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Central Illinois | I raised a few hogs when I was a teen, when I moved off the farm we kept most all equipment but sold all animals. I have since married started a career and moved back to the farm. I will be taking over the operation (corn and beans) after my father retires but in the mean time the wife and I have a huge itch to do something (started talking about it 3 or 4 years ago, now have the financial stability to do something small). The wife wants to run a few head of cattle on some scrap land we have, I am all for it but know very little about cattle. Her father raised cattle but quit when she was born, unfortunately he has passed. For this reason plus the larger initial investment I suggested to her that we start with running a small farrow to finish operation. Over the weekend I cleaned out an old building that is unused since I quit raising hogs, it is nothing fancy just ~50x~20 building with a concrete floor. I never really got beyond a few litters a year and always AI'd. Since it has been almost 20 years since I last raised hogs I have a few questions and thoughts. I want to get bigger and a little more efficient than I was as teen, but I don't want to become a large hog farmer so peak efficiency will not be reached. I will take general input as well as specific thoughts.
My initial thoughts are that I would go buy a two bred gilts this fall. I then would AI them next spring for a second litter. My goal would be to keep 2 gilts out of each litter. This would mean that by the end of next summer I would have 6 females in my breeding program. If I continued to AI my gilts and sows I could keep the top gilts out of each litter I could be up to 10-14 breeding females by next fall. My goal would be to stabilize around 16 sows with two to three litters a month.
Then was thinking about doing something I had never done which was purchase a good young herd boar to help me move away from AI. I would use the 50x20 building as my farrowing/nursery on one end and keep my boar and breeding area on the other. Once the pigs left the nursery they would be moved to an area where they have access to the outside as well as cover to finish. This is basically what I did as a teen but I never had a boar.
My biggest area of concern is PED and moving to having a boar.
From what I have read about PED it is nasty stuff. At bred gilt sales are there generally guarantees being given against PED?
Is 12-16 sows enough to justify a boar?
I never pushed my sows always allowing a month between drying up and pregnancy and usually culled after a couple litters. I have read that it is ok to breed within a few days of drying up, on the first cycle, this seems intensive to me what are general thoughts on this intense of a cycle of litters?
How many litters do most programs hope a sow to average before culling?
What is the average on years of service from a boar?
Edited by ben5398 10/9/2014 12:05
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Small farrow to finish
