Branding

All the pigs and hogs were allowed to roam free to rummage the land for food. Travis had to brand his pigs so other farmers would know they belonged to his family. Branding consisted of cutting a series of notches in one or both ears. The pattern of notches helped the farmers identify the owners of the pigs.

Right Ear

Left Ear
pig.gif (3205 bytes)
Today a complicated system of notches is used to help the farmer identify the litter and pig. In this system the right ear is notched according to the litter and the left ear indicates which pig in the litter. The ear is divided into 4 sections.
pig2.gif (4027 bytes) Each segment is multiplies of 1, 3, 9, or 27 with 81 for the tip of the ear. If the ear has two notches in the 3 quadrant the number is 6. If the ear has three notches in the 9 quadrant the number is 27.  A pig may have two notches in each section and one at the tip of its ear. With this system any number 1 through 161 can be achieved with only 9 notches.

With this system each pig is given a litter number and a pig number.
pig3.gif (4060 bytes) This pig has 2 notches in the 3 quadrant and 1 in the 9 quadrant for a total of 15. It also has 1 notch on the left ear in the 1 quadrant. This pig would be 15-1.
pig4.gif (4057 bytes) Can you figure out the number for this pig?

See answer here.