Baktin (Piglets)

Baktin (Piglets)

On 11/11/2016 after our sow's evening feeding, about 5:00, I headed back to the house. As I was doing that, the sow gave a terrible squeal. I went back to the pig pen where the sow was laying down and had just given birth to a piglet.  Flor came out from the house, she too heard the squeal and thought something terrible had happened to momma pig.

A litter of piglets do not come all at once, they come for some time. About midnight, the sow had given birth to 6 piglets and finally the afterbirth. She did not appear to have any more piglets coming. Throughout the birthing process, the newly born piglets had been nursing. A little after midnight we separated the piglets into another pen and into a big cardboard box. This was to keep the sow from stepping on them or laying on them. Sows are not the most graceful animals.

About 3:00 am we went to the pen, fed the sow, and let the piglets nurse. After the piglets were done we put them back in the box.

About 6:00 am I went back to the pen for another feeding, and - surprise!- there was piglet number 7. Numbers 1 – 6 are pink piglets. Number 7 is a brown with black spot piglet.

Junie, the owner of the Unifeeds feed store where we buy pig feed came out to help us with the piglets. Cutting needle teeth and docking the tails. He also gave us information on how to make the feeding easier. Flor said because there is so much competition in the feed business, the feed companies provide this service to entice you to buy their feed.  The owners of these feed stores are trained by the feed companies before they earn their "technician" status.

Our feeding schedule is 5:00 am then every 3 – 4 hours until 9:00 pm. The sow and piglets sleep through to 5:00 am where we start again.

When feeding, there is a lot of motion by the piglets. They keep pushing, shoving, moving and climbing over each other to find the best teat to suck.

After feeding for awhile, the piglets will start to wander off and explore. They will also climb on the sow.

JJ likes getting in the pen with the piglets and playing with them.

JJ also helps in the feeding by handing the piglets over the railing so they can get to the sow. He then sits on the rail until it is time to return the piglets to the box.

After 28 days, the piglets will be weaned. The owner of the stud that bred with the sow gets one piglet as payment, he gets first pick. We then will start selling the piglets for 2000 pesos each (about $45). At the weight of 22 kilos (about 44 pounds) we will start selling the piglets for 100 pesos (about $2) per kilo. We will keep one to raise for butchering when it reaches 120 - 150 kilos (about 240 - 300 pounds).

Five days after the piglets are weaned the momma pig normally is ready to be inseminated and the process starts again.

I hope you enjoy reading this little information about pigs. Thank you for following and since this is Thanksgiving week, we wish you all a happy Thanksgiving gathering with family and friends.