Otis and the Principal

Otis will make his debut during a 2 PM Menasha High School assembly on Friday Feb 18th. Principal, Dr. Larry Haase challenged the high school students to raise at least $3000 for the Heifer Foundation. If they met their goal he agreed to kiss Otis! I don't think Dr. Haase realized that Otis is almost 4X the size of Green Bay Packer linebacker, Nick Barnett. :)

Otis the Boar

Chances are that when you visit the farm Otis is napping under the shade of the tree and you don't have the opportunity to see how big he is. I was able to take a video of him which proofed to be slightly difficult. When Otis is awake he wants attention. He loves people. I kept having to move backward so I could keep him in front of the lens!

PS Turn up the volume to hear Otis snorting at me "Will you stop taking the video and just pet me!"

Lilly and Her Litter

Visitors to the farm have often heard that sows farrow (give birth) 3 months, 3 weeks and 3 days after being bred. Many farmers add, "3:00 in the morning." However, Lilly farrowed at 3:00 in the afternoon!








Piglets are 3.5 - 4.5 pounds at birth. Pigs are the fastest growing animal on the farm. They grow 2-3 lbs. a day.











Piglets establish a "teat order" within 3 days of birth. Since the front teats have more milk your stronger piglets will be found there. Your smaller, weaker piglets will be toward the rear. In the video you see them in the early stages of determining this order. The piglet at the rear was JUST born and is still finding her way around. If you look closely you'll see she still has birthing fluid on her.

Otis

Otis the Boar is happy and "tickled pink" to spend the winter in the sow barn where he's protected from the winter winds and he can snuggle into fresh straw and keep toasty warm.

One little, two little, three little piggies.

On average a sow will have 10 to 12 piglets. I guess that makes Scarlet above average! She had 14 piglets on Sunday September 20th.

Scarlet is a 4 year old Yorkshire. She was breed to a Hampshire boar.