A healthy pig is a contented pig.
When it comes to our animals, we maintain the highest standards in animal welfare, on-farm management and practices.
Pigs have many different needs and requirements as they grow. From birth, weaning, mating and reproduction, our animals require specialised care to ensure quality of life and to prevent disease and illness.
Glossary of terms:
Adult pig – any pig over the age of 9 months
Arks or hutches – portable hut containing straw used to house pigs in paddocks, including for farrowing
Baconer – market pigs which weigh more than 55 kg liveweight (or 65–80 kg dressed weight)
Barrow – a male pig castrated before puberty
Biosecurity – the process to prevent diseases from entering an area, whether it is at a country’s border, between states and territories or an individual piggery
Boar – an uncastrated male pig over nine (9) months-of-age
Creep – an area of the piglet protection pen which is heat to keep the piglets warm
Deep litter system – a type of group housing system in which pigs are kept on a deep layer of bedding material, usually straw
Dry sow – an adult female pig that is between litters (does not currently have any piglets) and is not lactating
Entire male – a pig that has not be castrated
Farrowing – when a sow gives birth to piglets
Farrowing pen – see piglet protection pen
Feeder – equipment from which feed is dispensed
Feeding station – an enclosure used in group housing systems that animals enter into one at a time to be fed
Finisher – grower pigs over 70 kg liveweight
Foster – a management practice when a piglet is moved soon after birth so that it is fed by a sow that is not its mother
Free range – where all sows, boars and their piglets live outside, with access to shelter
Gestation – pregnancy
Gestation stall free – sows and gilts kept in loose housing. For the Australian pork industry, this means from five (5) days after last mating until one (1) week before farrowing
Gilt (or maiden gilt) – a young female pig that has been selected to join the breeding herd but has not had her first litter
Grower – any pig between weaning and sale
Health treatment – any medication administered by oral dosing, injection, topical application to the skin or any other means
Herd – a group of pigs
Hutches – see arks above
Lactating sow – a sow that has given birth, and is producing milk to feed her piglets
Litter – all the piglets born to one sow from the same pregnancy
Loose housing – sows and gilts, either singularly or in groups, have freedom of movement i.e. they can turn around and extend their limb
Nurse sow – a sow that is used to suckle piglets that are not her own
Mated gilt – a female pig that has been mated, but has not had a first or gilt-litter
Mating – the deposition of semen into the reproductive tract of a sow exhibiting oestrus
Mating stall – a stall in which gilts and sows are kept individually for the purpose of mating
Monogastric – an animal with a single stomach, such as pigs, humans and poultry
Outdoor Bred: Raised Indoors on Straw – where sows and boars live outside all their life, and their progeny, when weaned, are bought inside into shelters and raised on straw
Piglet protection pen – a multi purpose pen that constrains the sow to protect her piglets from being squashed after farrowing (also known as a birthing pen or farrowing pen)
Piglet – a baby pig between birth and weaning (3-4 weeks of age)
Porker – market pigs weighing between 24 and 55 kg liveweight
Reproductive cycle – days from the conception of one litter to the conception of the following litter
Rooting – a behaviour of pigs where they use their nose to dig in the ground or in any available material
Slip – pigs between eight and 12 weeks of age or 20–40 kg
Sow – any breeding female that has farrowed a litter
Sow or gestation stall – a stall to separating pregnant sows so they can receive individual feed, water and care and to prevent aggression and bullying particularly during the critical stage of early pregnancy
Stall – an enclosure, closely related to the pig’s body size in which gilts, sows and boars are kept individually. Stalls are normally joined together in rows and may be used for total confinement or allow the pig free choice of access
Stockperson – a person who undertakes the day-to-day husbandry tasks associated with looking after pigs
Sucker – a pig between birth and weaning
Swill –food or food scraps that contain meat or meat product and any illegally imported dairy products or vegetable waste that has been contaminated by these products. It is illegal to feed swill to pigs. Also known as Prohibited Pig Feed
Wallow – a natural or artificial hole or hollow containing water or mud where pigs ‘wallow’ to cool off in hot weather
Weaner – pig between weaning and up to approximately 30 kg
Weaning – the permanent separation of a sow and suckers.