Lt. David Rackliffe of the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department [left] and Dick Mitchell of Phillips [center] watch and take notes as Colt Knight [right] checks his slides on Friday, Mar. 3, at the Cooperative Extension office in Farmington. Brian Ponce/Franklin Journal
A 2016 graduate of University of Arizona with a PH.D. in animal science, Knight has been working with UMaine Cooperative Extension since 2017, delivering over 150 seminars and classes on livestock production.
The purpose of Swine 101 is to give a crash course on everything a beginner will need to know if they are interested in raising swine. Knight went over many details, such as the difference between a pig and a hog, the many different breeds and how to raise them.
Other topics included:
• Housing and habitat
• Castration
• Diets
• Different stages of maturity
• Common pig myths
One notable breed that Knight touched upon was the mangalista pig, a breed known for its extreme tufts of hair. This breed was one of the reasons Knight started these swine 101 classes.
“These are the pigs everyone was starving to death,” Knight stated.
According to Knight, he had received several phone calls from pig farmers concerned over their mangalista pigs dying.
“My first question would be like, ‘are you feeding the pigs?’,” he said, “And they would say no. And I’d say, ‘Are they mangalistas?’ and they would say yes.”
Knight spoke of an ‘unscrupulous breeder’ who sold mangalista pigs claiming that they did not need to be fed, and they were capable of living off grass like cows.
The breeder in question was Jerry Ireland of Swanville, who faced animal cruelty charges in 2019, but was acquitted in 2020 on the grounds that the state failed to meet the burden of proof.
Colt Knight getting ready to carve up some hickory smoked St. Louis style ribs for his Swine 101 class on Friday, Mar. 3. Knight smoked the ribs for five hours before cooking and serving them to the students and Cooperative Extension staff present. Brian Ponce/Franklin Journal
Knight took a brief intermission to serve hickory smoked ribs. Nick Rowley, sustainable agriculture & horticulture professional for Cooperative Extension served bread and macaroni and cheese.
For more information on pigs and other livestock, contact Knight at [207] 581-2953 or email him at colt.knight@maine.edu.
For more information on Cooperative Extension and upcoming classes and seminars, call [207] 778-4650.
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