[little blue]

they have to be sent to the knackerman under the "fallen stock" laws.

[oaklandspigs]

Helencus,

It is illegal to bury dead piglets - they must be incinerated in a licenced incinerator. You can take them to the local hunt, who may charge you for disposal, as they will have a incinerator. Otherwise you can join the fallen stock scheme and a member of that scheme will take them away, again charged for.

If you are breeding regularly, it is worth getting a freezer and freezing piglets until you have a collection, as there is a minimum charge, think ours is currently around £30 for a collection.

Little Blue - thanks for sharing your experience, and posh house !  Since there is an upstairs window, presumably they go upstairs to bed??  

On mummified - you will never know the cause, could be lots of things from stress, diet, some trauma, being frightened, piglet jut not developing normally etc.etc.

Helencus, one thing that little Blue says reminds me - if you do either farrow together or put mums back together afterwards, they will "share" the feeding, and piglets migrate between the two.  In practice this generally means that one mum ends up feeding all the piglets, loses lots of condition, whilst the other dries up and gets fat !

Also note when piglets stop feeding (either because you withdraw them, or they wean naturally, or as with little blue one dries up), then they will come straight back into season a few days later - so if boar is still in there expect your next litter to have been started!  If your pig has lost condition you may want to rest her before the boar goes back in.  If she is in bad condition this can lead to poor ovulation, and a smaller litter next time.  We generally rest sows for a months between litters.

Lots to think about !

[Eve]

Freezing dead piglets... you are full of practical solutions!
Just imagine, a murder happens in your village, the police comes around just when you open your freezer and they see... oh dear!

That house does look marvellous! My Dutch husband would love it! (For our pigs, that is, not for himself!  )

[Hilarysmum]

It costs you 30 £ just to remove a dead piglet.  Thats daylight robbery!!!!!!!!!!!!

[oaklandspigs]

It costs you 30 £ just to remove a dead piglet.  Thats daylight robbery!!!!!!!!!!!!

No that's Uk regulation for you.

Defra Logic is as follows :

We had BSE, which entered humans as CJD.  Thought to be caused by Prions (things in the brain) from animals infected with TSE - known as BSE (cattle) or Scrapie (Sheep). We take brain and spinal cord out from these animals at the abattoir to prevent this happening. Pigs don't sufer from TSE as their meat eaters naturally, and TSE was caused by feeding animal protein to herbivores. Anyway we must stop prions entering the food chain. But nasty farmers bury sheep and cattle near water, water flows into reservoirs (well ok just a tiny tiny tiny  bit), and then is treated and put into the water systems.  Prions are not treated for, so farmers burying sheep could cause CJD (uh?).  Therefore ban on burying sheep and cattle - But hang on, that hole that the farmer is claiming holds pigs could hold a sheep, we'd have to dig each hole up to be sure ! Better stop all animals being buried - easier to administer. So pigs can't be buried even though they cause no risk.  Need to be taken away - Kerching £30 - schimples !!

HM - how does this work in France?

[Helencus]

Thanks, informative as ever. I presume there's paperwork to fill in if you do lose stock?

[Hilarysmum]

In France if you are registered (holding number) then its free (well in Brittany not sure about rest of France).

[oaklandspigs]

Thanks, informative as ever. I presume there's paperwork to fill in if you do lose stock?

The contractor will give you a form showing what has been taken away (keep this with your AML2's), and also  we enter in our movement records- not a legal req, but you can put anything additional in records that you wish, they are a minimum. This then evidences correct disposal.

This is particulatly useful should you lose a pig you buy  - say a weaner who dies, or goes on to be part of your breeding stock and then dies for some reason.  These will have an AML2 showing it coming on sometime in the past.

Obviouysly Defra has no idea how many dead piglets you sow has had, so cannot tie up these numbers, but in case this tempts you to cheat, if you breed regularly they would be very suspcious that your herd never has any dead piglets !

HM - Thanks for that - the UK was subsidised by a half when the scheme began, but am pretty sure we now pay full cost. 

By the by different contractors charge different rates, so whilst all are members of the scheme, if you are fortunate to have more than one covering your area, it is worth seeing if they are different.  For us one charges less for sheep, and the other less for pigs!

[Hilarysmum]

Sometimes reading things on here makes me wonder if Governments actually want a farming industry.  Its projected that about 2000 pork producers here in Brittany may will go bust next year, thats about ^1/3 of the industry.  Pork is a cheap meat, so in order to cover the shortage rather than increase prices they will just import from Eastern Europe.

[TheCaptain]

It costs you 30 £ just to remove a dead piglet.  Thats daylight robbery!!!!!!!!!!!!

It cost me £2.67 to have one of mine taken away, £30 is outrageous!!!

[princesspiggy]

i agree, i think i paid £14 for a shearling sheep.