1. Ear Notching

2. Introduction When I bought my pig I named her Prue. Although she was identified by her name, she was identified in a different way before I ever thought about buying her. This was her ear notch.

3. What is an Ear Notch? Notice the indentations in this pigs’ ear, those are what we call ear notches. That is how the farmer on the farm that she was raised on identifies her. It the pig’s own personal identification. Every ear notch has a number and that is how it is used for identification, it’s kind of like a social security number for a pig.

4. Why do we ear notch? It is the only system that you can use for identification in the swine industry. All breed registries require that you have ear notches to register any pig. A lot of farmers use it for records and organization. – If there is a problem with a particular pig at birth, the farmer can record it and use that information for later use an know exactly which pig it is.

5. What do you use? To ear notch, use a tool called an ear notcher or V-notcher. This is a relatively painless tool, and does not cause any blood. There are other methods, but they cause the pig a lot of pain and could result in extreme loss of blood.

6. When is the right time to notch the ears? The best time to notch is when they are a day old. The reason this is the best time is because the piglet’s ear is incredibly thin so the notching does not cause the piglet any pain. You can do it as the pig gets older, but it causes the pig pain and blood loss. This could lead to potential problems in the future.

7. What is the ear notching system? Both ears are split in half (not in reality). And each section has its own number. – The lower part of the underside of the ear is 1. – The upper part of the underside of the ear is 3. – The upper part of the top part of the ear is 9. – The lower part of the top part of the ear is 27. – The left ear also has a number at the very tip of the ear, and that is 81.

8. How do you read an ear notch? As stated in the previous slide, each section of each ear has a number. The right ear is the litter number. – This number represents the number of the litter that the particular pig was born in on the farm. The left ear is the pig number. – In the litter, the pig’s number is based on the order it was born in. When reading ear notches, remember that you read them based in the pig’s right side, not yours. Then once you have identified the number on each mark or indentation add them up. – Say a pig has one mark in the 1 area and another mark in the 27 area, her litter number would be 30. – Then do the same for the other ear. If a pig has two marks in the 1 area and one mark in the 9 area, she is pig number 11. – Her ear notch is 30-11. She was the 11 th pig born in the 30 th litter on the farm.