BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts

You're listening to Friday's episode of The Arches, from BBC Radio 4.

Music Radio Podcasts

That's all the trust, old granddad. Jazz, I can sleep at night now.

Yeah, well you mean sleep at night. He woke me this morning with a text about pigs and heat stress.

He's been fretting about them over a heating. He told me they only sweat through the tips of their

snows. He's right. He's desperate to get back to work, that's for sure. Yeah, I can see how you'd

miss the pigs, but still if I was him I'd just chill out and enjoy the time off. He rings me every

evening to ask what I've been up to and it's always pretty much the same. Straw water feed.

Well do you want something different to tell him tonight? Something much more impressive?

Yeah, go on then. All right. You take a look in this arm. She gave birth early this morning, didn't she?

Yeah, now there are 14 piglets in there and I'm sure Hannah's told you how fierce a sow is when

protecting her piglets. Not as fierce as they used to be. At college we learnt pigs have been

bred to make them more docile. That's true enough in theory, but never underestimate a sow.

Usually my advice would be to leave her alone, let her get armed with tending to her young.

But sometimes if it's more than a dozen piglets in a litter we've got to take one or two for fostering.

A pig normally only has 12 good teeth, so you're going to take two for a piglet's away from her?

No, not me. You are. Really? I thought you just said they're fierce.

Leave them alone you said. Well, we're possible, but this girl will struggle to keep 14 piglets alive.

So first things first we need to coax the sow out of the art with some food and to distract her.

Yeah, that's right. Then you nip in and choose the two fratis from the litter to put with another sow.

I know why you go through the forest, so they have the best chance to fight in their way into the new litter.

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