In the last ten years of raising pigs on our farm here at Red Tool House, I have not only witnessed countless litters of pigs born, weaned, and mature to a respectable weight for processing, but I have also seen my boys grow in a similar manner. Ok, maybe it isn’t that similar. At 20 and 16, they were weaned much earlier than ten years ago. Anyway, I have seen my boys grow up and interact with our farm through various stages of childhood. From being scared of the pigs so much they didn’t want to be around them, to hanging out on farrowing day for hours to watch the piglets move around, to basically being indifferent as long as I kept making bacon for their teenage appetites. They have always been extremely helpful, however, and have stepped up to help when they were needed.
One story sticks in my mind specifically. My oldest son, Liam, was probably eleven then..
It was time for the litter that we had on the farm to get a dose of deworming medicine. I have always chosen to use injectable dewormer simply because I can assure that everyone gets the right amount and no one was skipped. The application was sound, but the method had to evolve over the years. While I would like to say we now have a pretty solid process that is the least effort (sticking a needle in 10+ pigs on pasture isn’t the easiest thing), at the time of this story, things were still a bit hectic. I would focus solely on sticking the right pig while they were all scrambling and fighting around the feed bowls.
On this occasion, I had about 15 to treat. I recruited Liam to mark each pig after I dosed them. I had tried those wax marking sticks that are in every feed store, but I never had any luck getting a good, obvious mark. This time I was going to try something different. On the way to the barn, I stopped by the woodshop and fetched a can of red spray paint. I thought a little Krylon on their backs would show up perfectly (I had no black pigs at the time) and shouldn’t be detrimental to their health in such a small dose.
As Liam and I prepared to start the process, I reviewed with him the steps that he needed to take.
“Son, once you see me dose a pig, you have to keep track of it and put a red mark on its butt with the paint, ok?”
“Sure, dad. Red mark on the butt. Got it”
The pig’s typical reaction to the poke in the neck is to initially run away but after a few steps the allure of the feed brings them back. This creates a bit of a shuffle that requires the marking person to keep an eye on which pig just got dosed. Once I knew Liam was set and ready to go, I proceeded to dose the first pig.
As I moved on to the next pig, I heard the faint hiss of the spray can behind me.
“Got him, dad!”
“Great! Get ready to do this next one.”
As I focused intently on making sure I was placing the needle in the proper spot and administering a full dose on the next pig (we use a Slap Shot and an Allflex dosing syringe), I didn’t worry too much about how Liam was doing. I could hear the hiss of the spray can after each pig was poked.
About halfway through the group, I paused to check on how he was doing. When I turned to see the pigs that had been marked, I about fell over. Liam had interpreted my request to “put a red mark on its butt” as “put a full glossy coat of Krylon in their anus.” My first reaction was one of shock and dismay and I recall crying out, “Liam, what in the world are you doing??”
“Putting a mark on their butt like you asked,” he responded.
“When I said butt I meant the end of their back!”
“Why didn’t you say that in the first place!”
Our laughter filled the barn as we watched a small group of swine walk around with red anuses. It looked like they were experiencing a terrible gastro disease. I started to wonder what the possible ramifications of having Krylon sprayed up your butt would be. Fortunately we did notice any and the hams turned out pink instead of red!
