Full Credit of this list of things that I am currently thinking about goes to Sugar Mountain Farm, I love this blog when it comes to pigs! They Rock!!

http://sugarmtnfarm.com/2007/02/01/piglet-interventions/

I have cut down the different parts into smaller and shorter points, to read the full, please see the above link..

Toweling & Iodine

– Some people towel off and iodine the umbilical cord of new born lambs, piglets, etc.…

Well, this is kind of a moot point really, Miss Piggy did it all, she birthed them, cleaned up the pen and I arrived to live active little piglets, I did freshen her bedding with more wood chips and I did add more hay to her bedding area, she nibbles on the hay when it first arrives and gets the good stuff she needs because she is not grazing on pasture and then she moves it around by snout or mouth and uses it as sleeping bedding afterwards, As I believe that the deep pack is the best choice possable for both her and the young ones, I won’t be cleaning it out other then the bathroom corner. Clean bedding and healthy normal piglets, no need to treat the cord.

Heat Lamps – We haven’t done this. My biggest reason for not doing it initially was fear of fire. . An open shed with its back to the wind, a deep bed of hay and their mother is what they really need. For the new born piglets, their mother’s body heat is key – she’s 103°F.

This one is a bit more of a worry for me, I don’t want to use extra heat source, first because I took the barn off power and would have to have some rewiring done in order to safely run a heat lamp in the barn itself, not my idea of a good time, now at the moment, the piglets have two walls with their sleeping bedding area in front of it, with a front blocked half way, no drafts and lots of straw/hay bedding mixed with wood chips and their momma to boot, I also placed a large plastic tote flipped on its side and stuffed with bedding that they can choose to go into to sleep in as a huddle to have a much smaller space to heat up, I also blocked off most of the windows that provide fresh air, the air is still coming in other windows and the door of the barn as air is key but I don’t want a draft on the litter either. So far so good.

Cutting Deedle Teeth – We don’t cut the needle teeth on piglets. The reason I’ve read for doing it is to prevent damage to the sow’s teats and to keep the piglets from hurting each other when they tussle. I’ve only seen a cut on one teat on one sow in our herd of thirty so I don’t think this is necessary. It would be a lot of work and I could see it causing problems for the piglet when teeth are broken (cut). The only damage I’ve seen from biting is suckling on tails and cutting needle teeth (fangs/tusks) would not help with that – suckling is done with the tongue and upper front teeth which are not the teeth being clipped.

This one is a easy answer, if cutting the teether does not help, then I’m not doing it, I  know that Miss Piggy, her mother and Grandmother didn’t have theirs done, and I know that Angelo and his siblings didn’t have theirs done either, both breeders didn’t believe in it and I saw a good number of large black females that were nursing and none of them had any issues on their teats, I checked out Miss Piggy mother quite closely and she seemed healthy and normal, so for now, I say no and will report if I needed to change my mind on this one.

Tail Docking

– This is done in confinement situations (e.g., factory farms) for pigs to prevent tail biting in grower pigs. I’ve not seen this behavior with our pigs to any degree that I would think it necessary to do.

This one is so easy for me, No, both my Large Black pigs have their tails, they use them and I see no reason to dock given the room and space they all have, I don’t see it being a issue.

Vitamin Shots

– We don’t do do this one either. What I have read is that pigs kept on concrete need the shots or they need to be fed fresh greens. Sounds like a dietary issue. Our pigs are out on pasture where they get plenty of greens and sunshine. During the winter they get hay which replaces the pasture. Pigs, unlike people, make their own Vitamin-C. A healthy diet is better than a shot of vitamins.

I am not planning on giving a shot to them, I will make sure they get fresh air, direct sunshine, hay(as its fall/winter time, so pasture is not a real choice at this time) and as full and healthy of a scape kitchen pail as I can manage, O how I wish Girl was freshened, I would love to be able to feed the piglets fresh skim milk and whey from cheese making. Next time..

Mineral & Iron Shots and Supplements

– Another thing we don’t do – pigs are very good at getting the iron and other minerals from the soil, if you let them. If you are raising pigs on concrete then give them a shovel full of good dirt and that is enough to give them what they need. Personally, I suspect the pigs prefer to root than have you shoot them full of supplements.

I wil be giving them access to dirt and am more then willing to bring a shovel full into the current pen, but I also do feed a ration that has these, something that the person at there farm does not, they have access to leftover milk from their local dairies (in the states) and so they need alot of yogurt or clabbor, something I can’t do.

Vaccines

– We don’t vaccinate the pigs. I do believe in vaccination as preventative medicine.

I will check with the vet on it there is anything I need to worry about but when I asked about my own, I was told if they were healthy and had no issues, then I didn’t have to, and I expect that will be the same choice I make for the piglets but I will still check as its been over a year since I checked last.

. Castrating – Not if I can avoid it. the taint, which is “due to the presence of h
igh levels of androsterone and skatol.” One key the research talks about is that slaughtering pigs at a young age, the normal market weight of around 6 months, means they don’t have high levels of these chemicals and thus no boar taint. Pigs are normally slaughtered then so castration may be unnecessary at normal market sizes.

This is a touchy one for me, I need more time to think about it, I don’t know if my lines typically have it or not, I have been told not, but that’s just talk..

I would perfer not to, but that means that I need to make sure that the boys are butchered out at a younger age then the girls, and the second question is will it effect the sale of weaner piglets or not? or farm gate sales or not?

Open to thoughts and comments on the altering question?