Farrowing at the Fair

It’s still fair week here in Douglas County. This afternoon I interviewed a magician for a story I have running Monday. Photographer Jon Austria and I were headed back to the newsroom when Jon received a phone call. Another reporter, Cara Pallone, was on the line, telling Jon that a 600-pound pig was farrowing (or giving birth) to a litter of piglets at the fair.

Cara left the newsroom and headed to the fair, and since Jon needed to get to the fair in a hurry, I said I would go along and take some video footage (yay for TWO video projects in three days).

Point-and-shoot camera in hand, I hopped on top of a bucket and hovered over the 15-year-old girl who was helping her pig farrow. I waited, perched on my bucket, for a good 45 minutes before the girl’s dad told her that she would need to help the pig deliver the piglet by sticking her hand in the birth canal and removing it. 

I filmed — mouth agape — as the girl reached further and further before feeling a tail and carefully removing the piglet. It was the first live birth I had ever seen — animal or human. 

After the stuck piggie was removed, Aqua (the 600-pound pig) farrowed a new piglet every 15 minutes.

After about two hours of barnyard fun, the three of us left the fair and headed to the newsroom. This time before leaving the fair, I made sure to capture some B-roll footage of squealing pigs and a poster that read “Sow and piglets.” I spent a couple hours editing clips and pulled together a video of a pig giving birth (wow, never thought I would say that).

The story (written by Cara) and the video will be live on the site tomorrow, and as soon as it’s ready, I’ll be posting the link here so make sure to check it out.

Fair week continues through Saturday, so who knows what will pop up next.