You acknowledge that honest-to-god locution about the first rule of comedy being clock ? Well , timing is also the first prescript of hog breeding , and it ’s no joke . As the atmospheric condition wrick dusty and a creeping chill makes its way into my bone , I instinctually step my judgment forward three months , three workweek and three days . That ’s former March from my current position on the calendar , a time of class I screw to still be unpredictably cold on my central Kentucky farm . former March is not a clock time of yr that I want to be deliver piglet .
Say No To The Cold
Why does the calendar month matter ? Here ’s the matter : While our sows enjoy comfy digs come birthing meter — a converted gymnastic horse barn fill with a sparse layer of straw keep her protected and wry during and after this arduous affair — we have n’t go “ whole hog ” with sow crates and engage - tight farrowing shed . That ’s just not how we raise , but the semi - loose social organization , so good in the warm calendar month when airflow and sunshine keep bacteria in check , has the result of let out newborn litter of piggy to perilously cold air when the quicksilver dips low .
Here ’s another thing : piggy ca n’t get cold . Or , rather , piglets do get cold at birth — they experience a sudden drop curtain in body temperature from 102.2 degrees F the moment they pop off the birth channel — and ca n’t order their body until they ’re between 24 to 48 hours old . Factors such as time to teat and birth weight ( not to note the occasional farmer intervention , warming up babies with towel and heat lamp ) can help to firm vitals until piglet can warm up themselves , but ambient temperatures have an inordinate effect on litter survival of the fittest . Which is why shoat ca n’t get cold and , ideally , experience their first day of life in a consistently quick environs .
But what about us , the sustainable farmers who do n’t fit out our land with heated up have shacks ? Or the ones dedicated to consummate pasturing , who let sow deliver outdoors , as their hazardous relative do ? Let ’s go back to the first rule : timing .
Gestation Is 114 Days
pig bed are many things , and you’re able to add punctual to that listing — their gestation periods are 114 sidereal day , and the geometrical regularity of delivery following construct is insanely reproducible . While you might have a Sus scrofa deliver at 115 days or see the occasional other birth at 113 Clarence Day , 114 really is the magic number . And 114 days is three months , three weeks and three days , which is really easy to call back .
So how do you keep shote warmness in the colder months without fancy heated b ? Easy — don’t have piglet in the colder months . Keep sows away from your boar 114 days before your region typically experiences cold-blooded weather condition . On our farm , we know we can keep our b warm enough until novel yr ’s and , as mentioned above , we do n’t find safe until after March . That means our wild boar spends October through December alone in a penitentiary while the sows have a ladies ’ pickup in a fenced - in ley on the other side of the farm . ( I ’ve heard too much fourth dimension alone can diminish a wild boar ’s libidinal urge , but our braggy Berkshire has always prove himself willing and eager after the break . )
If all this sounds like a lot of study , believe me when I say you it ’s better thanlosing a litterof piglets because of poor timing . If math is n’t your thing , the National Swine Registry offers this free and easySwine Gestation Tablefor at - a - glance reckoning .
