Take Care of Those Sows!

In our culture, there is a strong tension between those with book knowledge and those with practical knowledge. I believe that tension is overblown. Of course, books on practical subjects cannot tell you everything you need to know about the subject of the book, as no author can anticipate any given person’s real life practical experiences. However, between the two, if forced to choose, I believe practical knowledge, which is knowledge based on practice, on average, is less valuable than book knowledge, especially when those books have been written by people who have been practicing directly, or researching the activity of those practicing directly for a long time.

Everytime I here of someone weaning piglets onto straight corn meal because it was the cheapest thing they could find, or everytime I see someone fling mash feed over a fenceline onto the muddy ground inside the sow gestation pen to “feed the sows,” that belief is reinforced. In the first case, those piglets are literally being poisoned from lack of nutrition (the practical farmer scratches his head wondering why his eight week old piglets only weigh 15 pounds), and in the second case those gestating sows aren’t getting nearly as much feed as they need to bring a group of healthy pigs to term (the practical farmer scratches his head, wondering why his sow only had seven pigs and two were still born and three are runts). In each case, the practical farmer knows something is wrong, but, the person of book knowledge need only spend five minutes with that practical farmer to set him “straight.” Of course, the “bookish” “practical” farmer is in the best position to make a profit, and this has always been the case. Understanding this, agricultural extension agents used to make the rounds of the farms to bring the book knowledge to those practical farmers who might not have access to it, or the educational resources to make use of it.

I include that little preface because I have never raised a gilt beyond market weight; I have never bred a sow; I have never fed a sow through gestation; I have never farrowed a sow; I have never fed a lactating sow; and finally, I have never fed or cared for pre-weaning piglets, but, nevertheless, I am writing this morning to admonish you, many amongst you whom have done all of those things numerous or even countless times, to take care of your sows. My direct practical experience in this is trying to raise feeder pigs at a profit out of sows that were poorly taken care of, so for those of you who demand a certain amount of practical knowledge, I do have that — I have hundreds of wasted dollars, and a few dead pigs, to show for it.

There are a whole host of variables, from genetics (both sow and boar selection), to sow care, to pre-weaning care, to post weaning feeding, to post-weaning and growing environment, etc. that determine how well a market pig will fare, especially in terms of profitability. However, based on the large volume of what I have read and the limited practical experience, it seems to me that perhaps the most important indicator of feeder pig performance is sow care. The pre-weaning and immediate weaning diet of the pigs is perhaps the second most important indicator. (The success of the feeder pig producer, who wants sows that give birth to large numbers of healthy pigs depends just as much on sow care).

To produce healthy, vigorous pigs that grow into feeder pigs that finish profitably for the feeder pig buyer (of the farrow-to-finish farmer), sows need to be fed adequate amounts of appropriately balanaced feeds, period. If they are not, the sows’ pigs will be and will most likely remain light and unthrifty, no matter the herculean efforts of the pig finisher. A sow that is poorly and/or inadequately fed will produce poor feeder pigs. Will they get to market weight? Most likely, eventually they will. Will their carcasses be acceptable? Most likely. Will the feeder pig finisher have made a profit? No, not a penny. The endevour will have been a loss, and you can be darn sure that that feeder pig finisher will not be calling that feeder pig producer again for pigs.

What does it mean to take care of a sow? It means simply that she should be fed the proper amounts of the appropriate quality feed given her reproductive status. A dry sow requires very little milled feed, of relatively low protein, especially when on top notch pasture like alfalfa. A sow in gestation that has been re-bred needs to be fed an adequate amount of high quality feed in early gestation to get her body back into condition so that by mid-to-late gestation when her pigs really start to grow and her milk starts to come in, she has the resources to support those processes. By the time the sow is in full lactation she needs copious amounts (15 lbs. per day, or even more if she has a lot of pigs nursing!) of a high quality protein feed (18-20%, high lysine). It should go without saying that she should also have access to as much clean fresh water as she wants. [Note: Sort of by definition we are all internet people because we are writing or reading a blog, so I have not dug out my notes to include specific feeding recommendations, as they are readily available on-line. However, if you want the specifics and you really aren't all that internet savvy, please e-mail me or leave a comment and I'll be happy to help]

When sows are not cared for in a such a manner, it is often a disaster, for the feeder pig producer and the feeder pig buyer, both. There will be few pigs; they will not be vigorous; they will not grow well; and, finally, they will be more susceptible to disease than pigs from a sow that has been well cared for.

 

Winter Is Here

So, just like that, winter is here, and, surprise, surpise, I was more or less prepared. All of the animals but one of the breeding flocks of sheep are super well protected from the wind and snow. That one breeding group could use another shelter, which I plan to drag into their paddock today. Everyone has one more cycle to get bred, and then the rams go into a nice big stall in the barn for the winter and the ewes, including the ewe lambs not being bred will be reunited in their one acre winter pasture/feedlot (depending on how much snow there is and for whole long [the pasture is stockpiled]) with enough run in space for all of them. Anyone not bred in two cycles will be slaughtered for mutton in the spring. I have a marginally profitable market for mutton, and I don’t want to have a three month long lambing season, so I will be selecting (and managing) for a flock that, ideally, all lambs within a month to six weeks (I know of farms that lamb out completely in twenty days, but they really know what they are doing).

I feel better about this last group of pigs than I have in three winters of raising pigs. There are twenty of them and they have a draft-free, deep bedded, 1,000 square foot barn to hang out in and a similarly sized barnyard to eat and mill about it in. If it gets super cold, because of the low stocking density in the barn, I can move their feeder and waterer inside, and the pigs will only need to go outside if they want the exercise.

Little by little I am doing it better. Hopefully one year soon I will be doing it right.

 

Minerals

For the last few days I have been looking at the lambs with the sense that something is not right with them, but haven’t been able to put my finger on it. The top 80%-90% are still doing great, but a few of them actually seem to be going backwards. I had a little trouble with meningeal worm a few weeks ago, but I was able to save the five that came down with it and keep the rest from getting it, but I haven’t felt like it was related to that. I haven’t changed their feed or anything like that. So, what is it? What’s the problem? Disease? It doesn’t seem like it. If if it’s not the feed, not parasites and not disease, then what?

Yesterday I had to grab a lamb out of the finishing pen and put him in the sick pen because all of a sudden he was totally sunken, caved in around the middle. When I grabbed him, I couldn’t help but say “Whoa” out loud because he had substantially less fat cover than he should have. He has been on my radar for about five days or so, but only because I felt like he was lagging, not because I thought there was something really wrong with him. I had been thinking that I would swap him out of the finishing pen for one of the beefier lambs that are still out on grass, but when I saw him yesterday, and then especially when I felt him, I realized he had to go into the sick pen. But, why?

Putting a sheep into the sick pen by itself stresses it out, which defeats the whole purpose of the sick pen, so after putting the sunken sheep into the sick pen, I went out and grabbed #85 who I have been watching for weeks. Number 85 has a healthy appetite, drinks plenty of water, has lots of energy, and is always bright and alert, and though he is definitely in the bottom 5%, his frame continues to grow, but he is a skinny minny. He is just not putting much meat on those bones. Since the sunken sheep needed a pen mate, I thought it was an opportune time to bring #85 in to give him some individual attention to see if I can’t get him to start filling out his frame (my feeling is that he has something wrong with him, something genetic or congenital, or something chronic and unresolvable [economically-speaking], but it is still worth a try).

While I was looking over the group trying to pick out #85, my eyes landed on the few that I feel like are going backwards, and I asked myself a little exasperatedly, “Why are these sheep tanking?!” and then it hit me –  minerals. It was probably the minerals! All along I have been feeding the lambs minerals (Fertrell Graziers Choice) out of three six foot long feed troughs because that is what I had handy. However, I am raising these lambs on a contract that includes a weekly slaughter schedule of eight to ten lambs, and about three weeks ago, I decided that the bottom half of the pasture lambs were not growing fast enough for me to be able to meet that schedule. At the rate they were growing it seemed there would be a week or two gap in getting the lambs to slaughter weight. So, wanting to stay on schedule, I put all of the pasture lambs on grain (per the contract, these lambs are grain finished) to get them growing faster in an effort to close the gap, which is working (Ordinarily, I pull eight to ten of the pasture lambs into the finishing pen every week after I take a group to slaughter, in order to keep a month’s worth of lambs in the finishing pen. That way all of the lambs will have received one to two pounds of grain per day for a month before being taken to slaughter.). However, in order to put them on grain, I needed to use the six foot troughs as grain feeders. Because of time constraints I stopped feeding the minerals (if I had more time I could hang around and give the lambs minerals after they finished their grain). Now, three weeks later, some of the lambs are starting to tank, which, knowing absolutely nothing about the metabolism of minerals, I guess is about the right amount of time for the body to use up the minerals and micronutrients contained in the mineral mix and start suffering from a deficiency of one or more of them.

So, yesterday I started making more time. I am now feeding the lambs their grain and then when they are finished, I give them minerals.

If it is the minerals, I think I will know pretty quickly.

In the meantime, the sunken lamb and #85 will get a little extra attention in the sick pen.

(The answer to the question, why don’t you just get mineral feeders? is money. Moneywise the farm has not done well this year and I do not have the cash to invest in any new equipment, no matter how small the expense. I still have hay to pay for, and a substantial percentage of the cash to pay for that hay, which will get the breeding flock through the winter is supposed to be coming from these feeder lambs. Time, while short, is currently not as short as cash.)