Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Some Interesting Facts About Hogs & Pigs

By Lianne Derocco


An important source of food the world over is pork sourced from swine, making swine farming popular. It is important to note that all parts of the pig can be used to make various pork products, such as bacon, ham, sausage and other edibles. Some interesting information about pigs and hogs is stated below.

Words related to hogs are heard and used often interchangeably although these have different meanings and these words are swine, hogs, pigs and sows. Domesticated pigs are called swine and these are not the type of pigs found in the wild. Female pigs that are already matured are the sows and hogs are the adult swine in the pig farm. A male pig that has reached maturity is the boar although this can also refer to a wild pig.

Pigs have been domesticated for thousands of years, and it was the Chinese that first began raising wild pigs as a source of food. It was also the Chinese that invented our first form of bacon. While bacon might seem like the most popular food product from pigs in the United States, ham is actually the most commonly produced pork product in the country.

Pigs have the reputation to be dirty animals and they are considered thus because they wallow in the mud. Keeping themselves cool in the warm weather is their way because they are unable to sweat and muddy water is their way to keep themselves cool and where they relax. Pigs actually are quite clean and also have been found to be highly intelligent animals.

Pigs produce a lot of waste as this is also true for other animals and livestock that are domesticated. Waste pits and waste lagoons are the storage systems used in the typical pig farms. However, common problems associated with agricultural waste can occur and farm owners have to watch out for these in their waste storage systems. Crust can form on the topmost part of the pits and become a source of bad odors and also attract flies and the bottom portion can form into a difficult-to-manage sludge layer.

Farmers actually are better off if the waste is as liquefied as possible, and there are products on the market that use bacteria to eat away at the solids in the waste. One example of a chemical-free product containing these naturally occurring bacteria is Agra Sphere. This agricultural waste solution helps to prevent the building up of sludge, crust, and even reduces foaming. An excellent product to use for waste pits and lagoons already with sludge and crust can also be used, and this is Activator, another agricultural waste product that is helpful. It is a product that keeps the waste in liquid form, thus can be used as fertilizers, because it eats away the solid waste in the pits and lagoons.




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