Joe came to pick up all 8 weaners today. Now moving pigs is either straight forward and it takes no time at all, or it’s a nightmare. Today turned out to be the latter.
Initially we followed defacto plan A, i.e use a bucket of feed and walk the weaners plus Sultana up into the yard where they can be enclosed in a small space. Back the trailer up and walk everyone into the trailer. Normally works a treat. two problems today a) Joe planned to put the weaners in the back of his truck and b) the pigs didn’t play ball.
Half of the weaners wouldn’t cross the boundary where the electric fence normally is. The others were in the yard and caught one by one to load into the truck. Now weaners at 8 weeks are quite small and you can ‘pop them in the car’, however these are 13 weeks. As soon as one was put in another escaped. Re-think required.
OK plan B, let’s get all the weaners and Sultana back in their paddock and then encourage them into the ark. Once in the ark they’re contained and we can carry them one by one into Joe’s truck. Hmm… the truck isn’t working let’s use our livestock trailer to avoid any more escapees. There’s quite a dip from the yard into the field but the Defender should manage it.
An hour in and things are going our way. I won’t say it was easy catching wriggling muddy weaners but it was working. However it’s a little unnerving being in the ark with a squealing weaner when Sultana comes barging in barking, to see what’s going on. She was very good about the whole thing and a few pounds of pig nuts pacified her.
All we had to do now 
was drive out of the field back to the yard. The Defender tried her best but it’s very muddy a steep slope and the trailer is quite heavy. Massey to the rescue. First tow the defender out. Second pick the front of the livestock trailer up on the 3 point linkage; I don’t have a tow bar on the Massey. Third drive back to the yard. It all went like clockwork, honest
Sorry no photos of us with weaners in our arms; all of us were fully occupied no spare hands to take any snaps.
Sultana thought it would be fun to round up the ewe lambs and put then in the lambing shed. Meanwhile the piglets went in all directions except the direction of Sultana. More pig nuts and we have Sultana back with the piglets, temporarily at least. No matter what we tried we couldn’t get all 8 to follow her. Eventually we had 5 and Sultana following the bucket and off we went. So what about the last 3? Fortunately with some ‘sushing’ they went into Ark number 3, perfect. Amanda backed the Landrover up close by, then one by one we caught the piglets without letting the others escape and bundled them in the back of the Landy. After short drive to the other end of the field they were re-united with Mum and their siblings. Time for a shower and a cuppa.
Dumblehole 