Author Topic: Large black cross, v. slow growing (Read 1933 times)

Hilarysmum · « **on:** February 15, 2011, 08:19:49 am »

Last May I bought in a sow and her piglets. She is LB x GOS and piglets were by a LB boar. Admittedly the sow was not in good condition, but good feeding soon had her milk supply up to par. The piglets were 3 days old when they arrived. Have been fed extremely well were not weaned until 10 weeks old. They have 3 kilos of pig nuts plus aprox 6 kilos veg each in 2 meals per day. I would estimate the larger of the 2 weighs about 70 kg live weight and the smaller about 50. Although they are 9 months old they are no where near as big as my pure GOS of the same age. Digby (pure LB) was far larger at the same age. I know LBs are slow growing but is this normal?

HappyHippy · « **Reply #1 on:** February 15, 2011, 08:50:51 am »

Okay, just thinking out loud really cos my LB girlies are growing fine (and my LB x GOS that I had last year were all 85Kg @ 6 months - but I didn't weigh in between)
I think it's been their slow start that's affecting them, perhaps the sow was not given additional feeding in the latter stages of preganacy and it's had a knock on effect ? Also if they're gilts they're going to be a bit smaller than Digby anyway - but to me, it does sound like they're not as big as they should be.
HTH
Karen x