Full Moon piglets 🌝🌚🌝
Louisa Ellerker
GingerElla, our Oxford Sandy and Black (OSB) sow, farrowed a week earlier than her due date this month on the full moon. Pigs are pregnant for 3 months, 3 weeks and 3 days - so it is usually pretty precise!
It's Ella's first litter and she is doing so well, especially protecting her piglets from the snow and winds. On the day she farrowed we put a whole straw bale in, to which she created a wind break for the piglets. I often think about how much work it is for the sow to care for her litter, so when I say they are 'doing well', it mean I feel reassured and comforted that her piglets are fed and snuggled up to her. We have helped her out a bit with an upside-down cattle feeder with a heat lamp so Ella knows they are all in one spot and nice and warm. It must be hard to keep seven piglets that are already very mobile in one place with only a snout and a calling grunt!
The piglets will be with their mum for at least eight to nine weeks, and often the sows wean their piglets off naturally themselves. Not only does the milk provide wholesome nutrients to their piglets, during this time with their mum, they will learn pig etiquette of eating at one end of the pen and defecating at the other, which is very helpful for us!
I feel very fortunate that we can allow the piglets and sows to be together for their desired time. Most pig systems need to wean much sooner as the sow needs to be back with the boar. As a farmer at Plaw Hatch, the support from our customers who are willing to pay slightly higher prices for 'better meat' gives me hope for the future of livestock farming. In reality, this enables us as farmers to allow the sow to decide how long she nurses her own piglets.
