The Farm - Pigs

beef | pigs | sheep | poultry

There are 500 sows and 30 boars and up to 800 piglets at any one time. Hybrid means an animal with a mixture of two different breeds. The boars are Large Whites. The sows are a cross between Duroc and Landrace. This combination of breeds produces long lean hybrid pigs that are good mothers.

Environment
Our herd of 500 pigs are all kept outside in small paddocks where they are able to root around in the ground for their pellets of food and lie in specially constructed wallows of water and mud to keep cool in the summer.

Piglets
The sows give birth to an average of just over 2 litters a year which will number around 10 piglets each. The gestation period for a sow is 3 months 3 weeks and 3 days (115 days). This means each sow can give birth to around 25 piglets (2 ½ litters) per year.

The piglets spend the first couple of weeks in the ‘farrowing’ hut before getting brave enough to venture outside. They are then weaned at 6 - 7 weeks old where they will be grouped according to size and sex so that they have the best chance of growing well.

Read more about our beef, sheep and poultry.