pigs, ponderings and rants

I really love watching the pigs, still :) I went out to water them and I finally say the pig that drinks from the hose. She is so smart. I was in awe of this little pig, so much so I am considering keeping her and breeding her. I'm only thinking about it, I probably won't do it. I am very thrilled with our pigs, they are a little smelly when it rains but otherwise they are fine. I do think I will want an area for them to graze but the logistics of that are not there yet. There is so much that needs to be considered. I think I will use the old chicken coop as a pig pen and fence off that area for the next batch of pigs, but the number of pigs will be determined by a pre-order process. I finally found a meat processor to work with, that it is a USDA inspected facility is a great bonus. I was really disappointed by the processor in Yoder, they definitely are not out to help small farmers. I think it is somewhat false advertising that they use, from their ad it could be construed that they use small farms in their area to supply their meat, the truth is they us a single supplier for beef and another for pork. The only exception is if a specialty is not carried by that farmer, who then will purchase it from elsewhere. Anyway, we will be using the Walnut Valley locker in El Dorado as they are very small farmer friendly, their prices are reasonable which is not a cost included by the farmer but the consumer. I was really impressed. On another note I find it very interesting to watch the pigs grow. We have a crossbred group - hampshire/duroc. The pigs that favor the duroc are MUCH fatter than all of the rest. The reddish coloring is the give away. The "true" crosses (red color with white stripe) are also fairly big. The hampshire are still fairly small by comparisson. I suppose this is why large pig farms prefer the duroc breed.