WHY PIGS LOVE AND NEED MUD.

in #homesteading7 years ago

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Before I started pasture raising pigs I wondered why they enjoyed the mud so much. After doing a little research I found out that pigs have very few sweat glands. So to be able to cool off in the heat they will wallo in mud.

The moisture evaporating off their skin cools them down just like us when we sweat. The mud also acts like a sunscreen. Pigs can get a sunburn. It usually only takes for them to get sunburned once and they realize how importing the mud is to them.

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Our bore Floppy and his girls made a huge wallo in one of their pens. The mud in that wallo I was damn near waist-deep.

Another benefit of the mud is that it helps keep away the biting insects like horse flies.

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What a great way to start a post! Ask an interesting question, and no matter if I know the answer or just try to guess it, I'll be curious to know. Provide a number of answers and the learning experience is guaranteed!

We don't have pond/stream/water where our pigs live so we build them a "piggy dripper" for when it gets over 75F.

11.Piggy Dripper help10 crop June 2014 .jpg

Arrr very cute , ain't nothing as happy as a pig in s**t 😂nice post

Looks like you have given your pigs a GREAT place to take care of their skin. they are looking to have such good humans taking care of them. I am also adding this to the Sotall Directory so others can learn from it. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.