How to feed and maintain farm piglets in winter
Keeping animals on a farm in winter is especially important for pig breeders. Caring for pigs in winter is different from any other season. How to feed piglets in winter? What are the allowed living conditions? What should be the content? What are the nuances when caring for these animals?
Winter keeping of pigs
Experienced farmers know that piglets do not tolerate low temperatures well, and therefore, with insufficient heating and not according to sanitary standards, the built dwelling often gets sick. However, with the exactingness of the dwelling, the pig is unpretentious in food, it needs much less food than for rams and cows, and therefore its maintenance is beneficial.
It is not difficult to equip and create comfortable conditions for the stay of piglets if you know some of the nuances.
General rules for keeping pigs in winter
Despite the low temperatures in winter, the pig continues to be in its usual pigsty or barn. Some farmers have the opportunity to heat the premises, but in most cases it is really too expensive, so it runs the risk of not paying off.
Enterprising farmers in Japan have proposed tackling this problem with deep, permanent bedding in cold, covered barns in winter. Economically, the least costly keeping of pigs in winter is considered to be keeping them in such conditions.
First, you need a bedding with a height of 0.2 or 0.3 m. Then it must be replaced as it gets dirty and accumulates solid and wet waste.
How to cover the walls in such a hangar? Experts advise using awning coverings, because they save budget and energy costs, have a low cost and a high level of mobility.
The bottom of the pigsty should be covered with cereals:
- sawdust;
- sunflower seed husks;
- wood shavings and sawdust;
- other organic substrates, which are characterized by the rapid elimination of excess moisture.
The pigsty involves keeping several groups of piglets in one shed in winter: this way the heat is kept inside the building where the pig pen is located.
Ventilation in winter is carried out in a natural way: the room is ventilated through open windows without creating drafts. Another way to refresh the cold and stagnant air in the room is to build openings in the walls, which are closed with special shields for the winter.
Features of feeding pigs in winter
Keeping sows and boars is not easy at all. The next step after creating comfortable conditions for the winter stay of piglets is to calculate a balanced diet. Meals are carried out thanks to the installed feeders and drinkers, which must be cleaned and updated in a timely manner.
Fattening involves feeding animals with the following products:
- food waste;
- hay flour;
- compound feed with various compositions;
- roots;
- hay.
If there should be no problems with the first 4 points: they are always available in agricultural stores, it is advisable to harvest hay from the summer. Its best composition is delicate and small herbs. At the end of fattening, it is necessary to increase the amount of concentrated feed mixtures so that the feeding is really high quality. Adequate feeding of adult pigs in winter requires the correct selection of food and the preparation of a special diet.
Breeding small piglets for fat is another way of fattening, which is carried out with the aim of increasing the live weight of the animal by more than 50%. Its duration reaches 80-100 days. In this case, carbon-containing feeds are chosen for pot-bellied and ordinary pigs, which are diluted with beets, corn, barley and table leftovers. It is not necessary to feed pigs with products containing protein, protein feed will also be ineffective, so it is advisable to focus on feed containing fat. Feeding babies with corn should be limited to 30% of its content in the daily meal.
Caring for sows and piglets
As already mentioned, adult pigs are the least demanding in terms of care, so they are the easiest to keep. Some problems arise when piglets and pregnant sows need to be fattened during the winter.
Keeping pigs in winter with offspring requires special care and knowledge of certain rules.
Farmers need to move young mothers to the warmest place in the pigsty. The sow, like the piglets, is very vulnerable to temperature extremes and does not tolerate sudden temperature fluctuations.
In no case should a sow be forced to go for a walk in a prenatal state. Piggy can be on the street for a short time and only after revealing such a desire.
In order not to provoke an abortion in a sow, you must follow the following rules for caring for them:
- During the winter, sows' food and water should be changed regularly to keep the temperature high.
- Feeding is carried out only in a warm and heated room.
- A sharp hypothermia should not be allowed, especially before the survey.
- The diet should be based on the maximum amount of mineral additives (dry nettle, ash, chalk) in the usual food.
- A balanced diet for sows in winter consists of concentrates, coarse and juicy feed mixtures in sizes up to 3, 4 and 12 kg, respectively.
If there are critically low temperatures, it is necessary to increase the amount of foods with a high concentration of protein, fat and carbohydrates.
What about small piglets? They must be placed in a warm room immediately after the interview, where they will have to be with the sow. At first, they cannot walk on the street because of poor adaptation. Keeping piglets in winter also means having good lighting and more hay for the little ones to burrow in. They grow quickly, which is why it is necessary to immediately provide for their place of residence.
Features of boar keeping
A breeding boar is a necessity for pig breeding, because it depends on him whether the sow will have offspring. The air temperature in the room for the boar to live comfortably should exceed 16 ° C, and the humidity should be kept below 70%. A male pig needs frequent walks, so pigs need to be outside several times a day for a short time.
The keeping of breeding boars, like the keeping of pigs in winter, consists of proper feeding. Do not forget to add herbal flour and combined feed mixtures to your weekly diet. This directly affects the reproductive function of the boar, the consistency of his semen and sexual activity.
The mash also consists of a grain mixture of about 3 kg. The pig should have meals at one specific time.This is important because there is a great need for pork tenderloin in the market today. To be convinced of this, you should talk with other farmers, watch videos from famous pig breeders and study the meat market.