Weaning 21 Large Black piglets!

[Cornish Heritage]

Today was weaning day & none of us were looking forward to it, not because we were sad that the piglets were getting weaned but that we knew it was going to be hard work. We made the mistake of not removing their feed last night so they were not that hungry this morning. Winnie is one the most protective Large Black mothers we have. She is a sweet sow but if you mess with her babies she will chase you. SO the plan was to get the three sows into the trailer first to get them out of the way. Hah! Winnie knew what was going on & was not going to cooperate. Pigs are smart! By noon we had 11 piglets caught but 10 still on the loose. This is the most piglets we have ever weaned in a day! We took a break and then used milk to bribe Winnie who after a rest was feeling a little hungry so she headed into the trailer. Petunia was guided through the gate to go live with Stitches so that was easy & Wendy was already in the trailer.

Now to get the rest of the piglets. Took us a while but we conquered. They all got checked over & notes taken to make sure everything was correct. Here they are in their temporary abode:

We put them in here for the first 24 hours so that they cannot get out & find their mothers. It also trains them to the electric wire. The ones that are staying here will move to their new pasture behind electric netting tomorrow, the ones that are being picked up soon will stay in this enclosure but it will get moved to fresh grass.

We are really pleased how these piglets have turned out - some fat little beggars


Liz

 

[BrownSheep]

They look LONG...but that might just be me.

 

[EggsForIHOP]

They DO look nice and long...all I see is pork chops...sorry...but it's what I see Fatty little pork chops I have 7 baby goats and my hands are full when i do a round of vaccines on just half of 'em...I could only imagine trying to get that many piggies weaned at once! WHOA! Pretty neat though seeing them...very nice looking pork chops...i mean pigs

 

[fair weather chicken]

that is plenty of pork. very nice looking piggies.

 

[77Herford]

Nice looking pigs. Some of mine were good size too. They do make for some awesome pork chops and ham steaks.

 

[Royd Wood]

Sounds like a good days work Liz. They look in wonderful condition

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Love their floppy ears. They look great! (the piglets, not the ears)

 

[Cornish Heritage]

Thanks folks We "graduated" some of them to electric netting the day later due to there being so many in there but those little porkers had us running! Several escaped! SO they headed back to the pen until they can learn to behave. We are moving the pen each day & it is so funny to watch them - as soon as the pen is on fresh grass they are munching away.

Thankfully most of them will be gone by this weekend so things will be easier.

The Large Blacks are pretty long. One of our boars, Stitches, is nick named Bacon as he is SO long in the back.

Of course with three girls coming back into heat three boars have been very busy. We saw two pairs in action today which is always a bonus as we then can document it, wait 3 weeks & if the sows do not return into heat we know when the sows are due. The other boar was closely guarding his sow too so he may have already bred her but we just didn't see it.

With this bunch of sows we had tried something new. Normally all our pigs get a measured amount of feed each day - we do not free feed as Large Blacks have a tendency to get fat & we believe in keeping our breeding stock slim & in good shape. However this time we decided to free feed the sows & piglets. We were concerned that the sows would get too fat but what it did was cause them to produce way more milk. I have never seen our sows so full. Large Black piglets don't seem to eat alot of creep feed until they are at least 3-4 weeks old & even then they still want mama so they were getting a good supply of milk. As for the sows, they did not get fat & nor did they lose any body condition which may explain why they have all come back into heat in the 3 days.

We have another bunch due in April & so will try it again with them to see if it was just a fluke or if in fact it works. Of course everyone still has access to pasture 24/7.

They DO look nice and long...all I see is pork chops...sorry...but it's what I see smile

No apologies needed. Large Blacks are an excellent meat pig - very tender, juicy & most definitely not the "other white meat." Their meat is dark.

Liz