Don’t hog it all! Pigs are given factor 30 sun cream to help avoid sunburn on the hottest day of the year
- Pigs given factor 30 sun cream to help keep them safe in the summer sun
- Moment captured at Stonehurst Family Farm, Mountsorrel, Leicester
- Temperatures on the farm rose to 35C as the south-east hit by 38C heatwave
Pigs beat the blazing sun on one Leicestershire farm today by topping up on their suntan lotion.
In an adorable video, one farm hand was recorded rubbing a healthy dose of the protective cream onto a pig’s ears and head.
The footage came from Stonehurst Family Farm in Mountsorrel, near Leicester.
Temperatures at the farm reached a scorching 95F (35C) earlier in the day, while other parts of the country came close to beating the all-time record from 2003.
The farm has five sows, which are currently kept in sties rather fields where they would be allowed to wallow around in mud.
Without the protection offered by mud, sows can be vulnerable to skin blistering, pain and other ailments.
In the adorable video, one farm hand was recorded rubbing a healthy dose of the protective cream onto a pig’s ears and head as she looks up happily
Farm manager Jen Bevin, 28, explained that the female pigs, some of which could be pregnant, needed to be lathered sun cream to keep them safe outside.
‘We have a maternity unit here where pigs come to have their babies,’ said Jen.
‘In the wild pigs in this heat will keep cool with mud baths but because we are mainly sty-based the five sows here at the moment are liberally doused with sun cream to protect them for when they go outside.’
Today’s soaring temperatures broke the UK’s previous record of 98.1F (36.7C) for a July day by climbing to 100.6F (38.1C) in Cambridge.
The all-time temperature record for the UK came in 2003 when Faversham in Kent recorded 101.3F (38.5C).
The weather is expected to change dramatically over the few days with an average temperature drop of over 10C.
The five sows at Stonehurst Family Farm near Leicester needed to be protected from the sun as they did not have the usual form of protection they get from wallowing in mud
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