Healthy Pigs, Happy Farmer.

Farmers take many steps in order to keep their herds healthy with any animals, but in pigs it seems like sickness can spread like wildfire. If one pig is sick it is only a matter of time before another pig on the other side of the barn is coughing so it is important that farmers do what they can to stop the spread of germs. Pigs do not have a thick hair coat like other animals, so they don't like the cold or cold drafts, meaning temperature is a huge factor in raising pigs. Optimum temperature is anywhere between 65 and 70 degrees, this is one of the reasons that most farms raise them indoors, so that farmers can control the temperature. Pig barns have control boxes that you set the temperature for and when the weather is too warm the control box will turn fans on as well as raise curtains on the sides of the barn. When the temperature is too cold below the set temperature, the fans will not run and curtains will stay up, and a heater may even kick on.

Pigs are kept indoors to prevent germs from other farms to enter their barn. Most pig farms have a rule that says every visitor and worker must shower on their way in and on the way out, and must wear clean clothes and boots (which farms will provide). This essentially is to keep outside germs from entering, and also prevents any germs on the inside from leaving and coming back. Each farm also has a rule on how many days you must have been away from other pigs before entering, like the farm I worked on you could not have been near pigs 48 hours prior to entering their facility. When farms have preventative measures to reduce risk or germs and diseases this is called biosecurity. Internal biosecurity measures that the farm also does is wash things like hallways, rooms, loading chutes, and boots daily.

Another reason for being raised indoors is because pigs can actually get really bad sunburn if they are outside for too long, and we all know how painful that can be. Farmers main goal is to produce quality meat and to do so you must keep animals healthy and happy, and it also means using antibiotics when needed. If an animal gets sick it needs to be treated, much like if a person is sick they go to the doctors. Every medicine given has a withdrawal time, which means that's how long that drug will take to leave the animals system so that it does not show up in any meat. For example, Baytril is used for pigs coughing or not eating, and has a five day withdrawal, so five days after the drug has been given it will have left the animal's body and then the pig is deemed safe to go to market. All farmers are required to follow withdrawal times on labels, and all meat is tested for antibiotics. Just because someone used antibiotics for their sick pig, does not mean you will be consuming the antibiotics at dinner.

All farms have different ways of doing things and different animals have different needs, but all farmers want the same thing of producing quality meat for us. They are not trying to harm us. Happy animals are healthy animals, animal welfare is big importance to farmers because if all animals are healthy it means the farmer is producing meat and they are doing what they aim to do. If animals are sick or production numbers are low, the farmer won't be happy because it means there is a problem and then they are not getting much of an income...hence why healthy pigs means happy farmer.