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Pigtionary

Here are a few terms you need to know to get around a pig barn:

  • Barrow: male pig that has been neutered
  • Boar: adult male pig kept for breeding purposes
  • Farrow: to give birth
  • Feeder pig: piglet after it’s weaned from the sow, also known as ‘weaner’ pig
  • Gilt: female pig that has never farrowed
  • Litter: group of piglets born at one time from the same sow
  • Market hog: barrow or gilt raised for meat production, weighs up to 110 kg
  • Piglet: newborn pig, weighs 1-2 kilograms
  • Pork producers: farmers, the people that raise pigs
  • Runt: smallest piglet in the litter
  • Sow: adult female pig (Note that ‘sow’ rhymes with ‘cow’!)