff they were on.  After a just a little bit they realized the green stuff (aka grass, weeds, etc) was edible.  We can only guess that the first few weeks of their lives were on a commercial farm and were fed from a feed lot.  It's such a good feeling knowing that we took them from that and brought them to an environment where they can run and play, eat greens and whatever else their snouts find.  They immediately seemed happy and very sociable.  They come up to us to be scratched, eat out of our hands and romp around us.

Here are a few picture shortly after their arrival...


And here is Dan watching the piglets and you can see the enclosure he made for the truck...

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