Spring Farrowing Re-Cap
There really is nothing better than spring on the farm because it usually means one thing (mainly): farm babies. Tiny beacons of hope and joy help us all to round the corner of winter and usher in spring with a bit more, well, spring in our step. Now, to be fair, when I say “spring 2024” what I really mean is post-holiday? Since our farrowing season started rather early this year. Our first babies hit the ground on January 31.
It had been a scramble to get the sows in. I had confirmation that two of them were bred, the other three were a big question mark, but grew rounder and rounder having been in with the boars since fall. Knowing piglets could start coming when it’s still quite cold, we hatched a plan to convert our garage into a pig nursery, which started as two pens, and ended up as five pens when it became apparent that all the sows would farrow in very close succession (more on that later…) Infrastructure has been a major hang up for us in this venture, and we hope to remedy a lot of these issues over the next few months. One day, our goal is to farrow in the pasture, and breed strategically to avoid newborns in the bitter cold.
A view of the garage pens (before we expanded from two pens to five).
Our sweetest girl Helen kicked us off with our first litter on the last evening of January. It was her first time and ours and we were all a-buzz with excitement and overwhelm. I realize now, having seen five of them, how “off” her labor actually was. She pushed the boundaries on how long is ideal to go in between each piglet, working hard and stressing me a bit especially with her inexperience (and mine). We figured out through trial and error that her labor progressed a little easier when we placed the piglets with her. Initially it is a shock to see how tiny they are compared to mom, and it felt like too much of a risk to put them with her right away. She took to motherhood beautifully though, as most all KuneKunes do, and seemed to calm right down and get in the zone once her piglets were by her side.
Helen’s litter, five adorable babies!
We then had a big lull, while watching our four other sows grow larger and larger. One Monday morning, I sat in the warm afternoon sun watching our outdoor herd forage and meander, when I noticed that Ginger, our oldest sow, looked very close to farrowing. Her milk was clearly in as her udder was noticeably more full. She has had many litters and is a great mother, the signs of labor can come swiftly the further along these moms go. I went in to check a little closer and much to my astonishment, Ginger had delivered her litter already during the night! Unfortunately, it had been in the twenties that night, and only two little babies remained. She had lost 5 to the cold. We were completely unprepared and I feel horribly for that. By far our saddest of the litters this time around. I rushed to bring her and the remaining babies in the garage, and we very quickly built the remaining three garage pens to bring ALL the sows in and prevent this happening!
Ginger’s two boys, finally warm inside under the heat lamp.
About a week after Ginger’s debacle, we welcomed Bella’s beautiful litter right on her due date. She was one of the two I had confirmed and the only one I had seen being bred, so I had a firm date for her. That experience made me want to be even more diligent about breeding tracking this next go around, because pigs really do farrow like clockwork as long as you have your dates correct! Bella gave eight of the prettiest babies I ever did see. She was also a first timer and not overly maternal. She’s been doing ok, but did crush one baby on the first night, so it is down to seven. Her litter was my favorite of the season, so many awesome color varieties and most of them have Bella’s epic floppy ears, which is just adorable.
Eight beauties from Bella…the favorite litter of the season!
The very next day, Harriet gave birth to her litter. She has had a litter previously and handled the whole thing with such ease. She gave seven babies, mostly black with a little white just like her. She’s a great mom, but has unfortunately lost three babies to various ailments and injuries that were no fault of her own, and is down to four.
Harriet’s wee babes.
It was then all eyes on Tulip, Helen’s full sister, who looked like she could explode but made us hold out as long as possible. Finally, in the wee morning hours of February 27, she released seven perfect and lively hostages. She has been a gold star mother as a first timer.
At long last, Tulip delivers.
It was a great month of back-to-back births and boy, did we learn a lot. Here are a couple of things we’ll be doing differently this fall:
Planning breedings for warm season farrowing to shift our schedule a bit and accommodate for better weather (allow for pasture farrowing!) Our target is September farrowing, maybe early October if necessary.
Begin preventative vaccine schedule for our sows, which will pass immunity on to babies. This may be a controversial take, but we have lost a couple of piglets this year to pneumonia and I’m not willing to do it again without preventative measures in place.
Mix up and test out breeding pairings a bit. We have two boars to choose from which leads to a multitude of interesting combinations.
Stay tuned for our fall pairings…unbelievably, the breeding season starts again in just eight weeks for our fall litters!
