Circle M Farm

We bid a somewhat reluctant farewell to Piggy Lou, our friendly and gigantic sow, this morning when she went away with the butcher. We were only somewhat sad to see her go, for as endearing as she sometimes was, her size and strength had made her a bit of a danger in our fenced gardens.

Moreover, her inability to successfully deliver more than 5 out of the 11 piglets she carried (and we fed!) this winter made her an economic liability for us. We’d been debating whether to keep her another year and try a few different management strategies at farrowing time. But a wise local small-scale hog farmer recently said to us, “They’ll let you know when they’re done.” That made a lot of sense to us, and we realized she had – both by the way she walked so uncomfortably when pregnant and by her increasing crankiness with both us and the piglets. Just a few days ago a piglet stuck his snout into her feed trough and she launched him 10 feet with an effortless flip of her nose. Scary. Time to say goodbye.

A kinder, gentler Piggy Lou, in 2007.

The upside of course, is sausage. And the addition of a new little sow into our garden pig operation – adorable Pigabella, whom we bought from a neighbor yesterday. Here she is with a few siblings we also brought home to keep her company.

Our new sow, Pigabella, is the black one with the saucy look on her face.

Piggy Lou’s four boys, though the same age, take after their mother and are already much larger than Pigabella, so we didn’t feel comfortable putting her in with them. Hopefully our blind runt piglet, Napster, currently in a pen of her own in the front perennial garden, will fit in with this new group.