Your Thoughts

By Kerrie Chalmers

Farrowing for the unprepared

In July this year we moved into our new small farm. We had planned to buy a couple of breeding sows after our first winter in the place. Planning to get to know the buildings and land before embarking on our new adventure. The best laid plans…

We were gifted a couple of sows who would come to us via a visit to an OSB boar, but the catch was their move was imminent. We immediately started planning the farrowing barn, ordering gates from IAE to make the space work. We also ordered 2 larger 6’ x 8’ arks from Solway.

The ladies arrived in October having been living with Handsome Hamish for 8 weeks, and we had no idea when they would be due to farrow, only an 8-week window. I have a little experience of lambing, but absolutely no idea about farrowing. I read as much as I could on the OSB page. We borrowed the scanner from the charity, and on 11th November both sows gave a positive result. Using the optimal times for scanning I worked out we likely had till at least early January before piglets would appear. Oh, how wrong I was!

JP works offshore so is only here 50% of the time. By mid-December, the gates from IAE were still not here so I needed a plan B. I got one of the outbuildings cleaned and disinfected but ended up moving our weaners in there.

Around a week before Christmas, I started to notice boobs developing on the sows, so sent a picture to Michelle who knows them very well. She informed me I had only a few days. Crikey....Called in the troops, and on 18th December after work, a squad of fit chaps turned up to help move the big (very heavy) arks. Only to find that we were too late as Eilidh was lying in the small ark with 9 piglets and 2 dead. I’m not sure whether they were still born or squashed. The day after Eilidh farrowed, I thought Morag was nesting. I got up a couple of times through the night to check, then at morning feed time I found Morag with 9 piglets and 1 dead. Both ladies farrowed without me. I’ve read all about checking for the 2 afterbirths, but I couldn’t find even 1 from either. Although I didn’t look too hard. Being on my own I wasn’t prepared to crawl headfirst into the arks with protective mum outside.

Two days after farrowing Eilidh was off her food and had a discharge. Much to the disgust of my mother, I went for the sniff test. Having smelt a sheep with retained placenta, I was confident this wasn’t, but I still took a rectal temperature every 2 hours. Just in case. With a normal temperature, I could relax and after 24 hrs she was back to normal.

On one of my checks, I found Morag sitting on a piglet. I could see it gasping for breath but wasn’t too confident to go into the ark and get it. I used an electric fence post, poked Morag to move her then hooked the piglet. He was completely limp.. I have absolutely no clue what to do in this scenario, but again reverted to my sheep knowledge, and treated it like a lamb not breathing. Lucky save!

In the end Morag lost 3 piglets, and Eilidh 4. I will never know if I had been more prepared would we have less losses? If Eilidh had been in the bigger ark, would she have lost less? If the girls had been inside with a heat lamp, would they have squashed less? I was incredibly upset with the losses, but have 14 cheeky, chunky chaps, including the world famous “Oddball”, to keep my mind off it. Kim and Andrew have both been stars answering my endless questions. I think in the week covering the 2 farrowings I went through every emotion possible. Joy, heartbreak, frustration, worry, fear, and relief.

We now have the gates from IAE and our inside space will be built in the next few weeks. Our first litters of piglets have been the most amazing experience, but my advice is…… Be Prepared!