Chapter 23

Besides cattle, there is another livestock that requires careful attention, and that is the pig, especially the sow that can give birth to piglets. Feng Yiping has a lot to say about this. During his years in the vocational school, to sustain the family, they raised a sow.

A sow can give birth to two litters of piglets a year, with each litter having about ten piglets. The survival of the fittest, a tradition in the animal kingdom, is directly evident here. In each litter, there are always one or two piglets that are naturally weaker than their siblings. Moreover, there have been several times when the number of piglets born exceeded the number of teats the sow had.

Feng Yiping remembers that their sow had 13 teats, but there were times when more than 13 piglets were born. Therefore, the weakest piglet often had difficulty getting enough milk, and it required the most attention.

Each piglet is worth several dozen to a hundred yuan, so they had to be well taken care of. They would use rice porridge, cooked and ground into a paste, and feed it to the piglets with a bottle—just like feeding a baby.

Feeding only this was not enough; they still needed the sow's milk. They had to wait until the other piglets finished nursing, then carefully place the weak one back with its mother to feed. They had to be careful because a nursing sow can be very temperamental and protective. Even when the owner approached, she would be very cautious, sometimes even pushing or biting, so they had to be cautious.

Moreover, a nursing mother, whether human or pig, tends to be very irritable and easily agitated—Feng Yiping had experienced this.

They had already fed the piglets once, and if you tried to feed another one, the sow might become upset and lie flat on the ground, pressing all her teats down. The little piglet would squeal beside her, but she would close her eyes and let her big ears droop, pretending not to see or hear. At such times, you had to scratch her and coax her to turn her body and expose her teats.

They also had to be careful because the sow might become impatient while the piglet was feeding. If she suddenly rolled over, the weak little piglet, being slow to react, could be crushed under her, potentially losing its life. So, they had to be quick and attentive to prevent such accidents.

From the birth of the piglets to their sale, it took about two months. The price of piglets was high, and each piglet could gain several pounds, adding up to about 15 to 20 pounds. At an average of 3 to 4 yuan per pound, that amounted to nearly a hundred yuan. So, those two months required a lot of effort.

First, they had to ensure the sow was well-fed so she could produce enough milk for the piglets. As the piglets grew and were weaned, they needed to be well-fed and healthy. Since they couldn't afford to buy feed, they used traditional methods, grinding rice into a paste with a stone mill, then cooking it and feeding it to the piglets. Each day, they had to grind about ten pounds of rice, which was no easy task.

Like children, the piglets needed to be fed again during the long night. In the middle of the night, they had to boil a large pot of rice porridge, call the piglets to eat, then drive them out to relieve themselves, and finally coax them back home. The whole process took nearly two hours.

To make the piglets eat more, they had to use some strategies. If the piglets only ate and slept, they would eventually eat less. So, they had to ensure the piglets got some exercise every day.

Thus, in Feng Yiping's experience, besides herding cattle, he also had the task of herding pigs.

The sow, with a flat belly and a somewhat unsteady gait, led the way. As she walked, she called out, and a group of white, black, and spotted piglets followed, chasing and playing, their tails wagging. They all responded to their mother's calls with a similar melody, though not in unison, creating a lively scene.

On a flat area on the hill, where they usually dried things, the piglets played in groups while the sow rooted around in the grass, sometimes lying down when she was tired.

As soon as she lay down, the piglets swarmed over her, competing for her teats. Soon, the only sound was the sucking. After a while, the sow called out, struggled, and then lay flat, refusing to feed them anymore.

A few piglets continued to nuzzle her belly, but she ignored them. One piglet ran to her head, calling out urgently and nudging her face with its snout, but she remained unmoved. The piglet continued to plead, but the sow, growing impatient, shook her head and pushed the little one away with her snout.

The piglet, rolling away, seemed dazed and confused. After a moment, it perked up, called out happily, and ran to play with its siblings, nudging and bumping them. A few piglets stayed close to their mother, sleeping peacefully.

At such times, people would often come to observe, noting which piglet was the largest, the most active, the best eater, and the strongest—this was to help them choose when it was time to catch the piglets.

After two months of hard work by the whole family, the day of separation finally arrived. They chose a day, confined the sow in the pigpen, and kept the piglets in the house. The pre-arranged buyers came to the house and each grabbed the piglet they wanted. Whether they got their preferred piglet or not was not the family's concern. In the end, the piglets were weighed, put into burlap bags or baskets, and carried off to their new homes.

From the moment they were separated, the sow never stopped calling out, repeatedly trying to return home, only to be pulled back by the rope around her neck. She continued her efforts tirelessly.

The piglets' calls grew more urgent and louder, filled with anxiety and fear. The sow, hearing this, became increasingly agitated, calling out more frequently and loudly, her voice full of concern and urgency.

In the end, she could only watch helplessly as each piglet was taken away by strangers.

Some piglets struggled, jumping out of the baskets, their little legs on the edges, calling out to their mother, or crying. The sow would charge in their direction each time, pulling the rope taut and straight.

For many days afterward, the sow remained listless, refusing to eat.

Strangely, during the three years Feng Yiping was in vocational school, which were the most difficult times for the family, the sow they raised was always healthy, rarely got sick, and gave birth to about a dozen piglets per litter, with a high survival rate, adding nearly two thousand yuan to the family's income each year. However, after he started working, the family continued to raise sows, but they always encountered various problems, making it unprofitable, so they eventually stopped raising sows.

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