{"id":3451,"date":"2023-10-23T11:46:54","date_gmt":"2023-10-23T14:46:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapiccolinauy.com\/?p=3451"},"modified":"2023-10-23T11:46:54","modified_gmt":"2023-10-23T14:46:54","slug":"new-farrowing-pens-piglets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapiccolinauy.com\/es\/2023\/10\/23\/new-farrowing-pens-piglets\/","title":{"rendered":"New farrowing pens & piglets"},"content":{"rendered":"

During September, in between the storms (and power outages), we started, and finished, new farrowing pens for the pigs. A project we’ve been working towards for several years. To say we are excited would be a vast understatement. It’s been a month and I still get excited talking about the new pens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pastured dry sows<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We pasture our pigs year round. We’ve always pastured our dry sows and boars pigs but tried varying options for housing lactating sows, nursing sows and their litters, and weaned piglets. We tried enclosed farrowing pens, weaning pens then free ranging piglets, letting sows farrow where they wanted to, not supplemental feeding weaned piglets, enclosed grow out pens, moveable farrowing hutches, large permanent free-choice housing, the whole range. We disliked them all – from filthy and smelly to too hard to manage to very high predation rate from eagles. We’ve read what various other farms do, we’ve talked to farmers here, we’ve debated most of the available options. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We finally concluded several years ago that permanently pastured pigs are happy, clean, easy going pigs which, when harvested for the table, taste fabulous with great texture in the meat. However, farrowing free on whatever pasture they happen to be on doesn’t work well. The piglets don’t have enough protection from the weather (extreme temperatures, sun, rain, or wind), the mothers don’t like having us move a shelter OVER their new litter, and the eagles hunt the new piglets constantly. We found that when we rotated the expectant sows into the wind breaks they almost always chose to farrow under the protection of the tree limbs. But there wasn’t an easy way to move sows, or litters of piglets, in and out of the windbreaks without mixing up the litters and the competition for food between the mothers was extreme. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fast forward to this past September. As part of the fencing projects, Ruben and Alejandro moved the fence dividing the main front pasture and the start of the olive orchard to the opposite side of the windbreak. The fence was the only interior fence on the farm when we bought the land. 10 years ago we planted a windbreak of trees at the top of the ridgeline with the trees on planation side of the fence. But the pasture for farrowing is on the front (or pasture side) of the fence. So we moved the fence. And the gates. And the electrical for the fencing. And then created, small, individual pastures for the pigs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The result is a wonderful, efficient system which the sows are loving, the piglets don’t wander out of, and the eagles don’t hunt in. It has been amazingly successful. We started small, with only four farrowing pens built out. We had expectant sows ready to farrow and wanted to get them moved quickly. Also, why invest in a large number of farrowing pens when we weren’t sure they were going to work. The underbrush of the windbreak was cleared out, a small lean-to shelter was added for wind protection, dry pasture provided for next material, individual feed stations installed, and electric fencing partitioned the larger pasture into smaller rectangles for the pens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The result has been so wonderful we are slowing continuing to build out more pens. The sows are happy to move into independent but communal spaces for nesting, the piglets don’t have to compete against older litters for food, and no one wanders away or gets eaten. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Nuevos potreros de cr\u00eda & lechones<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Durante septiembre, entre las tormentas (y cortes de luz), empezamos, y terminamos, los potreros de cr\u00eda nuevos por las cerdas. Un proyecto que avanzamos poco a poco sobre a\u00f1os. Para decir que estamos muy excitados ser\u00eda una subestimaci\u00f3n grande. Hace un mes que terminamos y todav\u00eda estoy muy excitados cuando hablo de los potreros nuevos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nuestros cerdos est\u00e1n al pasto todo el a\u00f1o. Siempre dejamos las madres sin lechones y los padrillos sueltos al pasto, pero hab\u00edamos probado muchas opciones para cuidar a las cerdas madres, madres con lechones al pie, y los lechones reci\u00e9n destetados. Probamos casitas chicas, sin potreros, recintos por los lechones, dejando las cerdas madres al pasto suelto, casitas port\u00e1tiles, casitas grandes pero ficto en los potreros: todas las opciones. No nos gusta ninguna opci\u00f3n – estaban muy sucio, muy oloroso, demasiado a manejar, o demasiada depredaci\u00f3n de las \u00e1guilas. Le\u00edmos lo que hacen otros establecimientos, hablamos con otro campesino, tuvimos discusiones sobre muchas opciones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finalmente, decidimos hace algunos a\u00f1os que cerdos sueltos al pasto son cerdos felices, limpios, y f\u00e1cil a cuidar, y cuando carneamos tiene un gusto muy sabroso con una textura de la carne muy buena. Pero para dejar las madres sueltas en los potreros grandes por la cr\u00eda no funciona bien. Los lechones no tienen protecci\u00f3n suficiente – de las temperaturas altas o bajas, del sol, de la lluvia, o del viento; las madres no les gusta cuando pongamos un alero sobre sus lechones, y las \u00e1guilas casan a los reci\u00e9n criados sin pares. Descubrimos cuando las cerdas pre\u00f1adas tuvieron la oportunidad de estar en los cortes de viento para dar cr\u00eda, siempre eligieron a quedar abajo de las ramas de los \u00e1rboles. Pero no hab\u00eda un modo f\u00e1cil para mudar las cerdas, o los lechones, a o afuera de los cortes de viento, sin mezclar los grupos, y la competici\u00f3n entre las madres por la comida fue muy fuerte.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Llegamos a este septiembre. Incluido en los proyectos de los alambrados, Ruben y Alejandro cambiaron el alambrado que divida el campo en dos – entre la pradera del frente y la plantaci\u00f3n al fondo. Ese alambrado fue el \u00fanico alambrado adentro del padr\u00f3n cuando compramos el campo. Hace 10 a\u00f1os plantamos el corte viento contra el alambrado al lado de la plantaci\u00f3n. Es precioso el corte viento. Pero el pasto, y el potrero para las cerdas, estaba al otro lado del alambrado del corte de viento. As\u00ed que cambiamos el alambrado. Y las porteras. Y las conexiones de electricidad. Y despu\u00e9s de todo eso, construimos potreros chicos – potreros de cr\u00eda individuales – por las cerdas madres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Encantamos el cambio. El resultado es un sistema maravilloso, muy eficiente, que les gusta mucha las cerdas madres; los lechones no escapan, y las \u00e1guilas no casan. Muy exitoso. Empezamos lento, con solamente cuatro potreros de cr\u00eda. Tuvimos cerdas pre\u00f1adas prontas para dar cr\u00eda y queremos no dejarlas sueltas. Tambi\u00e9n, pensamos mejor a probar la idea con pocos potreros si no sabemos si va a funcionar. Limpiamos la mugre en el corte viento, pongamos un techito contra el viento, agregamos pasto seco por el nido, pusimos comederos individuales, e hilo el\u00e9ctrico divida los potreros.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Nos gusta tanto que seguimos a construir m\u00e1s potreros de cr\u00eda. Las cerdas madres est\u00e1n muy feliz a estar en sus espacios individuales, pero cerca sus compa\u00f1eras. Los lechones no necesitan competir con los otros lechones m\u00e1s grandes por la comida. Y nadie, ni las madres, ni los lechones, salen afuera de los potreros chicos.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During September, in between the storms (and power outages), we started, and finished, new farrowing pens for the pigs. A project we’ve been working towards for several years. To say we are excited would be a vast understatement. It’s been a month and I still get excited talking about the new pens. We pasture our … Continue reading New farrowing pens & piglets<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":34327803,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[32,23195],"tags":[560187,7692803,14582,268548,256699,764839492],"class_list":["post-3451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-infrastructure","category-pigs","tag-animal-care","tag-animal-housing","tag-fencing","tag-pastured-pork","tag-piglets","tag-pigs","without-featured-image"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6BeCJ-TF","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapiccolinauy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapiccolinauy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapiccolinauy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapiccolinauy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34327803"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapiccolinauy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3451"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/lapiccolinauy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3490,"href":"https:\/\/lapiccolinauy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3451\/revisions\/3490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapiccolinauy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapiccolinauy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapiccolinauy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}