Our first farm tour, to a hog farm, was outstanding. I went from knowing nearly nothing about pigs, except that I really like pork, to knowing just enough to appreciate the hard work, thought, and care that these hog farmers put into raising them - all so that we can enjoy our bacon.
With that said, our hog farmer tour guides may not have realized how dramatic our barn tour was going to be to someone who’s never been around pigs. For me, from a sensory standpoint, it was intense and raw, unlike anything I've ever experienced. I had a high level of sensory awareness – smell, hearing, and sight; and the powerful extremes of each hit me one after the other.
When we first walked into the barns, my sense of smell was overpowered as our air turned into an intense odor of poignant ammonia-like manure. My eyes were at the ground minding where I stepped as I followed the field mom ahead of me. We were walking single-file through a long and narrow, metal enclosed passageway. We had on a white Tyvek® suit over our clothes, hair nets on our heads, and giant plastic bag boot covers over our more stylish footwear (mine was a pair of rubber barn boots). I was a little worried I was going to trip over the plastic bag boots if they came loose, but they didn't. As we walked, about 10 of us, our bag boots made a swishing noise as they scuffed the floor; and our suits, of course, swished as we moved. It was noisy and we had to speak up to talk to the person near us as we walked.
After this long noisy walk, we finally arrived at the sow barn where we began our tour. The sow barn is where the full-grown breeding mothers, probably around 400 pounds each, are housed. I had no expectations of what I was going to see (and hear) and I don’t recall anyone warning us, either!
Before my eyes looked up from the ground where I was stepping as we entered the barn, my ears caught the loudest cacophony of clanking metal and raucous rumbling and grunting I've ever heard. And the noises were echoing off the metal barn walls amplifying this harsh and discordant swine symphony all the more. Our swishing boot bags now had nothing on these pigs! It was so loud that we could barely hear each other speaking. For a few seconds, I was a little frightened, to be perfectly honest. I thought pigs were quiet and calm like at the fair! I am here to tell you, they are not quiet animals. They can be loud and raucous! I learned, first-hand, on this tour that pigs make a lot of different sounds – and I don’t even know how to describe all that we heard. There were a lot of voices bouncing around and it wasn’t just oink and grunt!
It was explained to us that a natural behavior of pigs is to chew. They were chewing on their bars making them clank. And they were probably “talking” so much because we were there just as they were about to be fed – all 650 of them.
Immediately after my ears caught the noise, my eyes looked up from the floor as we entered the barn. I was overwhelmed for a moment as I took in the view to my left, and then to my right. It didn’t seem to end – an army of them – one after the other, in several rows, all facing the same direction; all the same size, pink color, shape, and with perky big ears. It was so very orderly, and repetitive, and seemingly endless. I could barely see the far end of the barn which was a long way down. 650 pigs is just a lot of pigs - to hear and to see.
It was a dramatic sequence. I took it all in - the smell, the noise, and the sight; and within a moment or two, I came out of my state; or at least moved into the next one.
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