As you may realize, I am a veterinarian. We live on a small farm where we raise pigs, chickens, a few cows and various other animals. Both of my children who are still at home rodeo. My 17 yr old boy rides bucking horses and calf ropes. My 13 yr old daughter runs barrels and poles, ties goats, and occasionally thinks about breakaway roping.
We incorporate our farm and garden into our homeschool. My children all know basic veterinary terminology and procedures from me and they know basic meat cuts and butchering information from their dad. He has a master’s degree in meat science.
My eldest son says he understands food from “conception to consumption” – which is something many people do NOT understand. We artificially inseminate the cattle and the pigs and we incubate eggs to raise more chickens. My children (students) understand reproduction, gestation, growing, and butchering food in a healthy way.
Everyone here has the concepts of how basic plumbing and electricity work because something always needs to be fixed.
This week we have 4 litters of piglets due. As of this morning, two litters have been born.
Here is Landry, attending the farrowing on Sunday because I had an emergency veterinary shift to work and couldn’t be there. She’s quite versed in pig midwifery.
Birch was the white sow that gave birth (farrowed) on Sunday.
Denise is the Berkshire sow that gave birth overnight last night. She had 8 live, healthy piglets and one that was born dead.
We are waiting on Innis to farrow anytime, and Turtle is due in the next day or two.
Pigs have a gestation length of 114 days – That’s easily remembered as “3 months, 3 weeks, 3 days”.
Here’s a video I did a bit ago to keep you up to date with what’s going on here.
I will do a video of the piglet litters in the next day or two.
Dr Vet Sonya 