Pigs 101 (A Start)

[thoongfoned]

great looking piglets and even better price jake!

the "company" charges the drivers (pickup or lorries) who pick up the piglets for them 2,000 baht per piglet if they die in their care...... gives some indication to the value of said piglet me thinks....

[revar]

these are 1 day old. on the first day we tend to loose one piglet on avarage by crushing. we 'train them to drink at the teat and sleep in the sleeping room. after the second day most do this by themselves.

[thoongfoned]

as the pictures are flowing i will add a shot of the birthing area.

[pigeonjake]

great pic,

puts my little set up to shame,,lol, i built all my pens myself,

mind you saying that i have enjoyed building them,

ive got some repair work to do when i get round to it, a big pen full knocked a side wall down, and my wife had great fun getting them back into tehe pen and making new side to hold them in, so ive got new blockwork to do this week sometime,

it never ends the jobs that are to do,

[revar]

lol jake, we are beginners compared to thoong. maybe in 4-5 years if we invest profits back into it.

for now i love my smaller scale setup which allows me to try new things

I myself am still very much in the learning stage in the breeding game.

last year i had 13 80+kg pigs knock down a gate and escape into the 1meter high man sapalang field. getting these back took a whole day lol. pigs are smart. they can remove the nut from the bolts with their mouths. i tighten these every day now lol.

[revar]

one sow got 8 big piglets today. it started at 14.. and ended at 16.00. but she wouldnt eat or walk afterwards, so I stayd with her forcing her to stand up and walk.. and at 19.30 she delivered another 2 big boys. just to be sure, i wont get much sleep tonight lol

[pigeonjake]

ive had some fun with excape pigs,,lol

luckily, when the do get out the pen they cant get of our 2 rai, as ive got concreate post, 6 strans of barbed wire, corigated tin at the bottom and net, so they are allways on our land,

i once had one get out and get into our feed barn, she must of tride every typ of food as she must of opened 20 bags, what a mess that barn was,

people dont realize how strong they are,

when i bild a wall i allways put a piller in the middle and at my gate ways there is allways a piller, ill take some pics in a bit and show you,

but im under the weather with man flu,, big time,

mac is down there now doing the pigs as i typ, bless her,

i get asthma so i have to be carefull when i get a cold,( but this is man flu honest)

take care every one

jake

[thoongfoned]

one sow got 8 big piglets today. it started at 14.. and ended at 16.00. but she wouldnt eat or walk afterwards, so I stayd with her forcing her to stand up and walk.. and at 19.30 she delivered another 2 big boys. just to be sure, i wont get much sleep tonight lol

had one mum who gave birth yesterday who always gives large piglets no matter how much we cut her food back. average born weight 2.1kg on 13 born alive. mums who give small or large weight piglets always seem to give the same size no matter what we try and do with the food pre delivery. for the past 6 months i have cut the food amount per day from the 100 th day mark (pregnacy). also stopped using the oxi injection during labour (except for problems mums) always wait till i think the last one has popped out. less still borns this way.

what you say about making the mum pig stand and walk around is spot on for helping the birthing progress, helps her produce more hormone to help push out (contractions)

spending time in the farm at night time is a very good thing to do. if we are lucky enough to expand this year we will be employing a person to work the "night shift"

three births yesterday and another two today, one about to start as i write. the first three months of this year have been slow birth wise for us but for the next three months we will be pressed to keep up space wise, this is how the farm should run near full capacity.

revar you said about the mums crushing the piglet in the first 24 hour. try and lock the piglets in the sleeping area when the mum stands up for as much as you can during the first day, this way the piglet learns to go in their when the mum stands, helps with the the death rate..........

have a look on pigprogress site, last year they ran an article about a dutch guy using a similar birthing environment that you show in your picture, he only uses this for about five ish percent of his births but interesting reading, the government subsidize him for doing this. (extra loss due to crushing) but better environment for the mum.

[revar]

average weight of the 10 was 2.3 kg. no mummies or deadborn . first litter was only 4 so im very happy. was abit disappointed about 8 , nevwr expwcted another 2 after a 3.5hour break lol. never heard of something like that.

locking piglets in the sleeping area when the mother stands up or when a piglet falls asleep. is exactly how we train them.

after 3-4 times most do it by themself. crushings occur in the first hours mostly if for some reason we are not close to them. we almost never loose any after the first night.

about the environment.

in many european countries the use of cages is now discouraged, forbidden or about to be forbidden.

pen environments are stimulated with subsidies. unfortunataly i dont expect that in los lol.

in a pen environment i can have a lot less sows than in cages. businesswise cages would be the way to go.

but if you cant invest much for a fully closed building etc. pens give u more flexibility. my sow pens were raising pens before

I also believe that if the building is not fully closed. pens will keep the pigs healthier since it allows them to move about more, which is especially important on colder nights etc.

[thoongfoned]

that's a good size to start from 2.3. if she would have had more piglets the weight would have been spread better. that's one of the reasons why we cut the food back some months ago because on the smaller litter sizes the piglets were getting tooooo big, hence problem births. the biggest I have seen on a litter of say 9-12 was just under the 3kg average, some were coming out bigger then the small ten days old piglets in the farm. our average birth weight has now dropped but the weaning average stays the same.

in the past have had problem pigs in labour for a full day. just yesterday I was sure a mum had finished, all the after birth out ect relaxed giving milk, 14 alive. afew hours later was checking the pig next door to her then out popped another from "finished" mum always a nice bonus.

[revar]

One of my first litters was from a 100% largewhite betagro gilt bought for 20000thb. i didnt yet induce delivery and she was 4 days late, first 4 took 3.5 hrs and needed a string to get these piglets out.the next one couldnt get out at all.tried lots of things. the gilt died in a few days and after cuttibg het open i found 3 dead piglets over 4kg.no way they could have gotten out. cut down on feed drasticly after that. now i will reduce it some more i think.

[thoongfoned]

most of the mums will come in by 115 days, i would say one mum in maybe 500 will be 117 days or later. dont like to see them coming late, usually means not an easy birth, inside not right or just lazy to push out. one out the other day gilt, pushing all day nothing out then first one out late evening, up most of the night with her, ended up with 8 alive, not even big pigs, pulled all out bar the first. just did nt bother to push....... also she would not give milk. great pig, she was taken out the farm today!

over the past six to seven months i have not been happy with the gilts we have been having. i beleive they have not been shown the boar at all, all i get is ok will check. had the boss out the other day that runs this side of the business and i was going over my books with him, he understands what i say and did look a buit ashen when we had finnished, ie giving him break down in percentages, that all they really care about, percent this and that. the business units here are so fragmented it drives me mad some times. ie one province not help/talking to another ect. other farms are also not happy with gilts at present but dont moan to the company, only amongst themselves.

for gilts and second parity we are very carefull how much food they get during pregnancy. on that note we should be having a new batch any day soon.

[revar]

after the first few months of waiting many nights and the problem.with that largewhite i now inject 1cc of cloprostenol at the base of the vagina around 09.00 on day 113. parturation bow starts between08.00 and 10.00 on day 114 in 90% of the time.

ive had some bad gilts too. still have one which iv tried to inseminate 4 times without success. it normally works 8 out of 10 times. she just doesnt get into heat. only reason i got her still is that its bwcome a kind of contest now lol.

iv heard of many problems wirh gilts in the last half year. informally several contacts at big gilt suppliers have adviced me not to buy now, but breed my own if possible.

how is your experience with breeding a 100% lw boar with 50%lw/lr sow?

i think this should produce good sows, what do you think?

[thoongfoned]

have no experience with breed ect because the wifes farm is contract, so we get everything "given" to us in regard to stock. before starting this farm afew years ago I would not know one end of a pig from another. if this business would have failed it would have been a very expensive experiment in pig farming. ie. set up costs.

if I were to induce I inject like you say but at 1600 the day before I want the birth to start, generaly if the pig is ready it starts some time the next day, if lucky during the day. if the mum is not ready she will still wait a day or so.

when new gilts arrive I would say they should come into heat in the first 21 days, if not they tend to go straight back out the farm. im told 2 out of every 10 will not get into heat. well that's what they expect anyway.

the gilt stock that we get are all selected then sent out to "gilt farms" for finishing, ready to come to us. this is also contracted farming all done in house, I have visited two of these farms In the past year. its up to the contractor how they get the gilts ready.ie no formal records of heat checking ect.... its all done on age and weight. there is not that much money in looking after these gilts, hence some times not very good gilts.

when you buy in gilts what age and weight would they be?

[Falang Nang Fa]

On our farm we breed our own gilts. After bad result with sows from other farms, we buyed a few pure LW gilts at livestock and breed with those our own crossbreed gilts.

On advice from family that have a breeding boar farm in Pittem/Belgium, they advice me two create a crossbreed from 100% LW with 100% LR. Those crossbreed you cross with Pietrain/Duroc or Pakchong to become good finishing pigs.

I do this now for over 2 years and every time when people come to get there piglets, they are supprised to see the difference after three weeks.

[bazmlb]

Some new additions to the farm

[pigeonjake]

Some new additions to the farm

20150404_105206 (Small).jpg

hi baz, great pic mate,

look please dont think im having a go,

but having your gates with the bars going horizontal it give the pigs something to really grab hold of or get the snouts under to try and lift, and they will,

i will allways try and help people and ive found with time that gates are far better with the bars vertical,, please believe me, when they are bigger and stronger, bloody hell they could lift me with there snouts,,lol

be happy

jake

[bazmlb]

hi baz, great pic mate,

look please dont think im having a go,

but having your gates with the bars going horizontal it give the pigs something to really grab hold of or get the snouts under to try and lift, and they will,

i will allways try and help people and ive found with time that gates are far better with the bars vertical,, please believe me, when they are bigger and stronger, bloody hell they could lift me with there snouts,,lol

be happy

jake

Great pickup there thanks, am learning lots as we go, i can just sheet the rest of this pen for now, I was going to put caps over the hinges so they cant lift them off which was a thought already

any comments more than appreciated

[revar]

i did exactly that. i have horizontal bars on my older gates too. vertical arebetter and do that on new pens. but u most make sure they cant lift themof the hinges. i welded a pin above the hinge which did the trick.you still have to check the bars regularly since bigger pigs might stand on the lower bars.especially at feeding time.and they will break sometimes.

'brown boars can jump':)

at my 300kg duroc boar pen I actually had to put a 4x4 above the gate. he jumps up with his frontlegs on the gate and humps it when I pass by lol. before i put the beam on top of it he crushed it, broke it and ripped it of his hinges. the only reason i could get him back in these times is that hes so in love with me and tries to mate with me. iwas running back to the pen with him chasing me while my wife was on the floor laughing lol.

[revar]

my bought sows are also lw-lr crossbreeds. i normally breed them with duroc semen, sometimes pietrain.

, to produce finishing pigs.

iv also bred 4 gilts now at 65 kgwhich are 100%lw 100% pietrain crosses. thet are very playfull grow fast but bite a lot. I will try breeding them with lr, lw and duroc and see how it goes:)

[pigeonjake]

regarding the hinges on the gates,

put one upside down so they cant lift, you know what i mean opossit to each other,

they will find a way out given a bloody chance, we have all been there, you just look for things before they happen the longer you have been in the game,

[bazmlb]

i did exactly that. i have horizontal bars on my older gates too. vertical arebetter and do that on new pens. but u most make sure they cant lift themof the hinges. i welded a pin above the hinge which did the trick.you still have to check the bars regularly since bigger pigs might stand on the lower bars.especially at feeding time.and they will break sometimes.

'brown boars can jump':)

at my 300kg duroc boar pen I actually had to put a 4x4 above the gate. he jumps up with his frontlegs on the gate and humps it when I pass by lol. before i put the beam on top of it he crushed it, broke it and ripped it of his hinges. the only reason i could get him back in these times is that hes so in love with me and tries to mate with me. iwas running back to the pen with him chasing me while my wife was on the floor laughing lol.

I was just going to weld a piece of 90 degree angle above the hinge, i dont like the hinges filling up and rusting up when upside down.

When I had my Thai Water buffalo herd in Australia, I remember the bull arriving, h was in the holding pen made from railway sleepers, from a standing start he cleared the top rung and was straight into the job he was there for, he wasn;t waiting round to be let out, big boy too around the 1,800kg i reckon, neck like a large tree trunk, but would come up to you in the paddock and lay on the ground next to you for a pat

[bazmlb]

At a friends today, something gone astray

[bazmlb]

Before the cat arrived

[pigeonjake]

hi guys,

been quiet on here, do you all still keep pigs,?

these are the 32 we went and collected yesterday all settled in fine,

if you have a look on youtube ive put a couple of videos about our farm on there, under thaifarmlife.com ronald jackson thats me

[thoongfoned]

well its another hot day here, the evap was working at 0630, the temp is set at 27, can see that that some of the bigger pigs are breathing heavy already... gonna be using a nice amount of electric today. no births for today, but a few for the 13th, had two mums give birth yesterday both a day early (like these ones) good numbers so happy there.

had a new batch of gilts in yesterday (12) will see how they are over the next 20 days, the last lot we got were all inseminated (bar one) within fifteen days, so that is good. parity one through to parity ten are now returning "into" pig within 21 days now, this is quick for us, weaning early over the past 80 or so days as we have been short on pigs for AI.

happy piggin..........

[thoongfoned]

another busy day, 5 litters born today all good numbers, another mum getting ready to start...... 7 AI tonight with plenty mums just "waiting" . even had a regular customer in today to almost clear are poo stock, just in time for some pocket money for the children, back to school tomorrow.

[revar]

new record for me: 115 days from birth to 97kg

[claynlr]

Hey guys....In general terms, does it take about 4 months form birth to sell weight (100 kg?) ? Can you post a pic of a pig at sell weight?

My GF is new at raising pigs and I am trying to get my own info on these things as I am not there.

[pigeonjake]

these 2 pens arent far away for wieght,