Craigslist came through once again! We have been searching for some Spot pigs for several months and found some about an hour down the road. Craigslist is the ultimate tool for good deals and shopping locally.
Spots are known for their great muscling, mothering ability and temperament. They are also a heritage breed which is something we were interested in. Heritage breeds are the non-traditional breeds that the factory farms did not use in their design. If individual farms choose not to use these breeds then the breeding pool will continue to dwindle and possibly cause the breed to cease to exist.
Danielle made the first attempt to pick them up. The guy on the phone said, “They are really small and will fit in a dog crate really easy.” Danielle got there to find two 70 pound boars in a lot about 10 feet by 10 feet and standing in about a foot of mud. It was pitiful. She and a friend were able to catch one of the pigs and manhandle it into the crate. As the latch closed on the crate the boar decided it didn’t like it’s enclosure and went wild. I’ll let Danielle tell you what happened from there:
As I had my hand on the top of the crate and started to wipe the mud from my eyes and lips, I turned to see that the pig and the bottom portion of the crate was on the other side of the stall. My heart had sunk about as much as my ankles in the feces laden mud. At this point, I took a step back, looked at Heather who was also covered with mud and who knows what else and decided that we needed the cattle trailer and someone else to catch these pigs.
We loaded the broken crate, our shoes, and our pride in the bed of the truck and drove back home laughing at our lack of pig catching skills and how no one would love us for the way that we smelled.
How did you get the pigs to the farm?
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