Ear Notching Research Paper

When some of you look at this baby piggy, you see a gross, stinky animal. I see an adorable animal who will one day feed people just like us. Now you see these cut outs in its ears? Those are called notches, and although you might think it’s inhumane and hurts, its not different than piercing your ears.
Ear notching is an essential part of identification for pigs. Some people use ear tags, and that might be the method you’re used too, however there are actually many cons to this method. Ear tags can get dirty so you can’t see them unless you wipe them off, which is very difficult to do when they get older and more ornery. Also, they could get ripped off or broken, which defeats the purpose of identification all together. Ear notches will never go away, as they heal as if they were born with them. You ear notch according to their litter number and pig number. The litter number correlates to the number litter it is within six months. The pig number correlates to the number pig in the litter. This number doesn’t matter which pig you pick, just whatever pig you pig you pick up first. The left ear, when you are looking at the pig, is the litter number. The right ear is the pig number. The pigs ears are divided into “zones”, by multiples of 3’s. It starts at
When you also vaccinate, castrate, and cut their teeth. You use an ear notcher and your hands. When you pick up the pig you want to grab it under the belly with the head facing toward you. Then you have to look in your records to see which litter number the pig is. You want to write down each pig one at a time with each pigs ear notch. You need to be very precise when you are notching the pig. You will position the notcher and then you will squeeze down on the notcher firmly until you feel it go. When you are done you place the pig back in the crate. The pig’s ears will bleed but it’s not a big deal and it will clot and stop bleeding within a couple