To celebrate the arrival of our 20 little piggies we've decided to come up with a little pig fact and truth sheet! We hope you'll learn something new about the smartest animal on the farm.

1. Female pigs are called gilts while male pigs are called boars.
2. Female pigs who have had piglets are called sows.
3. Castrated males pigs are called barrows.
4. When a sow has piglets it's called farrowing. 
5. Pigs give birth to litters! Which is unique in the farm animal world.
6. Sows often farrow in crates on farms so that they have a lower chance of laying down and squishing their piglets to death.
7. Pigs have a bulldozer for a face, they've been known to make their way through concrete given enough time.
8. The gestation period of a sow is 3 months, 3 weeks, and 3 days.
9. The safest way to catch a small pig (generally under 80 pounds) is by the back legs.
10. Pigs that look pink are actually referred to as being white.
11. Generally speaking, white pigs are maternal breeds meaning they have a lot of piglets and make good mommas!
12. Notches are taken out of a piglet's ear when it is very small. This allows us to identify the animal as each notch has a number designation. 
13. Notches are used instead of ear tags because a pig's ears never stop growing, which means eventually the hole you made for an ear tag will be too big and the ear tag will fall out. You do not want to have to catch and re-tag a 300-pound sow who does not want to be re-tagged.
14. Pigs are dense, a 40 pound pig will look like it should only weigh 20 pounds every single time.
15. White pigs used to be lard breeds, due to the drastic decrease in the use of lard you don't see a lot of lard pigs being raised anymore.
16. Pigs that are a color other than white are generally used as meat breeds, meaning they grow the best.
17. Pigs can't jump! If they could we would not know what bacon tastes like.
18. It is illegal in the U.S. to use artificial hormones in pigs. 
19. Pigs grow as fast as they do because of years of selective breeding. They can go from 50 pounds to 250 in just 4 months!
20. Pigs have a very minimal herding instinct, meaning they don't bunch up like cattle do when you try and move them as a group.
21. Pigs that have giant-floppy ears are the cutest, a close second is Spotted Poland-Chinas and a close third is Hereford pigs.
22. Pigs will use their nose to lift something up and move it, which means all gates must be securely wired to a wall, post, or another secured gate.
23. You do not want to have to chase an escaped pig that does not want to go back in his pen.
24. The best way to load pigs is to pretend you want them to go the opposite direction. Unless you have a nice pig loading set-up (which we do not).
25. Pigs have cloven hooves, like cattle.
26. Pigs are monogastric, which means their digestive system acts like ours! This makes them a great human analog.
27. We feed pigs to meet their lysine requirements. Lysine is an amino acid which are building blocks for protein. So instead of feeding for protein we can be even more exact and feed for lysine!
28. If given as much food as they want, pigs will grow to an immense size. We've heard of pigs being 900+ pounds. Now that is a big pig!
29. Pigs are the smartest animal on the farm, it's actually a little scary how smart they are.
30. A pig's favorite thing to do is pick up a mouthful of clean straw and run around the pen, it's honestly adorable.
31. Pigs are actually quite clean, they do not sleep where they go to the bathroom.
32. Pigs can't sweat! Trying saying you sweat like a steer or horse next time it's hot out instead.
33. Pigs are trainable given enough time and patience.
34. If you happen to touch a pig or its manure the smell is nearly impossible to get off. Trust us, we know from experience.
35. If you're looking for a simple 4-H, FFA, or summer project pigs are definitely an option! They take minimal equipment and can be bought for reasonable prices which makes them great for kids wanting to raise some money and learn something new. 

We do really enjoy having our pigs through the spring, summer, and fall. While they make great projects always make sure you do thorough research before buying any animal you've never owned before to make sure you completely understand the amount of time and type of care the animal requires. Pigs are not an "in-town" project but with a little land they are a great way for kids of all ages to learn the type of responisibility that comes with taking care of another living creature.