Piglet heat lamp

[Suffolk Serf]

The more often I hear you say this, the more I think ours are a bit crap.

Well, if it's any consolation, we definitely had crap results with our former genetics. These new ones are so easy to handle as well. Also mortality dropped a lot when we changed to one of that company's terminal sire, the piglets seem so much more vigorous.

 

[Pan mixer]

Mine are commercial Dutch/Norwegian indoor strains of Large White/Landrace crosses. 450 sows, all outdoors as outlined in a post above. They are absolutely wonderful mothers, the best that we've had in my over 35 years of pig keeping outdoors, We average 14 born alive (and climbing) and losses of between 7 and 12 percent. Better than we've ever done before.
We've had special "outdoor" strains before, including in my early days Saddleback and more recently Duroc and they bear no comparison with what we have now.

My indoor sows don't do any better but I am not going to change my genetics at this stage in my farming career.

 

[delilah]

We average 14 born alive (and climbing) and losses of between 7 and 12 percent. Better than we've ever done before.

Would you say your losses are determined by the type of sow you have, or the design of your house ? I suspect the answer is "both", am just wondering if we have anything to learn from your house layout ?

 

[Pan mixer]

Would you say your losses are determined by the type of sow you have, or the design of your house ? I suspect the answer is "both", am just wondering if we have anything to learn from your house layout ?

I imagine that stockmanship is a big factor as well.

 

[Suffolk Serf]

Would you say your losses are determined by the type of sow you have, or the design of your house ? I suspect the answer is "both", am just wondering if we have anything to learn from your house layout ?

When I had a much larger herd last year we did a decently statistical accurate comparison between the various types of huts that we had.
To cut a very long story short we found that our larger, fully insulated huts had the lowest mortality by quite a margin. the joint winners were the Large Booth A frame hut and the Contented Aardvark XL. Both very different design but both offering a large lying area.

 

[Pan mixer]

When I had a much larger herd last year we did a decently statistical accurate comparison between the various types of huts that we had.
To cut a very long story short we found that our larger, fully insulated huts had the lowest mortality by quite a margin. the joint winners were the Large Booth A frame hut and the Contented Aardvark XL. Both very different design but both offering a large lying area.

I have wondered about using the aardvark xl in cattle sheds and so on, they look just the job to me.

 

[Suffolk Serf]

I imagine that stockmanship is a big factor as well.

They only get fed and looked at once per day. Feeding correctly is vital but they pretty much get on with everything on their own.

 

[Suffolk Serf]

I have wondered about using the aardvark xl in cattle sheds and so on, they look just the job to me.

People have had quite mixed results putting outdoor huts in sheds and on concrete.

 

[delilah]

I imagine that stockmanship is a big factor as well.

For sure, i'm thinking specifically about the squashed piglet issue. I am assuming this comes down to the sow you have and the layout ?

edit: ok, from above re feeding, is feeding once a day going to lead to less disturbance and potentially less squashed piglets ?

 

[Pan mixer]

People have had quite mixed results putting outdoor huts in sheds and on concrete.

It wasn't a solid plan but I had wondered about it for those few sows who are extra to the number of crates that we have especially now that the 'cull sows' not disposed of in the normal way due to low prices seem to be having families.

 

[Suffolk Serf]

It wasn't a solid plan but I had wondered about it for those few sows who are extra to the number of crates that we have especially now that the 'cull sows' not disposed of in the normal way due to low prices seem to be having families.

I could let you have some of my surplus huts if it would be any help. John Harvey arcs mainly.

 

[Pan mixer]

I could let you have some of my surplus huts if it would be any help. John Harvey arcs mainly

Thanks but I will struggle on, frankly beginning to wonder how much more of this profitable enterprise I can stick.

 

[delilah]

Advice from an old boy: Get rid of all the straw other than that under the rail. Make the sow lie on bare ground. The piglets will sleep in the straw as it is the only cosy place. When the sow wishes to feed them she will call them. They will feed and then go back to the straw under the rail.
Any takers ?

 

[Pan mixer]

Advice from an old boy: Get rid of all the straw other than that under the rail. Make the sow lie on bare ground. The piglets will sleep in the straw as it is the only cosy place. When the sow wishes to feed them she will call them. They will feed and then go back to the straw under the rail.
Any takers ?

Not sure, our piglets will often go and lay on the bare concrete that the sow has been laying on as it is warm rather than under the lamp where there is straw, only the way that the sow has to lay down in the crate (i.e. on her sternum and then lay down) saves the piglets.

 

[borderterribles]

Advice from an old boy: Get rid of all the straw other than that under the rail. Make the sow lie on bare ground. The piglets will sleep in the straw as it is the only cosy place. When the sow wishes to feed them she will call them. They will feed and then go back to the straw under the rail.
Any takers ?

Mebs. Our sows get straw to nest with until they start farrowing. Then the straw is removed completely and they get woodshavings. Piglets are put under the lamp as soon as they are born ,so that they recognise that as a warm place to be. No farrowing crates, just a rail all the way round except the corner where the lamp is. I appreciate that we only have a few, and it is a labour intensive system, but we try and maximise our returns from every farrowing. Touch wood, very few overlaid piglets here.

 

[Paddington]

We have had the odd piglet laid on in the past, but bringing a sow in from the field in the winter of 2011, she decided to have a good scratch and brought down a wall in the sty ! We put her in the open lambing barn with the sheep so at least she was under shelter, that night the temperature dropped to -15C. We were using heat lamps on lambs and thought the sow would be fine without one but half her litterwere frozen stiff by the morning. The following spring we built a better sty and put galebreaker doors on the barn, a bit late then. We don't get winters like that anymore.

 

[Tommy]

I have wondered about using the aardvark xl in cattle sheds and so on, they look just the job to me.

We use them that way, it’s not perfect but is versatile for us and made some use of the old silage pit
Pros:
Sow has some exercise
Keep an even climate in the ark in different weather
Pens aren’t fixed to one job

Cons:
Fairly expensive but should last a while and possibly have some value in the end
No easy way of creep feeding the piglets
Take up some room
Not had much luck farrowing in them but we usually move the oldest piglet’s out of a crate into them to make room for one about to farrow