[Corn yr Afr]

Practical advice and tips needed.  Breeding pigs on order, 1 pregnant gilt, one weaner.  My breeding stock.
Any tips on how to bed them in well and first time farrowing?

[BillyBerridge]

I take it these are your first Pigs?

If they are I would suggest you get round some local pig keepers and make some friends quick!

Farrowing gilts is not always easy and you may find you need a friend to call on!

Don't let me put you off though it is great fun but you certainly have your work cut out!

How far gone is the gilt?

[cameldairy]

One of the things we do is make sure there is a 2 X 4 board placed about 8 inches above ground level and at least a few feet away from the walls all the way around the stall where she is going to farrow. This way, the sow can't  lay against the wall and accidentally lay on and smother one of her piglets. This will also allow you to be able to give the new piglets some pig feed of their own that the sow won't be able to "hog" away from the babies. Because you will want them to start eating feed as soon as possible.  Does my description make sense?

[Hilarysmum]

   . 

Please though dont be put off,  but you do appear to have jumped into the deepend a bit.  Hopefully your gilt will be gentle and well handled.  Now is the time to start making friends, and to get her VERY used to you.  You need to know you can trust her 100% if she needs help you will be far better prepared if you have handled her a lot.  Keep your vet's number available.  Read as much as you can on this site and in books.  Try to find an experienced pig breeder who will be available if you need help.

Re bedding down, we offer the sows an extra bale of straw when they start nesting, this allows them to make their nest in the way they need

Dont over feed her before the birth on the eating for 10 principle as she may produce v. large piglets which are difficult to birth.  On the other hand once the babies are born we increase the feed gradually (so as to avoid mastitis) to around 6 kilos of high quality pig nuts per day.  Dont underfeed as if the milk supply dries up then you either feed by hand (v. expensive) or lose the piglets. 

Hope this does not sound off putting its not meant to.

[kwillett]

Hi,

First time pig keeping can be challenging but especially when dealing with first time gilts, take as much advice and learn has much as you can before she arrives, a really good book is "Starting with Pigs" by Andy Case.

 Spend as much time as you can with her so she learns to trust you. Its also important to consider the time of year she is going to be farrowing, you do not want the new borns to be out in the wet neither do you want them getting cold, for their first week piglets cannot maintain their own body heat so will rely on another source of heat, they need to be around 34-38C. However even when they are able to start and maintain their own heat you still dont want them out in the wet and cold as their immune system wont beable to cope and are more susceptable to infections/illness ie Pneumonia.

When it comes to farrowing especially a maiden gilt, you need to be careful how much straw she is given, although she will need enough to make a nest and keep warm but you do not want to put in to much because the new borns will bury themselves under the straw and depending on the gilt, she may lie down with out looking out for them and squash them.

Another thing we like to do is to position the pen diagnally in corner of the pen, corner to corner and put an electric strand from the fence to the pig ark at the gilts nose height, this enables the piglets at a couple of weeks old to get behind the ark so that they can get to the creep feeder without the gilt being able to get to them or the food. This has many advantages 1: stops the sow/gilt becoming underconditioned due to piglets pinching all her food, 2:ensures maximum weight gain of the piglets which is important at this age and time of year, 3:allows you to monitor how much the piglets are eating and also how much the gilt/sow is eating, Also allows you to get in with the piglets without you having to get in with the gilt/sow. We also use this area has a safe area while she is giving birth and while the piglets are young, we have a small window at the back of the ark which we can safely peep through, this isnt neccesary with all pigs but is very useful for first time gilts or a gilt/sow which is nervous or you don't no very well.

There is a lot of things to take into consideration but dont feel over whelm by it all, take advice but do things in a way that suits you to, dont be afraid of making mistakes, we all make mistakes especially the first time, but do try and be as prepared as possible, this will pay dividens in the long run.

If you need any equipment or advice please do not hesitate to contact me, I am the pig specialist at Msschippers uk and if i can help in anyway I will.If you have any questions at all big or small, no questions are stupid when it comes to keeping pigs, i will answer them as well as I can. You can find my details on www.msschippers.co.uk and then go to our company and then introduction to schippers uk representatives, You'll find all my details under Pig.

Hope that helps, and please do call me if you have any questions at all.

Kind Regards

Kayleigh