Expectant mum
30 07 2007
The sow, not the Other Half! Delilah, one of our pedigree Berkshire sows, is about 14 days off farrowing her second litter. Her first, of Tamworth crosses, saw her deliver 14 piglets and as she’s now bigger than she was with them, the chances are that she’ll either have a bigger litter or bigger piglets. This litter was sired by our Berkshire boar, Graham.
Looks are deceiving. The Other Half is not sitting on Delilah, Delilah is actually leaning hard into the Other Half, something she does when she’s enjoying a belly rub. We were planning to leave Delilah outside to farrow but with a potentially large litter and continuing poor weather we may have to bring her in so the piglets can have access to a creep with heat lamp. It will also give us access to lights and electricity should we have any problems with the farrowing.
Good luck with the farrowing, hope you get lots of lots of chubby little piggies. How much land do you use for keeping pigs? Is the financial input(feed etc) balanced by what you make selling excess piglets, pork and do the sales cover the value of the pork you eat? I know the fact that you have raised these pigs and therefore know what’s gone into them is a big plus for you. I don’t think we will have pigs as we only eat bacon and ham, I think commercially produced fresh pork doesn’t taste great and would have to try pork raised like yours before i could make a decision.
What a pig(ess) - she is a beauty. This little Pig from down under will fly over to check them all out shortly …. Eh, who said Pigs can’t fly?