Breaking the skunk

**Swamp Rat** · 10-05-2014, 08:08 AM

Sitting for deer last night and met an old "friend" - heard something slipping up close behind the stand. Turned, and saw the pig. 20 yards... never made a sound coming in. As he got nearer my walking trail, though, he got nervous. Obvious he got a whiff of me. He was snorting and sniffing, trying to figure it out, when I put a 150-grain Remington Accutip from my 7mm Mag through his porcine little brain. Funny thing was, this is the first critter I've shot with the Savage Model 111 "Long Range Hunter", and it was a 12 yard shot. I coulda done it with a pistol.

Here he is earlier this year....

Last night. 228 pounds.

**BigBallin** · 10-05-2014, 09:08 AM

strong work sir, that dude would be great over oak coals for about 10 hours.

**BigBallin** · 10-05-2014, 09:09 AM

And whats with the cut ear, I thought that was a thing farmers did? Is that an escapee from a renegade farmer or just war wounds?

**Kwacker2** · 10-05-2014, 10:13 AM

You gonna eat good.

**Mobetter** · 10-05-2014, 10:17 AM

Originally Posted by BigBallin

And whats with the cut ear, I thought that was a thing farmers did? Is that an escapee from a renegade farmer or just war wounds?

Farmers may notch the ear for record keeping purposes. I could tell you how to read notches, but I'll wait for Mergie to "discover" it on the innerwebz and post it.

Folks used to catch bo' hogs, castrate them and turn them lose for later killin'. They'd cut the ear so they could tell at a distance.

**Swamp Rat** · 10-05-2014, 10:45 AM

He wasn't casrated. Broken tusks... I'd say he cut it fighting

**JABIII** · 10-05-2014, 10:47 AM

Good killins.

**cpp4720** · 10-05-2014, 10:56 AM

Originally Posted by Mobetter

Farmers may notch the ear for record keeping purposes. I could tell you how to read notches, but I'll wait for Mergie to "discover" it on the innerwebz and post it.

Folks used to catch bo' hogs, castrate them and turn them lose for later killin'. They'd cut the ear so they could tell at a distance.

Ears are notched to distinguish between multiple genetic lines. That did not come off a hog farm. Battle wounds is all.

**cpp4720** · 10-05-2014, 10:57 AM

Forgot to add....

Kill em all.

**Mobetter** · 10-05-2014, 10:58 AM

Originally Posted by cpp4720

Ears are notched to distinguish between multiple genetic lines.

Really? How so?

**cpp4720** · 10-05-2014, 11:11 AM

Originally Posted by Mobetter

Really? How so?

If your sow herd is a "multiplier" unit you notch the ears of gilt piglets born to different sire lines. For example a line 1 female mated with a line 2 boar will produce line 3 gilt piglets. Line 3 female X line 3 male produces a line 33 female. The line 3's may have two notches on the bottom of the right ear while the line 33 may have a single notch on top and bottom of both ears. The line 3's stay at the farm they're born on as future replacements while the 33's are shipped to other farms for their replacements. Notches are the only way to distinguish the difference.

**Mobetter** · 10-05-2014, 11:36 AM

Originally Posted by cpp4720

If your sow herd is a "multiplier" unit you notch the ears of gilt piglets born to different sire lines. For example a line 1 female mated with a line 2 boar will produce line 3 gilt piglets. Line 3 female X line 3 male produces a line 33 female. The line 3's may have two notches on the bottom of the right ear while the line 33 may have a single notch on top and bottom of both ears. The line 3's stay at the farm they're born on as future replacements while the 33's are shipped to other farms for their replacements. Notches are the only way to distinguish the difference.

:sigh:

The universal swine ear notching system uses the right ear as the "litter number" and the left as the "individual number".

The ears are divided into four quadrants for values of 1,3,9 and 27. The wee tippy tip had a value of 81 (right ear only). Litter number "33" would be one notch in the "27" quadrant and two notches in the "3" quadrant. The left ear would be notched "1", "2", "3" etc. for each pig in the litter. So pig "8" of litter "33" would have two notches in the "1" quadrant and two notches in the "3" quadrant of her left ear.

All that to say this.

Yes, farmers notch ears on hogs.

Yes, feral hogs are sometimes caught and have the ears cut for future ID.

No, Swamp Rat's big ass hog had neither of these.

Nice hog Swamp Rat.

Sorry I boogered up your thread with animal husbandry trivia.

**Swamp Rat** · 10-05-2014, 11:44 AM

No worries. .. learned stuff

**cpp4720** · 10-05-2014, 11:53 AM

Originally Posted by Mobetter

:sigh:

The universal swine ear notching system uses the right ear as the "litter number" and the left as the "individual number".

The ears are divided into four quadrants for values of 1,3,9 and 27. The wee tippy tip had a value of 81 (right ear only). Litter number "33" would be one notch in the "27" quadrant and two notches in the "3" quadrant. The left ear would be notched "1", "2", "3" etc. for each pig in the litter. So pig "8" of litter "33" would have two notches in the "1" quadrant and two notches in the "3" quadrant of her left ear.

All that to say this.

Yes, farmers notch ears on hogs.

Yes, feral hogs are sometimes caught and have the ears cut for future ID.

No, Swamp Rat's big ass hog had neither of these.

Nice hog Swamp Rat.

Sorry I boogered up your thread with animal husbandry trivia.

We use the keep it simple method of notching in our multiplier. She's either a gpk1 which is tagged with a barcode scanned tag at birth, a line 3 or a line 33. It's the easiest way of ID when they're produced in volume. Boars in the stud and GPK 1 are the only ones with litter and individual ID's. They're the only animals ranked based on who their parents are.

Sorry for further boogering up the dead hog thread. Like I said before. Kill them all.