Nancy Lidster: Sorting Market Hogs – Identifying Problems

By Nancy Lidster

I’m often asked to speculate on possible causes of pig handling problems. Without seeing what happened, my best guesses can be way out to lunch. Even when I’m on site the noise, activity, or even my own biases and expectations can distract me. Often it isn’t until I’m back home and have had time to study videos on my own without pressure or distractions that their true story starts to emerge.

We’ll compare two pairs of videos of handlers moving market hogs out of pens. In each pair one clip shows a problem and the other shows an easy exit.

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SITUATION 1 – hogs were being moved down the alley to a pen to the right of the camera.

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Video 1 – hogs circled back

The far handler started a good shot of movement at about :07 then stayed back instead of following it through. He was in a poor position to hold pigs so the handler at the gate could get them to circle out of the pen. The hogs stopped and turned back.

Video 1

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Video 2 – hogs left easily

The handler at the rear waited until his partner stepped back from the gate then calmly started hogs moving and carried their movement on out the gate. Only one handler was moving or pressuring the hogs at any one time.

Video 2

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SITUATION 2 – hogs were being moved down the alley to a hallway to the left of the camera.

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Video 3 – hog tried to circle back

The far handler provided most or the pressure and both handlers were moving as the hog circled towards the gate. At about :12  the near handler was beckoned forward to help block the hog. As he stepped forward the hog circled back. Both handlers crowded forward to force the hog to leave.

Video 3

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The far handler’s position as he approached the gate drew the hog’s attention away from the gate.

Anytime two or more people pressure a pig at the same time there is a very high probability that it will turn back.

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Video 4- hog left pen willingly

The far handler started the hog moving then handed it off to his partner who did little more than hold his position. In the absence of handlers’ crowding it or excessive movement the hog kept moving and calmly left the pen. Both handlers were positioned on the inside of the arc they wanted the hog to follow so it was easy for it to watch the active handler as it left the pen.

Video 4

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Pigs move far more willingly when we give them space and use our position and  bubble to guide them rather than trying to force or block them with panels / boards.

Pig movement is a valuable resource. Once we start pigs moving we want to guide and maintain that movement to its destination.

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Summary:

Both of these teams enjoyed some successes and both teams experienced some problems.

On the surface it looked like their problems had very different causes:

- Situation 1/ Video 1: a handler used too little pressure and released too soon

- Situation 2/ Video 3: two handlers used too much pressure and gave no release

In fact, both problems had the same root cause: the handlers were positioning themselves to block pigs from circling back into the pen instead of using their position and pressure effectively to move pigs out of the pen. Their positions and actions – intended to block pigs – actually stopped movement and took pigs’ attention away from the gate.

Source: DNLFarms