Well, I know I said I was going to post about milking today (ok…last week, if you really want to be specific). I realized, though, that I wrote quite a bit about milking in an earlier post. Instead of going into more detail about that, then, I’ve decided instead to tell you about the pigs.

About two weeks ago, we got some pigs. They’re an English heritage breed called Tamworth and have a reddish color. They were probably about a month old when they got here and already have doubled in size. It turns out that pigs really excel at one thing — turning food scraps and whey into pork. Considering how much they’ve grown in the time they’ve been here, I’d say they do it pretty well.

The plan is to feed the pigs any edible garbage we produce in addition to giving them any whey the calves don’t need and any leftover bread we can’t sell. Right now, the pigs getting about six gallons of whey between them a day and piles of bread. After our dinner, they get the scraps. They’re not very picky. Turns out they like pork chop bones as much as they like carrot greens and onion ends. I’m not sure if they’re enjoying the pile of flour we gave them on Tuesday, but we’ll see if they eat it.

I hate to say it, but the pigs are really cute. Typically, they coming running over, oinking and squealing, whenever someone walks past, hoping for something tasty. They seem to like the whey the best. If we’re not fast enough pouring the whey into their trough, chances are one or two of them will jump up and start drinking right out of the can — a pretty funny site considering the can is about as tall as they are when standing on their hind legs. When we dump the whey, they push and shove each other to get the best spot at the bowl. Apparently, the best spot is the one directly in the stream of liquid. More often than not, they end up completely covered in it.

They eat faster and more noisily than any animal I’ve seen. After a particularly good meal, they’ll often roll over and lay down on their sides, as if they’ve exhausted themselves. I guess all that gluttony is hard work.

Come autumn, these pigs will be about 200 pounds and ready to become pork. I guess that’s kind of too bad in a way, but I think I’ll probably try to take a trip out to the farm them to eat some of it. I don’t really feel bad about it, either. For one thing, there’s not much other use for a pig. For another, they’re living better lives than most other pigs in this country. They’re fed well (really well) and have space to roam around. They live outdoors and have access to both sun and shade. I think they’re happy — something that eludes most farm animals. Plus, I really like pork.

Thanks to Brennen for the nice photos and Kari for the video chat shot