"u.s. acres" was launched on march 3, 1986 in a then-unprecedented 505 newspapers by united feature syndicate. for most of the last year of the strip's existence, brett koth, who had been assisting davis on "garfield" at that time, was given co-creator's credit in the strip, and signed his name to the strips along with davis. the strip was centered on a group of barnyard animals, with the main character being orson, a small pig who had been taken from his mother shortly after being born.