Spring pigs

It's no secret that I am a fair weather farmer. So on this warm, sunny Sunday I was glad to get out of the house and check out our spring pigs.

Husband needed to ear notch some piglets. To do this, he uses something similar to a single hole punch to add notches to their ears. This serves as their identification. The right ear tells their litter number and the left ear tells which pig they were in the litter, so the third pig in the 38th litter would be 38-3 in our record books and have the corresponding notches in his/her ear, like a secret farmer code.

Morgan is holding a piglet that does NOT have ear notches yet. The pig below had his done about a week ago.

Listening to the little pigs grunting and running around outside in their pen with their mothers is so wonderful this time of year. Also wonderful: listening to my two sons grunting while they shovel manure, leaving me only with the the job of filling out the record book.