Big sow and squished piglets....

[JennNY]

Our sow had 13 piglets and she has squished 3 so far. This is her 3rd litter w/us, her 1st she had 7, her last one she had 14 and this one she had 13.

Her last litter she squished 2. I just hate to go into the barn and see a dead piglet. Esp. since all 13 of these were nice, big, healthy piglets... We have a light w/ a board for the piglets to go under and get out of momma's way, but I think b/c she is so big, when she's down.. she's down. Plus, we found out from the vet, he thinks she is blind.

She is otherwise a good momma and a great sow. Do you think her weight, 800 pounds or so, has to do w/her squishing the piglets? Or her blindness?

This is the 1st sow we have had, so I dont' know with smaller sows, is this such a problem? She was quite big when we got her, not sure she has gotten much bigger since.

Do any of you deal with this from your sows?
Should we not breed her again?

Thanks for any advice you can give.

JennNY

[Up North]

As much as I cringe too when I go out to the pig pen when there is a new batch of piglets, I think that is the way nature intended it to be. On our farm it seems like no matter how many piglets are born only 10 or 11 make it to weaning. I'm OK with this. I figure to wean off 10 piglets is a good number. If it starts to drop much below this then I reaccess the situation. I had one sow who squished 6 pigs. Between that and other factors she was culled out. As far as sow being too big, I keep them around as long as they are giving me good sized litters.

Heather

[Oldman in KY]

I agree with UpNorth. We had a litter of 13 just a couple of weeks ago - there are 10 left. The other litters were smaller and we haven't lost any except one that was stillborn.

Obviously, the larger the sow the greater likelihood she will lay on one - but little pigs are generally very active and can get out of the way of they have enough room. Where are you located - the light seems to me to be unnecessary this time of the year. Maybe it is congregating the piglets so much that they can't get out of momma's way.

As for her eyesight, pigs don't see real well anytime - they rely greatly on smell. If she is in a relatively small lot, I wouldn't worry about her eyesight. If she is on pasture as ours are, then you would probably know for certain if she can see or not.

Good luck.

[RedHogs]

Your doing fine, I've lost all of the piglets before.... As to the size, It is a two edged sword, The super big, super fast growering hogs are going to be less nimble at avoiding piglets....This is the bad. The good is your hog has obviously got the goods genetically to be that big that fast so your badies are really producing pork efficiently. You will have to decide if the added trouble to deal with sloppy floppers is worth it to you. Options for dealing with are small farrowing pens with bumper bars and heat zones for the piglets. The pen must be very small because a piglet will only move a short distance the first few hours, so you want them to find the heat in an area safe from momma but very near the milk source. Google a "turn around crate" for design ideas that can be made of wood. The best option would be a few days in a farrowing crate. The farrowing crate is a new part of hog farming....As sows have gotten bigger the need for such has arisen, I use crates alot of the time and my older sows will enter on there own, if let out to walk around for a while they will paw and pull to get the door open to get back to their babies. For 150 dollars you could have a homemade set-up that will eliminate alot of the dead piglets.

The other option is get some older style blood and try a different sow. Choose carefully the sow, showstock and registered stock will most likely be crate mommas, a commercial producer will also not be a good choice.

[farmergirl]

I feared that as our sows got older and bigger the crushing rate would be even higher than what we had been experiencing at first (2 or 3 smashed pigs per litter being the norm). But actually the opposite has occurred; as the sows become more experienced as mothers, they are more careful to not smash their pigs. Even a "small" sow is huge compared to the baby piglets, so it really doesn't matter if you have a "big" sow or not. The size of the sow doesn't seem to have a direct correlation with pig smashing, at least from what I have seen on our farm.

[Mysticdream44]

My dad had sows that always squished a piglet or 2. Sometimes you could be right there as she flopped down and you'd hear the baby screaming as she laid on it, I'd want to get in there to try and rescue it (I was only a child at the time ) and my dad wouldn't let me because he said a mother hog was a dangerous creature. I'd just cry & cry . But I know this happened with every litter of pigs any of the sows had. Very seldom it didn't.

[Cornhusker]

We always got rid of sows before the got that big just for that reason.
On the other hand, we farrowed some outside inbig pens, and they didn't have a problem.
Might it be she's too crowded in the barn?

[highlands]

Blindness and weight could both be issues. Also is the pen too small? Is she over weight or just big? Given blindness, overweight(?) and squashing I would be incline to send her to market or eat her myself if she were in our herd.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/
http://HollyGraphicArt.com/
http://NoNAIS.org

[farmergirl]

My sows farrow outdoors, they have access to a 3 sided loafing shed if they want to bed down in it. I have never kept the hogs indoors as I believe it to be inhumane and unnatural, so I can't tell you whether that would increase the crushing loss or not. I do know that some big operations use farrowing crates that basically immobilize the sow so that the pigs don't get crushed. One thing that I've found to really help is to make a deep bed of grass hay or straw for the sow to nest in. That way if she rolls onto the pigs, they just get pressed down into the deep bedding to safety.

[JennNY]

Thanks for all your varying opinions and advice! She is big, tho I wouldn't call her fat.. We really don't feed her much, when not pregnant or nursing, even then she isn't getting what I think is "too much".

Her pen is a good size for her, tho not real roomy. I have a heat source and a board that they can go under to get away from her.

Her last litter we had 4 die, but 2 were very tiny and the other 2 were real "runty" so, I didn't get "too" upset about it. But, this litter they were all such nice sizes.

I guess it is just the nature of raising pigs.

As for the heat source... it was getting cool at night here in NY. The last 2 days has been very warm, so no need really for a heat source. But we did leave it, b/c the piglets would go under the board and sleep there w/the light. It will get somewhat chilly again at night, so it helps keep them warm.

Thanks again for your reponses. Very much appreciated!

Jenn

[the mama]

Go to a deep bedding. This will give the piglett more wiggle room to get out from under the sow.