Well like true to form, I guess I'm doing everything backwards. Should of gotten the boar 1st at an early age to raise up with a barrow to eat and then look for gilts. But you can't show boars at our fair (don't know about the other fairs out there). I was having enough trouble as it was to find our son a pig that did not cost him an arm and leg to show in October that wasn't white. Gilbert and Spot taugh us both that we were just not up to task for white pigs. Our pens are on the ground and maybe when I win the lottery (yhea right) I can get a cement truck on the hill and poor concrete.

Hey i had my gilts before i got a boar! i promise right now i have 2 boars and a gilt together but they are only weight 100-125 now. i know here for long i will have to get them into there own pens. and here the only show i know of that you can take a boar to is duncan. I sold my yorks for 100.00 which i paid alot more than that for there sire and dam..

and hey my yorks are on dirt. until this show seaon i had enough money saved back for a concret floor which in only 2 iches thick and it cost my 130.00

We have that Mississippi Red Clay to tend with and would not trade these 2 reds for anything unless it was a Hereford hog.

At what weight do you lower their protein %?

well here in oklahoma we have the red clay as well. Buti made my pens moveable that way when it rained and they got nasty i could move there pens to dryer ground my white hogs are always orange. i raise yorks, duroc and crosses

Is your pen on skids? Tell me more.

I have hopes, that if our son got really into pigs, we would make his pen the entire wooded section. Then have holding pens (what the pig pens are now) for new pigs or pigs that will have their litter.

I will have to get pics. i just welding the panels to square tubing and then the house is made out of squaretubing and it all bolts together and i can un boltit and move it. it take 3 of us tho to mive the house

Well I wanted to make the pen interchangeable, incase our son moved on to something new after Gilbert and Spot. When it was time to try and sell them our son was talking about hair sheep. Thank GOD he no longer wants a pair of them.

But I have to be honest, after they were slaughter and how the meat turned out, the entire family wanted another set. But the money to feed them and then to butcher them out weighted getting the meat from the store. But I knew what was put into them and how they were treated (at least from the point when we got them home to the day they were sent off).

But I started to miss going to the pen and having something to do. So our son started to talk about showing a hog (again) and then when I placed that ad in our La Market Bulleting and then D.J. called me about his litter. Oh boy the pigs were on again.

So we got these two and I'd placed a call to my sister and she said all their boars will be white and since white is so dominate I need to look some more. I called a Duroc breeder, but I don't know if Mansfield is in the cards right now. But I've got time, I hope.

So how big is your wallow for your pigs? Thanks to Gilbert and Spot, Ruby and Garnet have a nice size one. But the "girls" are so much cleaner then the "boys" where. They wait till I come home and they start to blow bubbles in their drinking water and then I dump clean water from the bigger water tank that they can't drink out of just yet (not tall enough yet). The water is warm in the afternoon, sitting in the sun in a black mineral tub. Then the sprinkler system is turned on over the walk pen and they run in and and out of the sprinkler until I turn it off and shut them out of the walk pen.

well my showpigs dont have a wallow my sows do and it is about 5 X 5 feet lmao. my boars also have a wallow but i dont let it get very big because they are in a lil pen. But as far as my show pigs no they dont get one. i got out and hose them off and that is all they get and they are doing fine. but i didnt fine a mister set at atwoods that i am going to put up of my boars and then above my farrowing crates.

Farrowing crates is another issue. I don't know if we will be using them. The shelters that we have are pretty big and I was thinking of just putting 2x4 at an angle so the piglets have something to get under. Depending on when the babies come, our main issue may be the heat. That's why I trying to talk our son into fall or spring litters like we do with the calves. We will already be running around with our heads cut off with calving season, so why not through the pig litters in the bunch, too.

How long have you had your pigs?

LMao.. well my first litter that i had i didnt have a crate i put her in my stock trailor and made a box for the babys to get into. i had a hole cut in the top so i could put in a heat lamp.. she raised all 10 but not all farrowings go that eay either

It's like calving, some come like they should, so come backwards and if you are lucky you get a set of twins and the mom takes both.

Do you like heat lamps over the heating pads?

i dont know never had any heating pads.. th heat lamps you ahve to becareful with em. and not only birth problems but sometimes you might get a sow that dont want them are they will try to eat there own babies and can even attack you

My sister had a sow that ate her babies, she always thought it was stress on the sows part. She was able to sell her and she (sow) continued to eat the next several litters with the other family. Is it something to do with mineral or vitimin deficiency, strees or a combination of both?

That's why when people come over, I try and get them to go with our son to see the pigs. He goes in and they stand outside the pen. So they'll get use to strangers, pigs that is. Ruby is attached to me and Garnet could care less. I guess it should be that way if we plan on eating her (Garnet). Ruby is the HOG, she wants all the food, all the attention and your right foot (she knows the difference and will change sides to put her foot on top of your right foot only). She does bite, we are working on that now. But it's not an out to get you bite like Gilbert did. It's more like hey what this. I had to stop wearing tennis shoes, because between the two of them they ate the laces off my right shoe. Rubber boats are fine as long as you can stand them rubbing their teeth on your boot. I think they like the sound it makes.

How deep of litter (hay) do you put down at first and then how often do you add and how much?

When can the babies be let out of their shelter?

Do you give yours iron shots? Is there something else we could do to make it eaiser on our son when the time comes, besides the iron shots. I don't think we have to worry about knotching their ears (since they can't be registered). Depending on the boar, I guess we can relay on their markings.

Do you cut the piglets needle teeth out? If so, how old do you do that?

You dont have to worry to much about their feet . Just as long as it is not just straight concrete , they are fine. Even straight concrete is ok and clean, but i would not recommend it. You will know when to change out the hay.
You can let out the babies at any time just as long as the weather permits. We usually let them hit the ground at about 5 weeks.

Iron shots should be given within the first 72 hours after birth.

We cut the teeth at about 48 hours after birth. For the most part we do everything together

Do you have to cut the needle teeth of the babies?

Is there a iron paste for them out on the market?

How much space do you need between the boar and the sow with her litter?

What tools are required to do AI?

Are the rods different if you using them on a 1st time gilt and a proven sow?