Piggy day today!

1st farm prac and we get to be upclose with grunty, squealy,wriggly pigs and piglets.

I can imagine how many people may be anxious or uncertain around pigs, especially when some female pigs can get as big as 200kg and boars 300kg! That's a whole load of bacon.

The pigs we have are generally friendly and used to human contact, though some can be naughtier and try all means to make you look bad and clumsy when you wanna show the demonstrator you know how to move a pig and weigh them on the scales.

My pig was supposed to be Number 6 - but when I open the gate, Number 7 came out first so I stayed with her.

Number 7 is a very friendly female pig. Loves to sniff and nibble. I was supposed to guide and move her down the path and towards the scales. Easy job cos she knows her way! Willingly through the small gate and up onto the scales - 45kg. Pretty young about 12 weeks we were told. But they sure pile on the pounds very quickly.

Later on, we tried our hands at restraining them around their upper jaw, just behind their back teeth, with soft wire snares. Number 7 was so easy cos she's a nibbler and comes right up to mouth the wire and it was easy to just loop it over her jaw and tighten gently. Once you do that, the pig is then restrained and will generally stand for you to do your examination.

After that, we crossed over to the other pen to meet the little piglets. Before we went through the door, we could already hear them - they were loud! We learnt how to carry them, place them on their backs for health check and locate the point at their jugular vein to draw blood. They squeal as if we were about to slaughter them, ha!

I do enjoy my time at the farm, hands on and up close with the animals. It's kinda unreal after we stepped out of the piggery and get back into the concrete world so called. It is easy to forget about the pigs behind the walls as we go on with our life. But the reality is they are in actual fact still there, right now. As with all the farm animals out there.

I find myself thinking about the farm animals. Now and then.