Trudy and Socks farrowed a week last Saturday at almost exactly the same time. 19 piglets all doing well. Trudy’s 8 are a lot more adventurous and visit Socks frequently.
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Category Archives: Pigs
Trudy & Socks have farrowed
Normally our pigs are outdoors 24/7/ 365 but the ground is so wet and there’s 2 foot of mud outside their arks. Not great for the sows and certainly not good for the piglets so we brought Trudy and Socks up to the lambing shed just before farrowing. Actually I was a bit slow bringing Trudy up and she’d already farrowed when we went down to get her.
Getting her up to the shed wasn’t too bad. Carrying her piglets across the put from the ark to the dog crate was the trickiest bit. Six trips with 2 piglets at a time wading through 2 foot of mud, I was knackered.
The piglets are almost 4 weeks old, old enough to go outdoors. Trudy and Socks were really pleased to be back outside on grass.
Pig Ark Build
The pig arcs have taken a battering, the group of delinquent teenagers have taken to chewing along the bottom of the plywood ark and a couple of the sows have pushed the back out of one of the tin arks. To be fair the tin ark is fairly old so not unreasonable it needs a bit of TLC. I can’t get the arks out of the field and back to the barn without trashing ground so I’m going to build a new ark for Tammy who should farrow mid Jan. I’ll pull the old ones out when the ground is dry or frozen and repair them back in the barn. You can never have too many arks!
Do I build a tin ark or a wooden one? The tin ones are quicker to build and do last, but I think the wooden ones are better for farrowing as the piglets can get into a corner and won’t get squashed when the sow flops down. I have a design that I’ve used since we first keep pigs. I found in on the web and would credit the author if knew who they are. It’s a good plan that anyone can follow and build a decent ark.
Short Days and Plenty To Do
It’s been fairly quiet for a change. The tups went in at the start of October, Spot farrowed and the odd tree fell over in the October storm. It was the rain that caused most hassle in the Autumn, we had our highest October rainfall and November was above average as well. The pasture has stood up pretty well but the pig paddocks cut up quickly and in no time turned into mud soup.
Now we’re into winter the days are short, no sooner is lunch over and we need to crack on with the afternoon jobs before it’s dark. Several groups of sheep need hay plus a little cake for the ewes, then onto feeding the 4 groups of pigs and not forgetting that the dogs need a walk as well. After that there’s not much time to do anything else outside. While the ground is sodden I should be repairing fences, it’s a lot easier to bash the posts in when the ground is soft.
Our First Market
Last Sunday we did our first market ever! Andrew cut and packed the pork and lamb so it was just a matter of setting out the stall. Everyone was really friendly and helpful. Jayne the organiser lent us a gazebo, the other traders chatted and bought some meat from us. The Bromyard residents came out in force and were keen to know what we did. Not only did we sell some meat we enjoyed ourselves. Looking forward to the next one
Did I really say it was dry!
November’s not over yet and we’ve had almost 3 times our November average rainfall and 50% more than our previous November high. Which means it’s wet, very wet. The fields the sheep are on are OK as the ground was so dry.
It’s a different story for the pigs though as they’d turned the ground over and with the rain on it it’s like slurry. The good news is that it’s only a few inches deep, although I’m not sure James would agree. We had a night away from the small holding and James kindly offered to feed the pigs for us. I’m not sure he’ll offer ever again!
We just weaned the latest batch of piglets onto fresh grass, how long the grass will last who knows probably only a few weeks.
Tammy caught us out as well
Rose caught us out on Monday and today Tammy did as well. She farrowed in the field with Twinkletoes alongside her keeping her company. Twinkletoes wasn’t really in the way but he is big and piglets are very small, so lured by food we moved him out to a new paddock.
Tammy lost two straight away but the remaining 6 are all doing well happily sunning themselves in the September sunshine. Mind you their first night was quite chilly and Tammy kept them out all night. She must be quite sensible as the first night it rained she took them inside the ark.
Rosie has a new litter
We’re weren’t sure if both Tammy and Rosie were in pig but over the last couple of weeks it was obvious. I thought I had more time to move arks and set up a new paddock for Twinkletoes (the boar) but Rosie caught me out and had started to farrow when I went down on Monday afternoon.
Bit of a rush but we moved Twinkletoes and Tammy to a new paddock and left Rosie where she was. Happily she’s had 8 piglets all healthy and doing well.
OSBs arrive at Dumblehole
Having had Berkshire pigs for years we decided we would move to Oxford Sandy and Blacks (OSB), not that we didn’t like the Berkshires anymore just that they are a Pork pig which means that all pigs in the litter would have to go at about 6 months. We wanted to send a couple of pigs a month to the butcher and this is where the OSBs come it. With the OSBs they don’t lay down fat as quickly as the Berkshires and can carry through to 12 months.
This March we picked up a trio, 2 sows, Tammy and Rosie, and a boar, Jack. The OSBs are a rare breed and Rossie is from the Sybil line which is uncommon within the OSBs so hopefully we can do our bit to keep the bloodline going.
Rosie was close to farrowing when we got her and 3 weeks later she farrowed. Two of the gilts, Spot and Patch, were good enough to register and we’ll breed from them when they’re about a year old.
Plum Pudding Pigs
Officially they are Oxford Sandy & Black pigs but were commonly called Plum Pudding pigs. We had a couple of OSB Berkshire crosses in the past and thought we’d try a few pedigree weaners with a view on keeping two gilts back as breed stock if we get on with them. They are growing much quicker than the Berkshires which isn’t surprising as the OSB is a much larger breed. They just 16 weeks old in the photos and love apples. Along with their usual rations they’re getting a bucket of Bramley cookers as well.
Like the Berkshire the OSB is one of Britain’s old pig breeds and has been around 2-300 hundred years originating in Oxfordshire although the exact history has been lost. The breed reached crisis point at least twice in it’s past when numbers dropped so low that extinction was a real possibility. It down to a few determined breeders that kept the breed going so that it still exists today. If you’re interested in the history take a look at the breed web site.
Dumblehole 