Pig Facts
Tip-Top Pig Facts
Here are some interesting pig facts you might not know:
A sow is a female adult pig.
Farrow is the act of a pig giving birth.
A dry sow is a pregnant female pig that isn't producing milk.
Here are some more pertinent pig facts:
A gilt is a female pig that hasn't had any litters of piglets.
A piglet is a newborn pig.
A litter is a group of piglets from one sow, and all nursing from that sow.
The runt is the smallest piglet in a litter.
A boar is a male adult pig kept for the purposes of breeding.
A barrow is a male pig that has been castrated or neutered.
A feeder pig is what you call a pig after it is weaned from its sow. It is also known as a “weaner” pig.
A market hog is a gilt or barrow raised to sell for meat.
A hog or pork producer is someone who raises pigs for food.
Some more pig facts and trivia:
Mothers tell children that their messy rooms look like a “pig pen”. Actually, pigs usually like to keep clean. They divide their pens into separate areas for feeding, sleeping and defecating.
Who uses more water a day – a human or a market pig? The human does. We use more to brush our teeth than the pig in the grower-finisher area uses all day!
How many diseases can a human have on their body that can affect a pig? We could have six: Foot and mouth, ringworm, bordetella, influenza, staphylococcus and E. coli.
How many uses are there for the word “hog”?
A piece of lead used for ballast on a ship is a hog.
A small mold used in casting iron is a hog.
A pig that is raised for meat is a hog.
A broom that is used for scraping clean the bottom of a ship is a hog.
A Harley Davidson motorcycle is called a hog.
A large locomotive on a railway is a hog.
In the UK, a sixpenny coin is called a hog.
Even more pig facts and trivia:
Do people “sweat like a pig” when they get hot? Pigs don't sweat. That's why they roll in mud – to cool off.
What is the origin of the saying “to go whole hog”? In the eighteenth century, the English shilling was called a “hog”. A person who would spend an entire shilling for a friend's entertainment was willing “to go whole hog”.
What is the origin of the term “bringing home the bacon”? Fairs used to grease a pig and let it loose among contestants who were blindfolded. The one who caught the pig was said to be “bringing home the bacon”.
How loud can a pig squeal? Pigs can reach one hundred and ten decibels, which is almost the same as a Boeing 747 on take-off.
I hope you enjoyed these trivia tidbits and pig facts!