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cropsey, il 61731 | We've been doing a little experimenting with colors with the piggies. My wife read where red is a color the pigs will naturally avoid, so she has a red panel and we bought some red coveralls. When we unload my wife guards the gate with the red panel while we sort pigs out to her (she ends up being a little like a bull fighter and does it very well btw). It seems to work pretty good. If pigs in the aisle get excited and start running back into the pen (usually with a head of steam), they usually will stop before the red panel. With the aluminum panels they might take at least one poke to see if they can get by. To me, the red panels are plastic, slippery and a little heavier so they are not as good in the pen - the aluminum panels have square edges which 'seal' against the gates better to block a pig, so I'm not ready to change everything over. Anyone else have the same experience?
I've also seen an article where they use red canvas/ballastic nylon or similar to herd the pigs in. We've tried it when we crowd pigs to give vaccines, but wasn't so practical for us in that application. However, putting red nylon on the crowding gate did keep them calmer - no where to stick their noses. A lot of the time I'm not sure the piggies notice the shot as much as they get excited from being crowded.
Thanks,
Pat | |
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