Minnie Pig

Minnie is the baby from my sow whom the neighbour now owns. She was the biggest of the piglets born and the strongest. There were 13 piglets, but only four girls. Minnie is a very fine specimen of a Berkshire pig with a long body and 16 teats. At first she was very wild, never having had any contact with humans except through a fence. She has been here a month and now she allows a gentle touch on her head or nose, but not for long. As she is more and more comfortable, she will most likely come for scratches and rubs just like Boris and Natasha, but Boris was traded for Minnie, so he will soon be going to live with my sow. The two are not related and came from entirely different regions and stock. At this time, I have no desire to breed Tasha or Minnie. There is little money in raising pigs in this area. People are not very willing to pay for pasture raised pork here and actually prefer pigs who are grain fed and did not get much of a chance to move around because the meat is sweet and tender. Pigs will consume a lot of grass and roots given a chance and they are very clean, only using a distant corner as their potty area. Even large pigs like Berkshires can be house trained, but they also can grow to a thousand pounds given a chance to live a long life. Who wants a giant house pig?
Minnie and Tasha will stay on the farm as the rototiller crew. They are responsible for tilling the hay and manure in the pens and that is a job they enjoy. Ideally, the pen should be left for a year afterwards and planted with good things for the animals to harvest upon their return. Once we have enough pens, this can take place. In the meantime, Minnie is a tilller in training and a darn cute one at that!

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