Why do pigs have ear notches?

Many wonder why pigs have notches or triangular cut outs in their ears. It is not a form of abuse but rather a form of identification that actually saves pain later on in life. 

When ear notching pigs, the farmer doing it creates a permanent form of identification that won’t be ripped out like you can a tag placed in the ear. 

Ear notching is a form of Processing, a word used to describe the whole process of iron shots, ear notching, needle -teeth clipping, castration and tail docking done to a piglet at about two weeks old to ensure great health for the growing animal. 

Ear notching is simply stated above as a form of permanent identification for a pig. This operation is done with a very sharp notcher that simulates an ear piercing for humans, which ensure a very quick heal-time for the piglets. Put simply, if you are looking at the pig in the face, where you can see the snout in the middle of its face, the left ear is the number of litters that particular sow has had, nicknamed the “Litter number.” The right ear is the number order that particular piglet came out as. The first pig born out of the litter is marked as 1. The tenth pig to come out is marked as 10. To mark these larger numbers, I have provided a very artistic picture I created on Windows Paint to show you the placement of the ear notches represents a number. If the pig was the first, it would have one notch in the bottom corner in the “1” section. If it is pig two, it will have two notches in the bottom corner in the “1” section. If it is pig four, it will have a notch in the “1” section and a notch in the “3” section and so on.