My wife Bobbie’s uncle Bob had a couple of hogs. There was a gilt that was stunted and while she was nearly six months old, she was much smaller than she should have been. As a college student soon to know everything, I investigated the situation. The gilt was being raised in a dark barn and being fed white field corn. I discovered that this combination can result in a serious vitamin B deficiency which can lead to stunted growth. I pointed this out to uncle Bob who did not agree. Not wanting to be bothered by my insistence, he gave me the gilt and told me to fix it. I took her to my father’s barn, gave her a shot of B12, put her in a pen that afforded sunlight and fed her a balanced diet.
In just a few months the hog was normal size and delivered her first litter of pigs, thanks to a man down the road that let us use his boar. This was my first dealing with hogs. Later on I traded a Blue Tick hound that did not like coon hunting, to a farmer looking for a yard dog, in exchange for another sow. My collection of hogs now consisted of two sows and with the boar down the road, my family was set with a good supply of pork.
While in school at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, I got a part time job with the USDA Parasitology Department. We were doing research on internal parasites of hogs and the effect variations in feed rations had on the days to market, with known parasitic infections. My job was to care for the hogs, cleaning pens and feeding them. I also got to participate in the research by doing microscopic egg counts. I learned a lot about caring for hogs as well as research.
Upon graduating from the University of Georgia with a BS degree in Agriculture and a major in animal science I received an offer to manage a hog farm in north Georgia. I pause here to point out that while some people believe that I have a PhD in the BS portion of my degree, this is simply not true. I do however have a lot of experience in that area. I accepted the position and moved my family to Armuchee Georgia.
There were two farms that I was to manage. One was in production with two hundred sows, a one thousand head finishing floor, and a state of the art feed mill. The other farm where we lived was still under construction. This allowed me to be involved in the design of the barns. After all, I am a professional hog pen cleaner. This farm also had two hundred head of sows and a one thousand head finishing floor.
Hogs are very smart and they are very interesting to work with. Many times people get frustrated while dealing with hogs because the hogs outsmart them. You do not herd hogs. The fences must be designed so they can only go where you want them. If there is any other option, they will find it.
Hog feeders and waterers have doors that the hogs open and close. When you are working in this environment, you become oblivious to the sound of doors slamming. One day while working on a fence there was a door slamming that had a different cadence to it than the rest. It finally caught my attention. There was a sow slamming the door on an automatic waterer. When I went to check, the water was not flowing. She was telling me this and was not going to stop until she got my attention.
Hogs are also very clean. Yes, they wallow in the mud to get cool which gives them a dirty reputation. But, when you put fifty in a finishing pen they will all use the bathroom in the same spot.
I guess if it were up to me, I would have one for a pet. They are easy to housebreak and train. The problem is, the breeds I like get too big to sleep on the foot of the bed.
