Hey guys just thought I would give you an update of my first day of work out at the farm.... training this week is at a barn thats quite a ways away from my house, its about 45 minutes one way so I had to get up really early this morning around 4-4:15 because I had to be there before 6 and needed enough time to make sure I got to the right place because I had obviously never been there before, so that was fun, I got there on time we all talked about biosecurity again, then we showered in, and went inside and talked some more, then we had a mini scavenger hunt looking for things like ear plugs, saftey glasses, MSDS sheets among other things, then we did a small tour of the barn well all of the barns, there are 6 barns in total that are all connected 2 farrowing 2 gestation 1 breeding and one with just pens for different various things, first we went to see the 2 gestation barns and we got to feel the different body conditions of sows, they are measured 4 times during their pregnancy, and depending on their score 1 is a little thin 2 is just right and 3 is a little overweight, you have to feel their ribs and their hip bones to determine what they are, after that we watched some of the normal workers processing piglets they were giving iron shots, castrating, and tail clipping.... the piglets were only unhappy while being held because they still don't know humans, they don't even care that they were castrated or anything they just wanted to be put back down haha as soon as their feet were on the ground again they stopped squealing, it was really nice to see how much goes into the daily care of all the animals and I can't wait to play a bigger role, after that we went in and ate lunch early at like 10, then we went back down to the pens and practices moving some sows and gilts around first we got to move them in groups, you would move the whole pen, but only push 2-3 pigs out at a time, then we had to single out a individual girl and move her too, in case you didn't know pigs are very social animals so it was much easier to move them in groups, when moving my group a sow insisted on getting a drink of water she wouldn't move till she got it the same thing happend when I moved just the individual it was kind of funny its amazing people think of pigs as dumb stupid animals but they are really full of personality, some sows are really friendly others would rather just lay there some like being curious and its kind of cute, Kristin our trainer walked into the pen we would be moving and one sow from the way back came up as fast as she could so Kristin would pet her she would just put her head up for Kristin to pet.... it was neat to see Kristin interact with the girls, I found a sow that wanted to be petted while others were practicing moving the group (only one person did it at a time) and she would pick her head up for me to scratch and rub on they are really neat animals, of course you cant think of them as pets because they will eventually die or be euthanized... this past weekend a illness started comming in it is hitting farrowing really hard and they are loosing piglets to it we watched some of them be euthanized in the Co2 tank but it was what was best for them, prolonging the suffereing would be cruel.... they should know by tomorrow what the disease is so treatments can start as soon as posssible, we got to help give vaccinations to piglets this afternoon, I kinda paired up with the other younger girl of our group she will be a senior this fall we are the only 2 highschoolers in our group, i gave the vaccinations first, she grabbed marked and held the piglets while I gave the shots, then after a little bit we switched, we had 7 people in our training group and we did 12 litters quite quickly, after the first few shots you figured out what you were doing and things started to go quite a bit quicker, we all had different colored markers, and one litter had all but 1 piglet marked with Christmas colors it was kinda funny, anyways that was my day after that we reviewed some stuff and showered out and I came home, I went out and cleaned the horse water then came back in and took yet another shower, (only the third one today.......) and now im going to just relax until teen wolf comes on, Kristin called and told me they pushed back weaning tomorrow morning so I don't have to be there until 6:45 so thats always a plus to get a little more sleep anyways blog ya later!
