Measuring the Weight of Pigs

We do not have a suitable set of scales for measuring pig weights. I reckon it would be challenging to keep a porker steady on a set anyway, even with a bucket of feed under its nose. Pigs are very curious and very active so unless they are satiating their immediate hunger they will come over to see what you are doing and snuffle around expectantly.
Our three piglets are getting bigger but they still have a way to go. They have grown on a diet of food sctraps from the local café, fallen apples and excess zucchinis. They would grow a lot faster in a feedlot or if they were only fed pig grower pellets but it seems better to use excess food to create our pork.
Today I wanted to know what size Blanche, Petunia and Maud had got to. To calculate their weight I have a special tape measure. It has cms on one side and a converter on the other. Once you measure around their midriff just behind their forefeet you take that measurement and compare with the converter that shows weight in kilograms. Our piglets were between 68 and 75cms with Blanche being the biggest and Maud the smallest.

 

This equates to 39 to 41kgs. As long as they were interested in feed it wasn't too hard to take the measurement. It was more of a challenge for my 6 year old photography assistant to take a snap that included the pig, the tape and the measurer.
The supply of apples and zucchinis is declining and the turnover of customers in the local café is dropping as the weather cools so we will have to use more pig pellets to get them to our required weight of about 60kgs. Pigs also eat more when it is cold so we will have to stock up. Hopefully four to five weeks will get us there.

Blanche at 41kgs