Ear Notching Done....

We had another very busy day ... The Freshman class helped out with our ear notching and of course Mikayla was here to help Mr. Allen identify us.

Here is how the whole ear notching thing works:  All pigs in the same litter should have the same ear notch in the right ear.  This is determined by the number of births a mother has.  In our case it will be 2 because this was our mom's 2nd litter.
The pig’s left ear is used to show individual identification for each pig in the litter.

Why do we ear notch....
*  A permanent ID system  
    * Individual identity for all animals  
    *Inexpensive means of identification 
    *Enables producers to keep an accurate set of records

Ear Notching Tool is used to make the notches in the piglets ear.
Ear notches are read with the litter number (right ear) first followed by the individual identification number (left ear) read second. The standard earn notch system will consist of a standard set of numbers and notches located in specific areas are the ear of each individual pig.

Standard notches in the pig’s right ear are the 1 notch located on the bottom of the ear near the pig’s head. Meanwhile the 3 notch is located on the side of the ear close to the tip. The 9 is located on the outer half of the top of the ear while the 27 notch is located closest to the head on the top of the ear. The largest notch number is the 81 notch which is located at the tip of the ear. Any combination of the standard notches can occur with no more than two notches of any one number. For example 3 +3 = 6 and you never see 3 + 3 + 3 = 9. This does not exist and neither does 81 + 81. There is only one tip on an ear, so there can only be one 81 notch. The right ear has a maximum number of 161 (81 + 27 + 27 + 9 + 9 + 3 + 3 + 1 + 1 = 161).
Standard notches on the pig’s left ear are the 1 notch located on the bottom of the ear near the pig’s head. Meanwhile the 3 notch is located on the side of the ear close to the tip. The 9 is located on the outer half of the top of the ear. The maximum number of the left ear is 26 (9 + 9 + 3 + 3 + 1 + 1 = 26). It is highly unlikely you would have 26 pigs born in a litter.

Now that the notching is done it is easy for all of our FFA friends to tell us apart especially since Scooby, Sophie, Filly & Olivia all look the same!  We know who is who but most of the kids can't seem to get our names correct.

This is Little Miss Sophie ...

<3 Pinky's Littles