WEANING PIGS
There are few points in connection with the breeding and feeding of pigs
on which there is a greater diversity of opinion and practice than on
the question of the weaning of the young pigs.
For instance, take the age at which it is most satisfactory to take the
pigs off the sow. This practice varies greatly in different districts,
and even in the same district where one would naturally suppose that the
determining influences would be similar weaning at five or six weeks
old.
One pig breeder will declare that a little pig of five or six weeks old
should be and is able to support itself alone, and will act accordingly.
Should perchance a litter weaned thus early cease to grow the excuses
made will be various.
The weather is at fault, it is either too hot or too cold, or the
sharps, etc., on which they have been fed were not good or sweet, that
the sow's milk was not sufficiently plentiful, or it was wanting in
nutriment. In fact, any excuse will be made rather than the actual cause
admitted.
In far too many instances the real reason for the want of thrift on the
part of the young pigs taken from their mother when they are not more
than five or six weeks old is that their digestive organs are not
sufficiently developed as to enable them to digest enough food to
nourish them properly.
Another excuse often made for what we consider to be undue haste in
weaning young pigs is the alleged desire of the owner not to waste the
time of the sow. He is anxious to have her served again and hasten the
arrival of the next litter.
Occasionally it is found to be unnecessary to wean the pigs for this
purpose as the sow will come in heat and can be served by the boar, but
if she should become in pig the result will be much the same so far as
the pigs are concerned, since as soon as the sow has conceived the milk
will promptly cease or become very reduced in quantity and quality.
On the other hand, if the sow does not stand to the boar time may be
wasted. It is most unlikely that the sow will again become in heat for
some three weeks, whereas this almost always occurs within a few days of
the weaning of the litter of pigs.
Then another extreme, and one which is practised by some pig breeders,
is to allow the young pigs to remain on the sow until the former are
from ten to twelve weeks old. It is claimed for this practice that the
young pigs grow much faster when left on the sow than when weaned, and
that less food is consumed for a live weight increase from a given
quantity of food. Also, it is said that food of more inferior kind can
be fed to the sow than could be fed to the pigs if they were weaned, and
thus the sow and litter are kept at less expense, and that if the pigs
are not weaned until nearly three months, the milk of the sow will have
gradually ceased to flow, and the pigs will not miss the help from
their dam. Their digestive organs will then have become sufficiently
developed to enable them to make the best use of the food given to them,
and they will sustain no check in thrift or growth when they are weaned.
In this question of weaning pigs the good old fashioned plan of
following the middle course will probably be found to be the best.
Anyway, it was the one which we followed for a great number of years and
found the results generally satisfactory for the following among other
reasons.
As a breeder of pure bred pigs for sale as boars or yelts for breeding
purposes, we were naturally anxious to give the pigs a good start in
life so that we should be able to sell them as quickly as possible, and
that they should thrive when they came into the possession of their new
owners, and thus prove the best possible advertisement of our herds. As
a rule we found that if the pigs were allowed to remain on the sows
until they were some eight weeks old they were quite strong enough to
fend for themselves, that by gradually increasing the length of time
which the sow was allowed to remain from the pigs, the latter became
accustomed to exist without the mother's milk, and as the milk of the
sow naturally dried up when the pigs partially ceased to withdraw it, no
trouble was experienced with inflamed udders as is usually or commonly
the case when the pigs are suddenly weaned from a sow which is in full
milk.
There is also another advantage apart from that to the sow and pigs, it
is that the sow will almost invariably come in heat within three or
four days of the weaning, and with the best possible chance of becoming
in pig.
Some pig keepers are more inclined to wean their litter of pigs at an
early age, and then if the sow be low in condition to baulk her at the
first time of [oe]strum. There are objections to this--one of them is
that there is frequently a difficulty in getting the sow to conceive
after she has been baulked. Why this should be so we have not been able
to ascertain. We only record what we know to be a fact.
In our opinion this difficulty is one of the strongest points in favour
of the practice of allowing the young pigs of a sow with her first
litter, or of an old sow which has become low in condition (either from
having had too many pigs left on her, or from other natural cause), to
remain on the sow for a longer period than about eight weeks. Some
persons will keep the pigs on the sow until they are nearly three months
old in the belief that both sow and pigs are benefited, and that the
pigs can be kept quite as cheaply if not more so when unweaned than
weaned. They also claim that the sow is so much stronger and better
fitted to prepare for another litter. Experiments have been carried out
in the United States which go far to prove that the first of these two
claims is founded on fact; and it has further been demonstrated that
certain foods can be fed to the sow without affecting the thrift and
health of the pigs which could not with safety be fed to the latter
direct, yet when fed through the sow the pigs will thrive on the milk
produced therefrom. It is entirely a question of the cost of a rest for
the sow during the extra two or three weeks, and the benefit to the
sow and her pigs.
One occasionally sees in the press a claim for what is considered to be
a great achievement in that some one has bred three litters of pigs from
one sow within the year. There really is something wonderful in this
since of the fifty-two weeks constituting a year, the sow would be
carrying her pigs some forty-eight weeks. This would allow only four
weeks for the two litters of pigs to be suckled, and this would also
include the few days between the pigs being weaned and the sow coming in
heat. Apart from the natural difficulty of successfully breeding three
litters of pigs from one sow within twelve months, there exists a far
greater possibility of loss rather than of gain from unduly hurrying on
the arrival of each litter of pigs from a sow, especially of the
profitable kind of sow.
Some forty years since when Small Whites, Small Blacks, and short thick
Berkshires were fashionable, the number of pigs in each litter was few,
and the number reared still fewer, owing to the limited quantity of milk
furnished by the sow. Now, the Large Black, the Large White, the Middle
White, the Lincolnshire Curly Coat, the old Gloucester Spots, the
Tamworth, the Cumberland, and even the sows of most of the local breeds
of pigs are expected to rear nine or ten pigs each litter. Even if it
were possible for a sow to bring forth three litters within the year,
she could not possibly do justice to them either before or after the
piglings arrived in this world; and further, the life of such a sow
would of necessity be a short one. It must not be forgotten that in
the production of each litter of pigs the sow is compelled to
manufacture from 20 to 30 lbs. of flesh, skin, hair, etc., which
together constitute the newly farrowed pig, and very frequently this has
to be accomplished on a far too limited supply of suitable food.
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[Illustration: _From a Painting by Wippell._
MIDDLE WHITE SOW.
To face page 96.]
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[Illustration: _Block kindly supplied by Cumberland Pig Breeders'
Association, Carlisle._
CUMBERLAND SOW.
Owned by Mr. Carr, Kirkbride, Carlisle.]