Every day for 40 years, pig farmer Bob Combs has started his day in much the same fashion; at 4 a.m. the 70-year-old owner of R.C. Farms rolls out of bed and leaves the comfort of his pristinely kept ranch-style home to walk the grounds of the hundreds of acres where he raises pigs, cows and goats.

He passes one or two peacocks here, a chicken there, as he walks toward the animal stalls and sees pigs huddled together sleeping.