Sows are incredible animals, and are without a doubt my favorite. I have simultaneously experienced my greatest failures and successes with them. So I find it particularly unfortunate that there isn’t a whole lot out there in terms of information. What little there is, has to be heavily scrutinized due to being out dated, catered to the show pig world, or just bad advice. In my experience breeding and farrowing, I have had an incredibly steep learning curve and learned many things the hard way. When I started, I selected a “bad” gilt, fed her all the wrong things, and experienced devastating farrowings as a result. But I learned, selected for better, and drastically improved over the years. The caliber of sows and farrowings I have now, I never thought would ever be possible.
Raising a gilt or purchasing a sow is an investment. One you pay for with both your time and money. You will have about a year into care and feed before you see your first litter. It may be hard to believe, but you are setting a gilt up for success or failure as well as longevity long before she is ever even bred. I take a realistic and natural approach to raising my sows as it pertains to their housing, feeding, as well as farrowing. I give them the tools to set them up to succeed and rear their litters, and let them take it from there. I breed for fantastic mothers with good litter sizes, strong lactations, and easy farrowings. While nothing is guaranteed with livestock, there is so much you can do to get as close to a guarantee as possible.
Maybe you are looking to purchase a gilt for breeding, have one and don’t know how to raise her properly, or want to enter the world of AI? Perhaps you want to be prepared for your first farrowing coming up? If you are reluctant to believe what is out there on the internet, and would prefer to talk one on one instead to pick my brain, you can. Book a consult with me to talk it all out. There is a lot that goes into a successful farrowing. From individual gilt selection, nutrition through development, timing of breeding, feeding through gestation, farrowing set up, and more! I’ve made the mistakes and learned things the hard way to get where I am with my sows today, and want to help you get started off on the right foot.
Consults are booked in hour increments at $130 per session. To book your session, fill out the form below so I can be as prepared as possible to help make the most of your hour. I will reach out for payment via Venmo or Paypal, and once that is received we will schedule a time for a call.
I look forward to our chat!
What People are Saying:
