apple season

It's apple season right now, and I'm seeing large quantities of fresh apples from the produce departments.  Here the pigs are eating a half ton of fresh apples. 

A few pieces of plastic slip into the food, but by and large the loads have been clean recently, and it's pretty fun to watch the pigs select out their favorite fruit or vegetable.  One of the sows seeks out acorn squash and carries it away from the pile to eat privately. 

The sow in the next picture really likes nectarines.  She'll eat 50 of them, and them pause and reflect, and eat another 20.  Here she's sorting through the pile to eat the nectarines first.   Hog heaven. 

Recycling. 

Corral part 4, the ramp

 I've been working on the corral for the last couple of weeks, slowly, as I've had various other things to do, but this is a part that I completed a few days ago. 

 
 The ramp needs to be at least 15' long to allow a gentler slope up to the truck.  I'm building this loading dock to be able to both raise and lower to match the truck or trailer height, and to swing a little from side to side.  easier to slide the ramp than have to back up a semi, basically. 

 The first part of the ramp is from ground level up to about 12" tall.  this height is the height of my current stock trailer, so that's as low as it goes.  A semi-truck trailer is 4' or so off the ground, so the second part will need a hinge, and a swivel.  Here the side rails are put on the ramp frame. 

 The ramp is floored with boards, solid.  No gaps or cracks in it.  Pigs fear cracks, especially if they can see through them.  300lb sows will be firmly convinced that a vortex will suck them into a 1" crack in the floor, and they can be very good debaters.  So a solid ramp it is.  Not shown:  Cleats every 12", attached later. 

 This is the tilt-and-swivel hinge that was fabricated.  The rest of the ramp will be attached to this. 

When finished this ramp will have solid sides.  It is 22" wide, which is based on the size of my biggest boar, but I'm concerned that it may be a little too wide. I'll load and unload the pigs and few times and see how it goes.  To narrow this chute I'll put a 2x4 along the bottom to flare out the plywood sides. 

Eating a boar followup

One difference between the boar and a younger pig is that the ham and other meat is tougher.  More chewy.  the taste is ok, but I think next time I'll go the sausage route with the boar and not process it as pork cuts.