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A small missing ear contains great benefits

2023-12-02

Every time a new person enters the pig farm, everyone will be surprised by the strange and diverse ear shapes of the piglets. In fact, in pig farms, almost every piglet has a small notch in its ear. The shape and position of the notch are different, and the meaning of the mark is also different. The small gap in pig ears also contains a lot of knowledge.

People who come into contact with pigs for the first time may mistakenly believe that the sooner piglets are de-eared, the better, as pigs have no ability to resist. In fact, on the contrary, experienced farmers will never cut the ears of piglets in the first few hours after they are born. When piglets are just born, they have no natural antibodies and their ability to defend against the outside world is almost zero. They need sufficient colostrum to replenish antibodies. Therefore, the best time to treat missing ears is 1-3 days after the piglets are born.

For farmers, ear tapping has all the benefits and no harm. Notching the ears is to number the pigs and make individual records, recording the origin, blood relationship, growth rate, production performance, etc. of the piglets. It can better record pig disease treatment, pedigree registration, production performance and other information for reference when selecting breeds. For piglets, if the piglets are 1-3 days old, their own immune system will be established, which can help reduce blood flow and achieve rapid recovery.


Compared with ear tagging, ear tagging is a long-term and continuous marking method. The gap in the ear tag will become larger with the age of the pig and will accompany the pig throughout its life. In this case, you should use a high-quality pair of pliers to remove the missing ear.

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