Slop The Hogs

Last week my memories concerned the marketing of pigs, at least to some extent. Do you remember when almost all farmers and ranchers had a small bunch of pigs on their places? Most rural housewives had a slop pail sitting somewhere near the kitchen area. You all remember the term “slop the hogs” and that is exactly what the slop pail was for. All edible scraps went into the slop bucket, things like potato and other vegetable peels and trims, as well as fruit spoils, etc. This was truly the days when nothing went to waste. If you couldn’t eat it, the chickens or pigs would. I bet one of the children in the family got the job of slopping the pigs, and I bet it was not a chore that they fought over either.

I talked a little about marketing pigs last week. Getting these pigs to market or shows this time of year was a challenge. Pigs do not stand heat to well. I am not a bit sure about this, but I can imagine crating your pig, loading the crate onto a wagon (this wagon may or may not have been horse drawn) and heading to your destination. Even when this was done in the days of automobiles travel time was greater than now. I don’t know this for fact; however, I understand it was common to have a large barrel of water along with the pig or pigs and someone got the lucky job of keeping said animal cool by pouring water on him occasionally. Must have been why there were so many big families back then — a job for all!

There really are not many pigs marketed at our local livestock facilities any more, but a flash back of my early working years there makes me wonder if one of the employees still gets the job of hosing the pigs to cool them. Of course, not a bad job on days like these last hot ones.