Hog Day Afternoon -- Photo for Wade Martin, American Farmer, Stone County, Missouri

Hog Day Afternoon

Photo for Wade Martin, American Farmer, Stone County, Missouri

This hog rests under a coconut tree in Barangay Balud, Leyte, Republic of the Philippines. The hog is resting on a hill top. Behind the hog, is a drop off of about 10 feet straight down into the river, which shows up as a yellow color in the top of the photo.

I grew up on a hog farm, between Abesville and Galena, Missouri, in rural Stone County. My mother used about 10 acres of land for 25 head of hogs, Duroc, Hampshire and Yorkshire breeds to raise numerous litters of feeder pigs for market. From 1960 until 1982, before the county voted in Planning and Zoning, the hogs loved to “root” their snouts in the soil and wallow in beds of leaves in the hollow. The woven wire fence with the strand of barbed wire, usually kept the hogs in the field.

Every now and then, Momma would have to put a “ring” in a boar’s nose to keep him from “rooting under the fence” and getting out on the state highway. Filipino farmers don’t usually have the acreage to allow the hogs to roam, so it is not uncommon to see a sow or boar tethered to a tree.

Wade Martin, of Abesville, Missouri, is one American farmer, who could appreciate the weather and real estate limitations that Filipino farmers have to endure to raise a feeder pig for meat for the family or trying to get a litter ready to go to market.

I shot this photograph about 2:30 p.m., February 24, 2012. February is usually a cold month, with at least one snowfall in southwest Missouri and farmers are grateful if the temperatures rise about freezing – 32 degrees. On this February day in Leyte, it was around seventy degrees, which explains why the hog was stretched out for an afternoon nap in the heat. Canon EOS 40 D Photo by Samuel E. Warren Jr.

Flickr Tags: Hog Day Afternoon, hog, coconut tree, Baragauy Balud, Leyte, Republic of the Philippines, eastern visayas, island, tropics, river, hog farm, Abesville, Galena, Missouri, Stone County, mother, acres, land, Duroc, Hampshire, Yorkshire, litters, feederpigs, market, 1960, 1982, PlanningandZoning, sow, boar, Wade Martin, American farmer, weather, real estate, Filipino farmers, February 24 2012, Canon EOS 40D Photo by Samuel E. Warren Jr.