Pig Farming Terminology
Pigs are extensively farmed, and therefore the terminology is well developed:
- Pig, hog or swine, the species as a whole, or any member of it. The singular of "swine" is the same as the plural.
- Shoat, piglet or (where the species is called "hog") pig, unweaned young pig, or any immature pig.
- Sucker, a pig between birth and weaning.
- Runt, an unusually small and weak piglet, often one in a litter.
- Boar or hog, male pig of breeding age.
- Barrow, male pig castrated before puberty.
- Stag, male pig castrated later in life, (that is, an older boar after castration).
- Gilt, young female not yet mated, or not yet farrowed, or after only one litter (depending on local usage).
- Sow, breeding female, or female after first or second litter.
Read more about this topic: Pig Farming
Famous quotes containing the words pig and/or farming:
“To market, to market, to buy a fat pig;
Home again, home again, jiggety jig.
To market, to market, to buy a fine hog;
Home again, home again, joggety jog.”
—Unknown. To Market, to Market, to Buy a Fat Pig (l. 1–4)
“... farming conservatism, which consisted in holding that whatever is, is bad, and any change is likely to be worse.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)