There is no doubt about it, our pigs' favorite thing to do is wallow in the mud. Roll, slurp, root, dig, and generally make a giant mess of it all. They will snort contentedly as they cool themselves down the way nature intended.
In the wild, pigs would live near rivers and streams. They are not able to sweat, so they must wallow in mud and water to cool themselves down in those dog days of summer.
Our soil is sandy and does not lend itself to getting muddy. A little intervention was required. When they were small, we would fill a cement mixing trough with water and let them play in that. They quickly became too big and you can guess what happened:
Refilling that trough all the time quickly got old, but the pigs loved the water so much... we needed to come up with a new plan.
And so one morning Ron went out to the pig pen and dug a giant mud hole for them (which was not easy, considering the pigs were trying to eat the shovel the whole time).
Depending on the weather, we have to fill up the hole every few days or so, since our soil does drain rather quickly. And our piggies are oh-so-happy, which makes me happy- I want them to have the best life possible, for the short time they are with us.
A local farmer commented to us that his pork tastes so good because they don't let their pigs wallow in the mud. I guess that is some of the local lore, but I don't agree with it at all- I say, let pigs be pigs.
I think that when pigs are allowed to live as close to the way nature intended as possible, they will be the happiest. And when an animal is happy, its meat is healthy and tasty. At least, that's the way I see it. So our pigs will continue to roll in the mud, lazily munching on roots, busily being pigs.
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