Nebraska 4-H "Aspects of Ag" - Pork

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08/31/2021 Added

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Nebraska 4-H "Aspects of Ag" - Pork Lauren Stohlmann, Nebraska Extension Educator

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[00:00:13.880]Hello. My name is Lauren Stohlmann.
[00:00:16.340]I am a 4-H Extension Educator in Nebraska.
[00:00:20.210]I want to talk to you about one of my personal favorites.
[00:00:23.930]It's also the number one meat eaten worldwide pork.
[00:00:29.150]I want to talk to you about the pig industry.
[00:00:32.300]There are about 3000 pig farms in Nebraska.
[00:00:36.560]You can have up to a thousand, 2000 pigs per farm.
[00:00:41.600]That's an insane number of pigs in Nebraska.
[00:00:44.540]We're actually the sixth largest pig producing state in the nation.
[00:00:49.670]We're very proud of that. And with all of those pigs,
[00:00:52.850]we need farmers who are going to care for them,
[00:00:55.610]making sure that they're healthy, they're happy and they're comfortable.
[00:00:59.870]I am grateful for pig farmers for a lot of reasons.
[00:01:03.740]A few of which are that they give me the bacon that I might have for breakfast.
[00:01:09.050]They also help to get the cheesecake that I might eat and
[00:01:14.090]batteries in my technology. We'll get to that first.
[00:01:17.990]I want to start at the very beginning of the lifecycle of a market
[00:01:22.760]pig.
[00:01:24.440]Beginning with gestation or pregnancy,
[00:01:28.400]a gilt is a female pig,
[00:01:31.040]a young female pig at about six months old,
[00:01:35.240]a gilt can start being bred to have piglets.
[00:01:38.780]The gilt will be bred with an adult male pig, which is a boar.
[00:01:43.700]The gilt will be pregnant for about 114 days.
[00:01:47.600]That's an easy way to remember that is three months,
[00:01:51.710]three weeks and three days.
[00:01:54.290]Very easy way for me to remember that right before she's about to give birth.
[00:01:59.300]She's in a farrowing barn where she will give birth to her piglets.
[00:02:04.070]After a gilt gives birth, she is now called a sow.
[00:02:07.970]So a sow is essentially a mama pig. The piglets,
[00:02:12.170]when they're born are about two to four pounds,
[00:02:15.140]you might not have had the chance to hold a piglet.
[00:02:18.350]But if you've held a pineapple, they're about the same weight,
[00:02:22.760]a sow. When she gives birth,
[00:02:24.500]we'll have about 12 to 14 piglets per litter,
[00:02:28.850]and she can have up to three litters every year up Sao can
[00:02:33.710]have about 36 piglets every single year
[00:02:38.870]at birth,
[00:02:39.890]the piglets will nurse from their mother to get the milk so they can start their
[00:02:44.510]life out strong. After about 21 days or three weeks,
[00:02:49.460]the piglets will be taken from the farrowing unit to
[00:02:54.440]a nursery in the nursery.
[00:02:57.680]These piglets will have everything that they need to continue their life and to
[00:03:02.500]grow big and strong.
[00:03:05.160]A barn might look a little bit like this.
[00:03:09.450]What you might first notice are these tins
[00:03:13.770]buildings,
[00:03:14.670]tall things that are out front of the barn that holds the feed
[00:03:19.620]for the pigs in these bins will be a mixture of corn and
[00:03:23.910]soybeans.
[00:03:24.840]The farmers in Nebraska that grow corn and soybeans hope to feed the pigs that
[00:03:29.340]we have here in Nebraska.
[00:03:31.530]These bins are connected to tubes that will go into each
[00:03:36.150]individual pin in the barn. So the piglets have food that they can eat.
[00:03:41.190]Piglets will be eat about one and a half to four pounds of feed
[00:03:45.270]every day. In this barn,
[00:03:47.880]they will also have what we call waterers or drinking fountains. Essentially,
[00:03:52.890]these piglets will have clean, healthy water for them to drink.
[00:03:58.500]You might also notice these barns look like they have some windows in
[00:04:03.300]there. Did you know pigs
[00:04:06.300]can't sweat except for one place on their nose?
[00:04:11.130]Because pigs can't sweat, we keep them in these barns to keep them comfortable.
[00:04:15.930]They have shade from the sun. We can keep them cool
[00:04:20.100]letting some breeze come in. We have fans that are running.
[00:04:23.520]We can control the temperature with thermostats to make sure they're very
[00:04:27.600]comfortable. And in the winter we can close these curtains,
[00:04:31.830]crank up the heat a little bit and keep them nice and warm because they can't
[00:04:35.640]regulate their heat like say a cow or a horse might.
[00:04:40.020]Something else to know in these barns is they will walk on things that we can
[00:04:44.400]call slates.
[00:04:45.930]So they're a little slivers of space in between these greats where the manure
[00:04:50.880]can fall through because contrary to personal belief,
[00:04:54.720]pigs don't roll around in mud and these barns, at least.
[00:04:58.710]So the manure will fall through these slates and farmers can use the manure
[00:05:03.750]and put it on their fields to grow their crops. Super cool.
[00:05:07.920]The pigs will be in the nursery for about six to eight weeks.
[00:05:11.670]At the end of the six to eight weeks, they will weigh about 50 to 60 pounds.
[00:05:16.350]So they've grown a little bit. They need more room.
[00:05:19.230]So we will move them to a growing and finishing barn.
[00:05:23.910]In this barn, they will have everything that they would need.
[00:05:27.420]Like the nursery had some changes,
[00:05:29.910]might be a little bit more space for them to run around and we might start
[00:05:34.800]adding vitamins and minerals to their feed.
[00:05:37.860]Just like all of us might take vitamins and minerals or eat the healthy fruits
[00:05:42.420]and vegetables that we consume to keep us strong.
[00:05:46.530]Farmers will check their pigs sometimes up to three times a day,
[00:05:51.250]we'll walk through the barns to make sure that the pigs are healthy,
[00:05:55.140]that they don't have any injuries and that they're safe and continuing to grow.
[00:06:00.230]At about six months old,
[00:06:02.660]after all of this process,
[00:06:05.480]the pigs will weigh about 280 pounds.
[00:06:09.380]That's what we consider market ready.
[00:06:11.990]A market pig is one that we will use its products for things that we buy
[00:06:16.970]in the grocery store.
[00:06:18.560]Some pigs can be saved for breeding that can continue the growth of piglets on
[00:06:23.150]the farm. And the market is what we might see in the grocery store.
[00:06:27.860]I want you to think about if you used something today
[00:06:32.690]that you can thank a pig farmer from,
[00:06:35.090]I bet you'd be surprised at 280 pounds,
[00:06:39.800]we send the pigs to market where we will get products like our
[00:06:44.720]retail cuts.
[00:06:46.400]What you might get from the grocery store could include pork chops,
[00:06:51.020]ham, sausage,
[00:06:53.630]my personal favorite - bacon. You can get from one,
[00:06:58.160]250 pound market hog,
[00:07:00.980]130 pounds of meat.
[00:07:05.330]In this meat,
[00:07:06.620]you will get lots of protein and different vitamins and minerals
[00:07:11.300]that we need to grow big and strong.
[00:07:14.060]What you'll see on a nutrition label will include the
[00:07:18.350]protein you can see in one,
[00:07:20.810]four ounce ground pork product,
[00:07:23.960]you will get up to 19 grams of protein.
[00:07:27.890]That also includes different vitamins and minerals that we need.
[00:07:32.180]So pork is a very good thing to add to your diet, to be healthy.
[00:07:37.040]Now in the agriculture industry,
[00:07:38.660]we've gotten really good about not wasting anything. From
[00:07:43.400]one pig, you might get 130 pounds of meat.
[00:07:47.150]And what we have left is the hide, hooves,
[00:07:50.960]internal organs, blood, fat,
[00:07:54.650]different things that we won't consume.
[00:07:57.440]But what we can do is use those products to make other
[00:08:02.240]products you can see from the skin and their hair,
[00:08:05.840]you might get things like I mentioned earlier,
[00:08:08.420]cheesecake or a paintbrush,
[00:08:12.290]Or from the bone, you might get batteries, corks, fertilizer,
[00:08:17.390]the shampoo and conditioner that you use.
[00:08:20.120]Pigs can also provide insulin for people.
[00:08:23.630]We can use pigs in the health industry and different things like pet food.
[00:08:28.700]What I want you to know, however,
[00:08:30.350]is when you look at a product in the grocery store that is
[00:08:34.820]considered a byproduct like marshmallows.
[00:08:38.120]When you look at the nutrition label,
[00:08:41.330]as in the ground pork label,
[00:08:43.640]you won't see ingredients like pork or a pig,
[00:08:47.540]but what you will see is gelatin.
[00:08:51.050]The gelatin comes from the collagen in the pig.
[00:08:57.380]I hope the next time that you have a ham sandwich or you wash
[00:09:02.270]your hands,
[00:09:03.440]or you feed your dog or your cat or your fish, that you can think of
[00:09:08.390]the hardworking farmers in Nebraska that helped make all those products for you.

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Nebraska 4-H "Aspects of Ag" - Pork

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