South Field Shed Gilts with Piglets
Just a piglet fix for those in need…
Outdoors: 47°F/27°F Sunny
Tiny Cottage: 65°F/62°F
Daily Spark: Snuggleupolis snuggle up against us.
Jeffries Family Farm
Walter Jeffries Tinker, Tailor… A bit eclectic & a tad eccentric, polymath, quantum mechanic & Farmer. Also lucky at cards.Oven, Spit & Pit Roaster Pigs!
Enjoy Our Pork!
Enjoy pork butchered in our family’s Vermont state inspected on-farm butcher shop here on Sugar Mountain Farm. Affordable quality pork from our family farm to your family’s table. One time purchases or weekly, biweekly and monthly CSA boxes available from $40 each. Save buying in bulk as a whole, half or quarter pig. See the Pork Page for details.
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Pastured Pigs & Pork
Our family raises pigs on pasture in the mountains of Vermont and delivers weekly to stores, restaurants and individuals. We have our own state inspected on-farm butcher shop where we cut our own pork and make sausages. Look for our label in stores and restaurants... We hope you enjoy our pastured pork!
Pastured pork, piglets, roasters, half & whole pigs available direct via our CSA and at local stores & restaurants. Random Lucky Posts
What an amazing site. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen such peaceful looking animals… Truly, you’ve developed natural art!
I was in need. So thank you.
Wow! How old are these piglets? How long after they farrow before they all mix together?Do the sows farrow in their own pens first or is it a shared farrowing space? Pretty amazing!!!
They’ll start mixing immediately. This is an example of a shared open farrowing space. We also have some private rooms in our maternity ward where sows can be alone with the piglets and then come out to socialize, feed, etc. Out on the pasture they naturally tend to seek a private space.
for a fix this is an amazing one!! they all look so cozy and worry free!
Wow! Awesome! And how on earth do you keep the area so clean!? it is gorgeous!
I’m looking at starting my first breeding later this year. How do you know if you can use a shared open farrowing space? Is this an acceptable method for housing 2 gilts for their first farrow? Or just proven sows? How much space would be required for the building?
THANKS!
Up until a week before farrowing they can be together without any problem. Gilts are less experienced than sows but they should want to setup separate housekeeping naturally in a field. If they are being kept in a shed then they should have separate areas at farrowing time. Up until then you can keep them together. The problem becomes in the cold months that they tend to want to snuggle together for warmth and that can cause crushing unless the sows are experienced and perfectly timed such that they both have the same instincts – e.g. they farrow at the same time.
If you are giving them indoor farrowing spaces then a space about the size of a nest that they would build outdoors is what they need for the farrowing. For a gilt, about 4’x6′. She also needs space for pooping and peeing and food. A 12’x4′ stall would be about the minimum I would suggest. More space is better.
During the warm months I would give the two of them an acre which I would subdivide into four or more paddocks for managed rotational grazing.
I would suggest not farrowing in the cold months. We do farrow year round but winter is a lot harder. I can’t emphasize that enough.
Thanks so much!