I WANT TO KEEP MY SHOW GILT AND TRY MY HAND AT FARROWING. WHAT SHOULD I DO?

This time of year, we get questions about farrowing show gilts. My first reaction is to suggest you don’t or at least  to ask “Are you sure?”

Real Talk

Let’s start with some real talk. farrowing show gilts isn’t for the faint of heart. Show gilts are too fat, level hips are not ideal for giving birth. In addition, when novices inseminate gilts there is greater risk of small litter size.  Small litter size makes bigger pigs, level hips make them harder to get out, and excess fat takes up even more space in the pelvis.  All that adds up to a great risk of farrowing difficulties.

 If you’re still determined to move forward these tips are designed to help you have the best experience possible.

If you don’t have a good relationship with your veterinarian now would be the time to build one.  The chance that you may have to take pigs out the side exists and you’ll almost assuredly have to make that call after hours. That call is going to go much better if you’ve talked about it ahead of time.

The best thing you can do is wait. If you bring that gilt home from her last show in August and try to breed her in September for a January litter you’re asking for trouble.  It is virtually impossible to have a gilt ready to make the transition form show gilt to mom in that time frame.  In commercial farms we target 12-13 months for a gilt’s first litter for show gilts. I’d recommend that 12-13 months is the earliest you should breed show gilts.

Feeding for Farrowing show Gilts:

Between the day she retires from the show ring until you breed her you want her feeding program focused on growing frame and reducing fat cover.  You’re going to do that the same way you’d do it in the show barn. Feed her around 5 pounds a day of sow feed.  If you can get her to around a 2.5 body condition score before you breed her you have a much greater chance of success.  The you can check out body condition score at this link.

Health

I would recommend repeating the PRRS, Flu, Mycoplasma, and Circovirus that you should have given when she was received as a show pig prospect soon after her show days are over.

About 6 weeks before you plan to breed her give her a Parvo, Lepto, Erysipelas vaccine and repeat it 3 weeks before breeding. 

Prior to farrowing you want to administer a clostridium, E coli vaccine about 6 and again 3 weeks before she is due to farrow. We have another blog that goes into some detail about what you need in the farrowing room.  You can find it here.