Ruby had her piglets this week, just a few hours before Farm Store started on Sunday.
We happened upon them during morning chores – momma resting on her side, the piglets nestled beside her, with 2 hefty portions of placenta plopped on the ground nearby. As always, it was a sight to behold.
She ended up having a very large litter, probably one that was too big for her own good. Which meant that some of them, unfortunately, didn’t make it.
I wish there was a better option in these scenarios. But, bottle feeding isn’t really possible, since you can’t actually milk pigs like the way you do with cows.
And grafting them, which sometimes works with other types of livestock – assuming you do all the farmer tricks and rub placenta all over the newbies and facilitate bonding in other strange ways – seems to be all the more challenging with pigs.
We tried it once a few years back. We took extra piglets from one larger litter whose mother was having issues and introduced them to another smaller litter, all born within a few hours of each other.
They ended up surviving. But, it was far from an ideal since the grafted piglets always played second fiddle to the other piglets. And that chronic stress at a most critical time, meant that they had poorer health than we liked to see.
After letting nature run its course this week, we now have 9 new incredibly healthy piglets thriving on pasture. And we’re beyond thrilled about that, because it means we’ll have more of our organic pasture raised pork headed your way this winter.
Your Farmers,
Jenney & Greg
PS – This weekend will be our last FRESH PORK week until early October! Click HERE and shop our online store and reserve food for pick up this week. Supplies of certain items may be limited for a bit until we stock up again next month.
PPS – Thanks to all who joined us for the Tour this week. We had such a blast sharing the farm with you! We’re getting such amazing feedback on these, that we’re already planning another tour for early October.