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.

We hear the words hog, pig, sow and swine sometimes used interchangeably, but each word has a special meaning. A swine is simply a domestic pig rather that a wild pig or wild boar. A hog is reference to an adult swine and a sow is female pig that has reached maturity. The word boar can refer either to a wild pig or to a male pig that has reached maturity.

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 are also often thought of as dirty animals and this is generally because these are livestock who enjoy wallowing and swimming in muddy water. However pigs do not sweat which means they must find a way to keep cool and a soothing mud bath is an excellent way to relax and help them maintain a safe body temperature.

Of course, like all domesticated livestock, swine produce a great deal of waste. This waste on pig farms typically is stored either in a waste pit or a waste lagoon. Farmers must pay careful attention to these waste containment systems in order to avoid many problems common to agricultural waste. Often, the solid waste will form a large sludge layer on the bottom of a pit or lagoon or perhaps the top will crust over causing severe odors and attracting flies.

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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