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Posted 5/22/2016 18:35 (#5314941)
Subject: NON Confinment hog raisers

Monticello ky

Hey guys been doing a lot of thinking here lately . I have a few hogs and I raise them in a Confinment type environment. I started out as a mud farrowing in old mule stalls and raising feeder pigs outside. Even as an adult I started out farrowing in pens . I followed the trend of more Confinment went to slotted finishing then farrowing crates and whatnot . you know the drill. I have about decided that I enjoyed it a whole lot more before and am thinking about getting back to an older way of doing things . now I am not sold on the no antibiotics , trying to finish hogs on grass cause people think their cattle thing. But I really did enjoy it more doing it the way my grandpa did.

So I was just wanting some ideas from you guys as to what you were doing and what was working . I am looking for a low labor way of farrowing wether it's on pasture or in pens . I've never farrowed in pasture. I have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of letting them loose and theyfind a but and make it work. Like I said just looking for ideas

Thanks

God Bless

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footballjdtractor

Posted 5/22/2016 20:23 (#5315130 - in reply to #5314941)
Subject: RE: NON Confinment hog raisers

TX

I only have four sows so don't give my advice much weight but this winter I penned one gilt up in a small lot, the lot has a shack in for her to farrow in. The shack has bumper boards in it to prevent her smashing pigs when she lays. I bedded it with straw and had a heat lamp set up in it. She pigged in there and had 12 live ones. I weaned 7. Another gilt was living in the feedlot with about 100 steers. I was off on her due date and during the night she made a nest in the corner of the barn and had 13 live ones the next morning I found her and set up some gates to keep the cattle off of her and gave her a bale of straw. She weaned 11. I am kind of new to pigs but I'm pretty amazed by their ability to survive in about any situation.

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Posted 5/22/2016 21:05 (#5315223 - in reply to #5314941)
Subject: RE: NON Confinment hog raisers

If you are thinking less than 20 sows, farrowing on pasture can work well. It works best spring and fall here in SW IA that would be April 1 to about June 15 and fall about Sept 1 to Nov1. Sows do anything to get cool in the summer such as farrow in the wallow or under the sprinkler or in the tank if they can jump in. Before coyotes established a presence there were a good number of pig famers who turned sows out in timber and brush to farrow and came out with a respectable average to wean.
I think a lot of that survivour instinct has been bred out of todays confinement pigs. We could usually wean 7+ to 8 when we farrowed outside in tin porta huts. The last hogs left here about 9 years ago. So it has been a while. Good luck.

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Posted 5/23/2016 01:31 (#5315578 - in reply to #5315223)
Subject: RE: NON Confinment hog raisers

I think Ben1912 pasture farrows still. You might ask him on here. I know from college days when a lot of guys in northwest Illinois still pasture farrowed that finding gilts to fit an outside operation may be an issue, The Landrace especially that seems to so heavily populate the confinement maternal lines would die in an outdoor system and so would the 16 rat sized piglets they would have when they farrowed. Not big enough or tough enough, I think I'd go with a blue butt sow, Hamp x York and then come back with Duroc boars and maybe switch them off with good Poland boars. Outside, I want them tough and a little on the mean side.

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Posted 5/23/2016 13:25 (#5316208 - in reply to #5314941)
Subject: RE: NON Confinment hog raisers

Central Illinois

farmertom311 - 5/22/2016 17:35

Hey guys been doing a lot of thinking here lately . I have a few hogs and I raise them in a Confinment type environment. I started out as a mud farrowing in old mule stalls and raising feeder pigs outside. Even as an adult I started out farrowing in pens . I followed the trend of more Confinment went to slotted finishing then farrowing crates and whatnot . you know the drill. I have about decided that I enjoyed it a whole lot more before and am thinking about getting back to an older way of doing things . now I am not sold on the no antibiotics , trying to finish hogs on grass cause people think their cattle thing. But I really did enjoy it more doing it the way my grandpa did.

So I was just wanting some ideas from you guys as to what you were doing and what was working . I am looking for a low labor way of farrowing wether it's on pasture or in pens . I've never farrowed in pasture. I have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of letting them loose and theyfind a but and make it work. Like I said just looking for ideas

Thanks

God Bless

I dont like the idea of pasture farrowing just because of coyotes. I normally farrow in a building with crates and put them in pens about a week old.

I will be building little huts and individual pens to put outside for this summers farrowing. It gets too hot in the farrowing house for July and August in Central Illinois and the huts will only have direct sunlight a few hours a day as I will put them on the west side of a tree line. Im hoping that keeps the coyotes out.

As far as antibiotic free, dont confuse things with the practice with never using antibiotics. I will give them to any pig that is sick, but 95%+ of my pigs will be sold antibiotic free as they just dont need it. Pigs living outside in the fresh air just dont have a need for antibiotics very often.

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Posted 5/23/2016 14:01 (#5316254 - in reply to #5314941)
Subject: RE: NON Confinment hog raisers

Mid MO

We had a small wooden farrowing building with crates used that during the winter/spring. Dad turned sows out twice a day to keep them clean and from getting too grumpy (fed and watered outside). Farrowed in home made skid buildings when the weather was good. They were on rough cut 2x12's so the piglets couldn't venture out until they were ready. Dad just skidded them when they needed cleaning and started on a fresh spot. Coyotes and feral dogs were always an issue. The coyotes mostly during hay season when the pups would drag down the mommas and make them desperately hungry. Dogs year round. Dad kept a 12 gauge in the truck and farrowed near the house. Weaned pigs went out in hollows. He rotated hollows to keep disease down and to keep them from creating a moonscape. We rung the sows. Our pens were all woven wire and the hogs would get out from time to time. (: Most every woodlot pen had a pond above it and a water line gravity fed to the pig pen. Dad drilled a 1/8 hole in a fitting, jammed it into the end of the line and bailing wired it to a hackberry tree (above the hogs' reach). Cheap year round water, fresh, and won't freeze. Put the self feeders on heavy wooden pallets so they wouldn't bog into the mud.

I've heard of folks taking 3 big tractor tires and stacking them (I haven't tried it). Driving steel posts and wiring them to secure it and fashioning a roof out of tin. Then cutting a door with a saws-all. Throw in a bale of straw and you have a home fit for a sow. The tire makes a bumper so the piglets don't get smashed. Kinda tacky but it would cash flow (:

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