Thursday, December 4, 2008

Pig carrier

When I'm moving a bunch of pigs, this is what I use. The trailer in this picture attached to my truck is a modified 2 axle car trailer. My brother brian fabricated the sides that fit into the stake pockets built into the original trailer. A piece of plywood across the front, and the gates hold the sides apart. At the other end is my tractor with the pig hauler attached to it. The tractor has an attachment on the back that's called a 3 point hitch -- because it connects via three points.





This carrier is designed to be able to handle 2 full sized sows and a human at the same time. that's about 800lbs of live animal. The carrier itself weighs about 700lbs. The tractor weighs 11,000lbs. It's 6' square.
It easily holds a dozen piglets, who spend a lot of their time looking down through the mesh that they're standing on. They're pretty amazed that they haven't fallen through.

To load a herd of swine, I back the pig holder up to the trailer, open the small gate on it, and then open the trailer gate. I walk to the front of the trailer, and the pigs basically run out of the trailer into the pig carrier. Shut the gate behind them, and you're good to go. This time of year we have deep mud. This group of berkshire piglets is going out to the pinball pen to be conditioned for eventual pasturing.


The piglets are all loaded; off to the pinball pen.



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