When we have a pregnant pig, I am beside myself with anticipation.  I am constantly checking for discharge that would indicate a miscarriage, giving out extra belly rubs, and trying to see and feel any movement.  The closer it gets to farrowing day, the more I check on them and the more I worry.

It takes a sow 114 days from breeding to give birth or farrow.  It is commonly calculated as 3 months, 3 weeks, and 3 days.  Sows are pretty spot on when it comes to the due date.  With a gilt, or first time mom, it can be +/- one or two days, but usually it is exactly 114 days.

Gertie farrowed right on day 114.  She was sharing a paddock with Flossie and Corky, and 2 days before her due date, we split the paddock so only she could get in the barn.  We cleaned out the barn and added a nice thick layer of hay.  The day before, she would lay on the cool ground and I would rub her belly.  If I stopped, she would give me a grunt.  I could see the babies moving around and knew we were close.  She had also made a HUGE nest of hay and straw.  When she farrows inside the nest, all the babies are contained.  The day of, I checked on her every hour or so, but she wasn’t ready until 9pm.  I came in and saw 1 baby looking for a teat.  I walkie-talkied Fred that it was time and bring the supplies.

When Gertie first farrowed with us, a baby was stuck (hence that baby’s name-Corky) and we gave oxytocin to help push it out. Later I learned that should have been the last resort and manual manipulation was the better course of action. Now we have a supply kit with gloves and lubricant. Since it was cold, we had towels to quickly dry them off.  One after another they were born and once dry, started nursing.  Fred went home and I would radio back with updates…number 7, then 8 and 9, 10, 11, a lag until 13 and 14.  It was a long exciting night for me.

Baby pigs hit the ground running, literally.  They come out, wriggle out of the sac, and start for the teats.  They may not know where they are going, but they are going!  You can tell they are listening to the sow and siblings to find the food.

Two of the piggies were runts.  They were half the size of the others.  We tried our best to keep them warm and get them nursing, but they didn’t make it.  One just disappeared.  When a baby dies, to keep predators away, the sow will either remove the baby or eat it.  Sometimes, the sow will just eat each baby as it is born.  When I found this out, my anxiety level about the whole thing went through the roof.  I worry about the animals health when everything is going well, this was something I just didn’t want to have to witness.  Thankfully Gertie was a great mom to all 11 babies.

When Corky farrowed her 8 babies, I missed the whole thing.  I KNEW she was close when she went from begging for belly rubs to jumping up and going after me, only to flop back down and grunt for me to rub her more.  She was due on a Sunday, but delivered in the wee hours of Saturday morning.  When Fred went to feed that morning, he came back to report 8 healthy babies all nursing.  I was bummed, but happy all seemed to go well.  The first farrowing can be difficult and some gilts will have what they call “gilt hysteria”.  They basically freak out about farrowing and can either eat or trample all the babies.  We were very lucky she was such a good mom.

There are a few things we don’t do to babies that other producers do.  Every time you handle a baby, you put yourself and them at risk–sows do NOT like to hear their babies squeal and can charge at you and trample any baby in the path.  Some producers try to breed to have mellow sows so they can handle the babies without issue.  But as far as I can tell, momma protects baby and that’s that.

We don’t give iron shots.  If the babies and mom are on dirt, they can get all the iron they need from that.  The sow will get in the mud, go back to the babies, they latch onto nurse — instant iron boost.

We don’t clip needle teeth.  Those babies have some sharp teeth.  And yes, they scratch each other up and blood on a tail is not uncommon and I am sure all the grunting the sow does is her telling them to knock it off with the teeth already and just suck!  But everyone survives just fine.

We don’t dock tails.  The reason for doing this is so they will not bite off each others tails.  Again, we have had tail biting, but everyone heals up just fine.   With plenty room to move around, I don’t know why they would get aggressive enough to take off a tail.

We don’t ear notch.    A special tool is used to cut a “V” notch in a certain pattern on the outer edge of the ears.  It’s done at about 2 days old, so the blood hasn’t begun to circulate through the outer ear.  The notching system numbers each pig for identification and registering.  To register Tamworths it’s required to ear notch, so we don’t register.

We don’t separate to wean until after 10 weeks old.  The babies, and sow, will naturally wean around this time.  Once feed intake has increased, we will separate everyone in adjoining pens for a week or so to let the sow dry up.

We do castrate our male babies.  We both hate this and wish like heck to have as many girls as possible.  Castration is done before 7 days old, usually between 3-5 days.  After 3 days they have had a good dose of colostrum, have the sow’s antibodies in them, and their immune system is kicking in.  Fred holds them upside down, I clean the area and find the testes, make two slits with a sterile blade, pop them out and pull.  Cutting can do more harm than pulling.  When you pull it breaks off at just the right place.  We don’t apply any antiseptic to reduce the stinging and them rubbing the ground.  After a day or two the swelling has gone down and the slots have a nice scab.  In about a week, it will be completely healed.

Once a sow farrows, her feed intake increases by 1 pound of feed per piglet on top of their normal ration.  Gertie was getting 16 pounds of feed a day and had the milk production to prove it.  The babies will gain about a pound a day nursing.  The first few days is a lot of sleeping and nursing. By day 3 they are following momma onto the pasture.  They start rooting almost immediately in the nest and nibbling at grass at about a week old.  After a few weeks, the piggies begin to get interested in momma’s feed and they slowly start to eat their own ration until they are not interested in nursing.

Unlike Gertie’s previous litter of 3, her new babies wanted nothing to do with me.  As much as I tried to befriend them, it just wasn’t happening beyond an occasional belly rub or ear scratching.  I missed all the loving I could give Shooter and Corky–getting them to flop over with legs in the air for belly rubs or snuggling next to them in the hut.  These new babies would let me scratch on them, realize what was happening, snap out of it, and run away.  During feedings I would get as many scratches in as I could.  They weren’t unfriendly or skittish, they just didn’t want to be snuggle buddies.  So all this time from farrowing to 7 months, I do my best to make sure they are getting as much attention as they will allow me to give.  In that time, whether they feel the same or not, I become attached to them.  I love that the one with big jowls like his dad will let me scratch him only when no one else is watching.  I love calling them through the woods and having them follow me.  I love the time after feeding when they all just lounge around and one will come over to sniff at me and plop down a few feet away.

Corky’s babies were a little more interested in me.  I would go in twice a day while Corky ate and give them rubs and talk to them.  One girl would always come and lay next to me while I scratched her.  Now when I come to see them, everyone runs up and all around me trying to figure out the best way to eat my boot or pant leg.  And one by one, I start to rub their bellies and they start dropping like flies with big smiles on their faces.  And just like with Gertie’s litter, I am attached to them.  After all, the reason we spend so much time and effort in how we raise them is so they will have a good life and that includes being loved. 

 

Next…Part 3–The Piggies Go To Market.

I had no experience raising pigs before moving to Missouri. Fred grew up raising and butchering pigs, so all of this is old hat to him.  With my vast lack of knowledge and huge desire to have pigs, I did what I knew to do–read as much as I could to get all the info I could to be prepared for everything that could possibly happen. I also talked to an old timer who gave me such sage advice as “if the pig ain’t dead, it’ll be just fine” and “you’ll NEVER be as fast as a pig”.  Both have proven to be quite true, but I still worry over the tiniest scratch and can’t resist getting just a bit closer to newborns with a protective momma around.

When I think back on what I have learned from experience and what I have read in the past few years, one thing I realized is that our pig operation is not “farrow to finish”, but rather a “breeding to butcher” one.  In this series, I want to walk you through what we, and the pigs, go through from start to finish. First up, breeding.

Sows (females who have given birth) will go into heat every 21 days starting at about 6 months old.  When heat begins, the vulva will enlarge and they may begin to mount other sows/gilts or even try with us.  Breeding is best done once standing heat begins.  Standing heat is when the sow will allow you to apply pressure to her back, turns her ears back, and takes a firm stance.  One way to test if she is in standing heat is to push against her sides like a boar would prior to mounting, then apply back pressure.  If she “locks up” she is ready.  My job starts a few days before they are to begin heat.  Vulva checks, flank pushes, and back pressure until she starts standing heat.  Once we are sure she is standing, we wait 12 hours for the first breeding.  Breeding can occur every 12 hours once she is standing, as long as she is interested.

With both Gertie and Flossie, once we had Rodger the boar on the property, it was easy to tell when they were in heat.  Before that, we had never seen signs of heat.  We bought Rodger for the sole purpose of breeding him to both girls and then butchering him.  At 11 months old, and a different breed, he was smaller than the girls and had a bit of trouble mounting.  When Gertie was in standing heat, we moved her into the pen with Rodger.  The sow seeks out a male to mate, so taking her to him was more natural and safer.  Sows can be very protective of their areas.  After quite a few flank pushes, Rodger would mount Gertie.  Because of the size difference, we had to face her uphill, so her bottom was lower.  Moving a sow in standing heat is not easy, nor is keeping a 300 pound boar from mounting.  We were successful and after a 5 minute lock, they took a break.   This was Rodger’s first time breeding, so we also had to help him…ummm…get into position.  The next day they mated again, and then we removed Gertie.  Once a sow is out of heat, or knows the mating was successful, they will not let mating happen again.

When it was Flossie’s turn, we knew Rodger would not be able to reach.  With him in the trailer, we constructed a chute for her and a platform for him.  We got Flossie in the trailer with Rodger and let him prep her with few flank pushes, and then quickly moved her into the chute for him to mount.  The platform worked like a dream.  No way was he reaching her without it.  He still needed a little help getting into position though.  We did it all again the next day for an extra breeding.

With two sows, it isn’t cost effective to keep a boar.  When we decided to breed Corky we did AI, artificial insemination.  It’s basically all the same prep work-flank pushes and someone sits on her back to act as the boar-insert a catheter with a tube of semen on the end and let her do her thing.  You see, all that flank pushing that goes on has a purpose.  When the boar does this, it stimulates the uterus to start contracting.  This contracting is what pulls the semen in.  No flank pushes = less success.  With Corky, we decided to wait until she was a year old to breed. While she was capable at 6 months, we don’t think at that age they are ready mentally or physically to give birth.  It takes a lot out of a gilt (first time mom) and a lot of things can go wrong, so waiting seemed like the best course of action. This also made it possible for her to be around her 11 siblings when they were born to get used to having little ones around.

Once breeding is complete, you wait 21 days and check for standing heat.  If there are no signs of heat, you can be pretty certain the breeding took.  The first 35 days of the pregnancy are the riskiest.  You want to make sure you aren’t stressing the sow with long trailer rides, introducing new animals, or having them too hot or cold.  We think Gertie’s first litter was so small because we moved her too close to day 35 and Flossie probably lost her whole litter from being stressed during her great escape.

Next..what to expect when your sow is expecting–piglets!