Today is the day that we find out how much our Piggies weigh! Believe it or not, but there is alot of excitement and anxiety that surrounds this day. Not quite as much as when you have a 222 lbs. piggy weighing in for a 220 lb. fair, but still alot!
Luckily for us, our little widgets (that's what I call them because I cannot come up with a better word suited for their level of mischief!) were on their best behavior! Our 4H Extension Office sent out a couple of volunteers and a scale for us to weigh and tag all of our market livestock. As soon as Justen brought the scale to the fence and we slid it open, the first little piggy, Spiderham, trotted right in. This would have been the easiest thing in the world, had ALL the others not immediately crowded around and fought to get on the scale too! We were fighting to keep the little piggies out, where normally they are fighting to get the piggies in!
With Spiderham (Clubby) in the scale, she was weighed and tagged. Our smallest little girl came in right at 85 lbs. a whopping 35 lbs. under where she should be right now to make weight for the fair. TABS babied her from birth, corrected her clubbed back feet, taught her to nurse from her mother, and protected her at the feed trough from her bigger siblings as much as she could... We knew we were going to have to be pushing her, so this wasn't too much of a surprise. Next in the scale was Lila, SAS' perfect piggy. She came in just slightly under weight at 100 lbs. but definitely doable. Ruthie, our little runty, was up next and surprised us all by out weighing Spiderham at 91 lbs.! Boris, our clubs only barrow, followed Ruthie at 98 lbs., there is a little work to do with him, but just as with Lila, I think they will make it just fine. Then came Bailey, she hesitated at getting on the scale just a little, but a couple marshmallows at the other end was all the convincing it took! On she came and off she went at a very comfortable 114 lbs. Last on the scale was Dot and, as expected, she tipped the scale at 118 lbs., and won the prize for our clubs largest pig! They should each be right around 120 lbs. to comfortably make weight at the fair. We have some work to do with these little piggies, but I have faith that we will be able to get them to weight by fair time.
Next up were the lambs, who were not as happy about the scale as the piglets were. The lambs were very content eating the grass and rose bushes at the barn. Poor SC, we'll need to replace those roses for her! But, staying true to character, our lambs were all a little under weight as well. Blu weighed first, and heaviest, at 65 lbs., but needing to be right around 100 lbs. right now, she was nearly 40 lbs. under. BamBam was very close to Blu at 63 lbs. and Smiley wasn't far behind at 60 lbs.
We will need to do some major push to get these animals to weight, but Justen gave the kids some great advice on working with them (although he said that we are "lightyears ahead on working with our animals") and pushing the weight. We will be starting the lambs on grain and keeping them out of the fields... no more grass for them! Just grain and hay! The piglets, since they can eat anything, will go to straight show pig feed and anything else with lots of protein and fat content that we can find for them. Justen even suggested milk replace, which we may try if we still are feeling a little skinny in a month or so.
All in all, we learned alot, got our livestock tagged for the fair, and were able to get an idea of how big they are and how big they need to be. We have work to do, but that has never been a problem for us! :) As always, Bring It!
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