Education in Pigs and Hormone Free Pork is Fake
Since I am a bit late joining the Field Moms, they brought me up to speed last night on a call. Last month they went out to a pig farm near DeKalb. The latest update is the farm owners dedicated a litter of piglets, baby pigs, to the 2013 Field Moms. The mother, a sow, gave birth to 17 of which 2 were still born. The remaining little ones are so cute. The mom and piglets stay at the sow farm, think labor and delivery for pigs, until the piglets are 20 days old. The farmer was explaining the extensive biosafety measures in place to ensure the health of every pig at the farm. One example is they needed to take showers in and out of the sow farm with special clothes just to visit their pigs. Their camera needed to wiped down with a bleach wipe. Wow!! I never imaged the sanitation level a farm needs to go through for pork. Kind of always thought it was a lower quality meat since some religions ban it in their diet.
Getting back on the pig track........ When the piglets are a few days old their tails are removed to prevent fighting within the pen. It was explained that they can be very agressive to one another and this reduces the likelihood of picking on the smaller animals. The detailing makes everyone equal. Who knew?
The biggest takeway from the call was how concerned the farmer was with her sow and new piglets. She explained the safety measure for the mom and little ones. The sow stays in a confined pen with her piglets to prevent her from laying on the little ones. The pen gives the piglets enough warning the mom is moving and to get out of the way. I never realized how small piglets are in comparison to a full grown pig. Now, it makes sense. In years past, piglets were known to die under their mother's own weight. Kind give new motivation for a human to lose the baby weight.
Revin Up Roger's Disney Pieglet is cute, but not as cute as the 15 piglets we saw last night.
On a site note, the other field moms explained on their blogs that pigs are never given hormones. Hence, you never need to buy hormone free pork, it already is!
Getting back on the pig track........ When the piglets are a few days old their tails are removed to prevent fighting within the pen. It was explained that they can be very agressive to one another and this reduces the likelihood of picking on the smaller animals. The detailing makes everyone equal. Who knew?
The biggest takeway from the call was how concerned the farmer was with her sow and new piglets. She explained the safety measure for the mom and little ones. The sow stays in a confined pen with her piglets to prevent her from laying on the little ones. The pen gives the piglets enough warning the mom is moving and to get out of the way. I never realized how small piglets are in comparison to a full grown pig. Now, it makes sense. In years past, piglets were known to die under their mother's own weight. Kind give new motivation for a human to lose the baby weight.
Revin Up Roger's Disney Pieglet is cute, but not as cute as the 15 piglets we saw last night.
On a site note, the other field moms explained on their blogs that pigs are never given hormones. Hence, you never need to buy hormone free pork, it already is!
Great review of last night's conference call! I learned a lot--wish we had been able to go to the hog farm!
ReplyDeleteYou are too kind. Thanks for the promotion of Crazyville!!!
DeleteWow, you sure learned a lot! Good to know all pork is hormone free.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like such a great program! I love that all pork is hormone free -
ReplyDelete