26 April, 2011
I’ve just moved Daphne, one of our Berkshire sows, away from her litter of piglets.
The seven piglets, 56 days old yesterday, have been eating increasing amounts of feed over the past week and were ready to be weaned.
Daphne was also ready for them to be weaned.
She was growing increasingly cantankerous thanks to their constant demands for milk, culminating in her spending much of the past two days sleeping close to the electric fence—with her teats as close to the fence as possible.
It’s a very effective method for discouraging piglets from suckling!
Five of the seven piglets will be sold, preferably with buyers collecting them on the weekend of 7/8 May. The five being sold are three boars and two gilts.
I’d like to have sold the other two gilts but they’re smaller than the others due to having been injured early on. One is fully recovered and one almost recovered but their growth rate suffered.
There’s still a waiting list for weaners but I have to convert that into actual sales over the next few days.
Four prospective buyers have dropped off the list so far: one bought weaners elsewhere, one was no longer interested and two weren’t happy the piglets were available on the specific dates they wanted them.
But before I do the sales side, I have more outside jobs to finish.
A very smart female pig !!! Poor thing, I hope she isn’t too sore on her teats know. I suppose you don’t treat a sow whose teats are sore like you do a with a cow that has pain in her udders. I don’t suppose she will try to lay in something cool like mud or in water to help with the pain.