Author Topic: Breeding advice needed (Read 2814 times)

welshlass181 · « **on:** June 17, 2011, 04:05:09 pm »

We want to take our unrelated pure Kune (she is a large one and she towers over ours lol) to our friends Kune/GOS boar. Obviously she'll have to stay there for 21 days which is no problem, but, would any of you have any advice for me in as much as anything else i should do?

Is it to late in the year to send a pig for breeding? I don't live on the land and there is no power = no heat lamps. Would the piglets survive winter? I can make a pen with a insulated ark and loads of bedding to keep them warm. I'd like ur opinions please.

Never bred before and have nooooooo idea what i am getting myself into. We're planning on keeping 6-8 females and 1 stud male and one castrated male but i am not sure what difference that makes.

P.s the reason i said unrelated is, apart from my boars, all the others come from the same blood line. My boar is to small to cover her as she is a monster and Milton (friends cross boar) is bigger than mine and a little bit bigger than the female.

SallyintNorth · « **Reply #1 on:** June 17, 2011, 04:47:41 pm »

I can't advise much, welshlass, being in about the same place myself, though with just the one (hopefully now in-pig, will know more by next week...) gilt.

I don't know if you would be wanting to sell weaners or fatten all the piglets yourself, but I have been thinking about how it's going to be trying to sell weaners just before Christmas and it is not perhaps the ideal time... Not much choice, though, Meg being now 12 months old and everyone's advice being don't leave it too long to get her in pig. Ah, hindsight, what a gift that would be ... though frankly, I think I would still have got my two just as soon as I possibly could after BH finally said I could have some...

Beewyched · « **Reply #2 on:** June 17, 2011, 05:34:12 pm »

Personally (and this is only my opinion) I wouldn't risk it.

Do you not have a garage, (strong) shed at home where you can access electric to rig a heat-lamp, even if you don't want to put up a creep area? just as a temporary "maternity wing" for say, the last 2 weeks of her pregnancy & the first month after the pigletts are born. She needs to be on her own for the last week or so & you will need to be able to check on her several times a day when she is due & in the early days. You say you don't live where they are kept - can you get to her if the weather is bad (snow/ice)? Could your vet? Remember mum will need access to plenty of fresh drinking water when she is nursing too.

I suppose if she catches to the boar straight away, she should farrow in October, so the piglets should be ok to survive the winter with good housing & a fair bit of extra feed. Shame your having to go to a cross-breed boar though, is there no-one else local to you with a registered KK boar?

You never know - there may be some folks looking at getting weaners & make it their Christmas prezzies to themselves

welshlass181 · « **Reply #3 on:** June 17, 2011, 06:07:07 pm »

There isn't any place like that available to us. In winter we're going to be using our quad if the weather gets as bad as it did last year and we're also taking our caravan up there so if it does get to bad hubby will stay there to tend to them (even without piglets) there is a old merc bus up there that we can prob put a log burner in so he can stay warm in there and do big vats of warm water for them. We're hoping to build some block stys with pens outside of them so any/all females that have litters will be safe, but there will be no electric still. It's no biggy as we've a lot more due to go to slaughter and we've only keeping 6-8 females anyway.

thanks you

Beewyched · « **Reply #4 on:** June 17, 2011, 07:26:29 pm »

Starting to feel sorry for your hubby

Just be careful, if you have very young piglets up there with no heat/creep area they don't get squished trying to snuggle-up to mum to keep warm. Too much straw can cause squished babies too - very difficult to balance keeping them warm & not flattened when you have no heating. I use shavings (not sawdust) & very little straw for the maternity wing & will use a heat lamp for the first 2-weeks even in the summer.

lisanic · « **Reply #5 on:** June 17, 2011, 10:06:21 pm »

We live in an exposed spot and all our pigs live outside all year round. Both our Saddleback girls farrowed last winter in their arcs with no heat lamps with no problems. Beryls babies ventured out at 2 days old and played in the snow!!! The arcs are quite large ones which we use for farrowing which maybe helps but they were all fine and thrived well.