Piglet heat lamp

delilah

Member
Got a sow about to farrow. Chap we got her from said we need to set up a heat lamp for the piglets to sleep under. No mains supply. Colleague has cleverly come up with a dog heat mat that plugs into fag lighter and plans to splice the wires to go on a battery. Will this give them the heat that is required in the same way as a lamp ? Not sure how long a fully charged battery will last. She is in a sheltered pen in a barn, is this heat actually needed ? GOS pig. Thanks.
 

Muddyroads

Member
NFFN Member
Location
Exeter, Devon
Total amateur on the pig job, but as I understand it piglets can’t regulate their own body temperature for the first 2 or 3 weeks so need a bit of help, especially at this time of year. We have a heat lamp over our Kune piglets at the moment. It also helps reduce the risk of them getting laid on if it’s in a corner. Whether a mat would solve the problem I’m not sure.
 
Like plenty of others (about 50% of the UK pig sector) we farrow outdoors all year round. In smallish, insulated shelters, plenty of straw and absolutely no heat. No rails at a all.
The sow is free to come and go. The sows help regulate the temperature by spending nearly all of their time in the hut when newly farrowed and progressively spending more time outside according to the temperature, as the pigs grow. Enough straw for the newborn piglets to bury themselves in also helps.
We are now just using an indoor hybrid, they are fantastic mothers.
 

Dry Rot

Member
Livestock Farmer
I'd agree the straw. My Tamworth sow started collecting bedding when she was due to farrow. I was an (almost) complete newby and hadn't provided straw so she was bringing in bracken and brush to make a bed. As soon as I saw that, I threw in a couple of small bales and she did the rest. Some sows may smoother a piglet in deep bedding but the rare breeds are usually pretty good..
 
I'd agree the straw. My Tamworth sow started collecting bedding when she was due to farrow. I was an (almost) complete newby and hadn't provided straw so she was bringing in bracken and brush to make a bed. As soon as I saw that, I threw in a couple of small bales and she did the rest. Some sows may smoother a piglet in deep bedding but the rare breeds are usually pretty good..
Absolutely. I think that research has proved that being able to build a nest is important in the natural hormone cycle of the farrowing process.
 

delilah

Member
16 healthy piglets born on Saturday. So far she has squashed 6 of them. We were advised by the farm she came from not to have too much straw when she farrowed as the newborns would struggle to find the teats. Re-reading the advice on here I can't help but think that is where we went wrong. Have put more straw in this morning. Should we put still more in ? Anything else we can do to minimize further losses ? Many thanks.

pigs 72.jpg
 

Poorbuthappy

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Devon
Does she nose through the straw before she lies down?
Were the loses during/immediately after farrowing?
Like any species they vary in their maternal abilities.
 

Dry Rot

Member
Livestock Farmer
Sounds like a commercial strain of sow, bred to produce large litters at the expense of maternal instincts. 16 is a large litter and Nature is reducing it to 'normal'. I seem to remember my Tamworths were quickly on their feet if they heard a squeak and they were very cautious when lying down, but there will be better qualified on here. 10 is still a good litter so be grateful that your glass is half full!
 

delilah

Member
Sounds like a commercial strain of sow, bred to produce large litters at the expense of maternal instincts. 16 is a large litter and Nature is reducing it to 'normal'. I seem to remember my Tamworths were quickly on their feet if they heard a squeak and they were very cautious when lying down, but there will be better qualified on here. 10 is still a good litter so be grateful that your glass is half full!

I'm sure you are right. It's just that it is our pig managers first farrowing, it has hit her hard having to rummage in the straw for dead ones every morning. I'm keen to do anything we can to prevent further losses.
 

bitwrx

Member
From my experience, overlaying is fairly typical. There seems to be some received wisdom that "non-commercial" sows are better at not laying on their piglets. No idea if it has any basis in fact though. My experience is that some sows of a given strain are better at not overlaying than others.

As it stands, 10 is a decent litter. If you feed her enough, she'll milk well and there will be plenty of space at the milk bar. 16 piglets on 12 teats never ends well. I'd much rather have 6 out of 16 overlaid, than have to cull 4 at three weeks old because they've not been able to get a decent feed. (There are ways around this, but I don't know the ins and outs I'm afraid. You'd have to ask someone with indoor farrowing experience.)

ETA: they look grand and are clearly up and thriving. Keep them well bedded from now on and they'll be right. FWIW, we don't give them an excess of straw until they're three or four days old, in case they do get lost in plumes of the stuff. Once they're more mobile, there's no harm in giving them plenty. Dry bed is very important to keep them warm. Their bristles should be silky for 4-5 weeks at least. If they go 'bristly', they're cold.
 
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Pan mixer

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Near Colchester
From my experience, overlaying is fairly typical. There seems to be some received wisdom that "non-commercial" sows are better at not laying on their piglets. No idea if it has any basis in fact though. My experience is that some sows of a given strain are better at not overlaying than others.

As it stands, 10 is a decent litter. If you feed her enough, she'll milk well and there will be plenty of space at the milk bar. 16 piglets on 12 teats never ends well. I'd much rather have 6 out of 16 overlaid, than have to cull 4 at three weeks old because they've not been able to get a decent feed. (There are ways around this, but I don't know the ins and outs I'm afraid. You'd have to ask someone with indoor farrowing experience.)
Cross fostering, artificial milk pumps and so on.
 
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.
 

bitwrx

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

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