[Sca-cooks] Pigs help New Forest ponies

[Terry Decker]

Ear notching was and is the method used to identify pigs.  It is an 
inexpensive, permanent system of marking that can easily identify individual 
animals.  There is a standardized system of notching commonly used in the 
US, the details of which can be had from extension services or the 4-H. 
Notching and tail docking is usually done when the animal  is between one 
and three days old.

Unlike sheep, pigs don't need much attention, so letting them run loose 
isn't much of a problem.  Swineherds are employed when one is raising a 
large number of pigs, gathering the pigs or driving the pigs to market.

Bear


----- Original Message ----- 
It sounds like the pigs were just set free to browse. I had gotten
the idea somewhere that several pigs were set loose together with a
swinehard to keep track of them and perhaps herd them.

If this isn't the case, how do you get *your* pig back at the end of
grazing season. Are/were the pigs branded?

Stefan