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Pregnant Porkers

12/31/2013

5 Comments

 
There's very little to report about on the farm this time of the year. I'm spending a lot of my time thinking and re-evaluating the business and the future. In the meantime, we have three pregnant sows that will be farrowing in the next month or so.

The video above shows the winter housing for the sows and the barn. It's a small corner of the barn that leads out to a relatively small paddock delineated by electric fence. The barn has a dirt floor, which I've learned is a pain to clean. Instead, I've been adding lots of stockpiled cheap local hay every day to try and make something of a deep litter system. As you can see in the video, the pigs eat a lot of the bedding. They also tend to move it to one corner where they sleep. They won't urinate or defecate in their sleeping area, but they will go everywhere else inside. I was hoping they'd do all their business outside, but that apparently is too much to ask.

The outside paddock is a big ol' mud pit right now. I wish I had a source of cheap/free carbon (wood chips, straw, hay)
to put down in the outside area, but I only have enough to bed the inside. I've tried contacting a few local arborists, but it's a lot easier to get free wood chips in the city than in the country.
5 Comments
George
12/31/2013 07:00:01 am

Start calling local government, townships, counties etc and ask about woodchips and compost (a lot of this is woodchips too). I got as much as I could haul from ours, I got 60 Tons brought in ;)

Reply
Bill link
1/6/2014 08:17:23 pm

I could use woodchips too. This likely won't help you now, but a nearby friend asked the crew that came through clearing limbs out from around the powerlines if they could have the chips when they were done and they were happy to have place to dump them. Our friends got a lot of chips that way. There's a guy near us who has a portable saw mill he uses to cut up loads of firewood to sell. He had a big pile of sawdust there so I stopped and asked if it was for sale. He loaded the bed of my truck with it for free, just to get rid of some of it. Just some thoughts for what they're worth...

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Parker Sudderth
1/12/2014 11:02:55 am

Hello I'm in 4-H looking for some pigs to take to fair. I'm interested in your large black piglets. When is a good time to meet with you?

Reply
Jeff
1/14/2014 02:58:03 am

We just had the first litter of the year and we're still deciding whether or not we are going to sell these as weaners or grow them up. If I have weaners for sale, I'll be posting it on the website.

Reply
Hannah link
1/14/2014 11:34:08 pm

Your sows look plump and happy! Doing a great job, neat post, thanks.

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