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Ivory

Ivory

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Well, guys, I'm quite experienced with rabbits and rodents- this is quite true. I've got considerable experience with cats and dogs, too. But unfortunately, I've no experience with livestock (well unless you consider rabbits to be). But I decided to gain some. I thought horses- horses are beautiful, and so majestic and mesmerizing...I love horses. But I decided against for now. Then I thought dairy cattle...but I decided to wait a little while on that. Soooo. I decided on something I never thought I'd have an interest in...

The swine unit.

Yes, swine. Porcines. Aka....pigs.

Yes, I know they smell. Yes, I know that boars aren't always nice and that they smell. My dad actually laughed out loud when I told them I was going to work in the swine unit.

But yeah, I'm branching out...to pigs.

One funny thing I've got to learn...how to artificially inseminate. Pig people have insemination rods randomly hanging around all over the place, and I've never heard people so enthralled about it before...okay so maybe all livestock people...but seriously...our teacher was giving us a lecture using the rod as a pointer for the powerpoints. I almost fell to the floor laughing.

I hope this goes well and I like this LOL.
 
LOL! Piggies are fun tho! Just be careful cause if you get in a group they can hurt you. ONE can bite and knock you down too..... but groups have been known to kill a person.


 
Pigs are very intelligent and have saved countless human lives through research.
I think they are awesome! :)
 
Oh yes- I've been warned about those mama sows. I'm told they aren't pleasant to work with at times.

It's definitely something interesting to work with. I've been told, however, that I'll be showering every day before coming into the house LOL!
 
Wait until you see a younger pig buck. They are hilarious! AND if you want a friend.... feed them a marshmallow! just watch your fingers!
 
Well I'm hoping that I'll be able to feed them some "table food!" They're on a pretty strict diet. But I would totally buy a bag of marshmallows just to feed the pigs.

I'm sooooooo excited about working with them. Really I've never been around pigs before and it's just so cool. I could have done small ruminant, cattle, or horses, too. There's just so much to choose from!
 
I hope that we get a bunch of good livestock vets and exotic vets in the next few years. There are fewer and fewer up here in Indiana.

Get pictures if you can.
 
Believe me I plan on having an entire scrapbook of me working with them. Again...my father laughed his butt off when I told him I was going to work with them. My mom is fairly disgusted.:D
 
It's not a project- it's an internship at LSU that I get credit hours for. I work three hours a week and get 1 hour of credit.

So...where do I get good muck boots? :)
 
Yes. I am not allowed to call them Wellies cause my daughter says they aren't wellies unless they are the name brand Wellies..... OMG! :banghead

There are a ton of different types tho. MUCK brand are nice but you can get them cheaper.
 
LOL!

I didn't even know there was a brand called 'Wellies'!

We call them wellies after Wellington Boots.... cos they were sort of invented by the 1st Duke of Wellington (according to Wikipedia anyway!) I dunno, maybe it's an English thing! :p


 
Yeah, the brand is Wellington, but I think we've adopted the "Wellies" for that brand.

She also wants UGG boots... UGH! :p
 
Just watch yourself. There are many friendly ones but you'll never forget when you run into an "unfriendly". We've been chased from the pens many times but a couple that just didn't want to be around people. I'm sure that the ones you'll have to work with are so used to people though that shouldn't be much of an issue. Have fun!!
 
Be prepared to do alot of power washing.
Always watch your back when you are in with a group of pigs. They are like curious puppies and at 200lbs or so that can be dangerous.
You will never beable to get the smell of pig off of you.
AI in pigs is the easiest AI in livestock no hands need to be stuck inside of the animal. much easier then cattle and horses.
Boars=mean never trust them same with mammas
Pigs bark it is very funny
They want to put everything in their mouth and that includes your body parts I have had me butt bite by so many pigs as well as my legs.

I worked on a pig farm at U of I for 4 years. I love pigs. The above is just some common sense that applies to all livestock. Enjoy working with them!
 
They can also root under anything! Don't trust them in a pen unless it's secured somehow!

You should see the barn floor at my SIL's house. Their's a big old canal running through the corner from where the pigs were penned in there!
 
I know just what you mean. I've done considerable work with dogs, cats & rabbits at the shelter in the past, but in my Animal Science class this fall we had to do barn chores in the teaching barn. We had chicks, two calves, a horse, 2 ewes and 4 lambs and 7 rather large piglets that we cared for rotating in teams.

Piglets love to attempt to eat your shoes, the wheelbarrow, your pants, etc. I always tried to get something a bit cleaner, like the chicks. My favorite was the calves, until they started licking my butt and headbutting me as well when we weaned them off their milk replacer.

Barn chores are over now, but yeah, quite an experience.
 
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