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Our Morning 6-23-06

Ranchy

Well-known member
Our County Agent and his family came over this morning, and we tagged all our 4-H kid's pigs, 2 for an FFA member, and weighed them all...It's a lot easier to tag them when they're contained in the scale, than it is to try to chase them down and do it!

So, here's some pics of that:

Tag # 6456 (notch 1-2) weighed in at a whoppin 144# (this is the long bacon pig)

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Tag # 6457 (notch1-1) weighed in at 126# (this is the big one, that I thought would easily outweigh the other two)

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Tag # 6458 (notch1-4) weighed 120# (She went in backwards, so if you look closely, you can see her new lavender ear tag shining) That's Al's arm on the bottom, he was holding the gate up where they knocked it off the hinges. Of all the ones we tagged this morning, these 3 were by far, the hardest. I'd heard that Durocs are really stubborn, and now I believe it!!!!!!!

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After we got the rest of the 9 pigs done, we came back, got some cow feed and went to tend Tillie, Pepper & Lumpy. Here's Al, feeding them:

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We were messin around, waiting for the trough to finish filling, so I asked Al if he had a rope in his pickup......he looked at me like I'd grown another head or something (like I expected a real cowboy to be without a rope......lol) and said of course. I told him, get it and let's see if we can catch Tillerie, maybe take her and put her in with the bull this afternoon. So, he went and got it, I put the feed bucket on the ground, and he put the loop around it, and I eased her over there to it. When she stuck her head in to get some feed, he got the loop over it, and she threw a huge fit for about 2 seconds. I got on the rope with him, and we dallied it to the ball on his pickup bumper, then around the bumper up to the headache rack. While he held the end, I eased down the rope and started messing with Tillie.....scratching her head (she loves that) and just petting and talking sweet to her.........she didn't hardly bat an eye the whole time. So, I went and took the end of the rope, and told Al to go mess with her.......he was a little less anxious to do it than I was, but it wasn't no time at all, till he was messing all over her, hind legs, even walked around behind her, and she never offered to kick or anything (her mother would've eaten his lunch by that time, when she was that age). Pretty soon, he was scratching her on the belly, and messing with her front feet.......and she just stood there, taking it all in, and loving every minute of it.
When the trough got full, he turned her loose, and told her next time he'd bring her halter, and we'd come to the house. I think he's changed his mind about taking the li'l darlin to the Fair!!!!!!! YIPPEE!!!!!!! I think she'll do great over there......and if she does well enough, he can sell 2 pigs at the auction, instead of just one......
So, here are a few pics of him messing with Tillie.

Just with the loop around her neck, notice all the slack, she wasn't pulling back at all!


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Moving the honda around under her chin, so he could put a nose loop on her.

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Putting the nose loop on, Tillie wasn't too sure about that at first, it's been a while since she had one (she was 10 days old at the time)

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She soon settled down, and enjoyed the attention once again. Guess my camera is doing strange things again, this one is kinda squatted. Neither of them are as short as they look........... :roll:

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Giving her pats on the belly, she kinda liked that, too. She must have had an itch.........

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Not bad for bein out in the pasture......just think how well she'll do here at home, in the corral! oh yea!!!!!!!!!!!
 

the_jersey_lilly_2000

Well-known member
did ya'll tag for the whole county at your place? or just your local 4H and FFA kids?
Here we have a taggin day set up at the Fair grounds, from like 4 to 6 pm everyone shows up with their goats, one day, pigs another day, steers some other day etc...... This year there were about 90 goats, don't know how many pigs (a bunchhhhhhhh) always more pigs than anything else.

Glad to see his heifer is wantin to be cooperative. Hope he does good with her too.
 

Ranchy

Well-known member
This was just for our local club, and the FFA member that lives here, too. Our CA just goes from club to club, tagging and weighing. And he goes to each kid's home, too. He's a great guy, for a kid. :lol:

The way you all do it would probably be easier on him by far, but don't know if he'd want to try that. I might suggest it for next year, though.

The heifer is a real sweetie, always has been. Just the opposite of her mama, who was always a real stinker! :evil:
 

the_jersey_lilly_2000

Well-known member
I think the meeting for individual clubs is a great thing. Not many County Extention Agents would take the time to do that. More personable the way ya'll do it. If he's willin I'd let him. Gives him more opportunity to spend time with each individual kid. Wish ours took time to do it that way. Plus, (county pays for his fuel) here when everyone makes a trip to the fair grounds that's lotsa fuel that gets burned, if the agent made one drive thru the county to each club, that'd be a whole lot less expense in the long run.
 

Ranchy

Well-known member
That's true.

He was quite pleased, for the first time in more years than I care to think about, everyone's pigs are on track for the fair, none too big (last year had 2 that were almost to 200# in June :shock: ) or too small (2004, Al's pig weighed in at 200# at the fair :( ). They have to weigh in at 210-260#............he said just keep em going like they are, and they'll be fine! Biggest one was 160#, smallest was 106#. We have right at 60 days till fair.
 

cowboyup

Well-known member
Great pics Ranchy looks like the heifer is going to come around. Question for you on the pigs (just curious) how many pounds of feed to make a pound of pork and how long does it take to get to fair weight? Thanks

cowboyup
 

Ranchy

Well-known member
Cowboyup, I asked Al (he's the pig expert in the family) and he said he really depends on the pig, but you figure about 2# of feed per # of pork.

Last year, he had 3 pigs......two were littermates (they classified the female as Hamp, the male got thrown into the cross class :roll: ) and a blue-butt female. He got them at the auction in Cliff on April 30 (remember the date, cause it was the same day that Pup and Drover were born :roll: ) and we had to hold the blue-butt especially......she was gaining much too quickly. Had to push the male, he was slow to gain, so I guess they're kinda like people......the females gain much easier than the males! :twisted:

The pigs he's got this year are also littermates, in fact, they are the whole litter that Rosie had, #3 pig was born dead. They were farrowed on 2-7, their pic is the one I entered in the Photo Contest "At Rest" a while back. They were 3 days old in that pic. Even all being female, and littermates (full sisters, because we only had the one boar when Rosie bred) there is still quite a gap in the weights.

It works out really well, to have them be about 6 months old at fair time, to fall in the 210#-260# limits we have........means a late Jan or early Feb farrow date. If we're still around this year at breeding time, think we'll shoot for the Feb 7 date again. These guys were actually a week earlier than the 3 months 3 weeks 3 days average gestation period......they were due for Valentine's Day.
 

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