Pigs Mating

Ok, our 5 little piglets - 3 girls and 2 boys - have moved on a stage and it's one BIG shag-fest out there! They were born on 10th June so they are almost 6 months old. Please please can someone reassure me that the 'seven months for sexual maturity' is correct. We are moving the boys to their own paddock today, hoping that we're not bolting the stable door after the horse has bolted so to speak.

As a general rule the pigs start being sexually active but not yet fertile around four months. At eight months the females are generally fertile but every once in a while we get a Lolita, a gilt who births at ten months which means she was fertile at about six months. It is not common. We have hundreds of pigs so we have a fairly large sample set to see this in. If you don't want them impregnated then segregate. You're getting close to the mark. They should be ready for market now or soon.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
Pastured Pigs, Sheep & Kids
in the mountains of Vermont
Read about our on-farm butcher shop project:
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/butchershop
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/csa

Good move. The guys need their "Bachelor's Quarters". It is best to wait until after the 3rd heat to breed your gilts, as it gives them more time to properly mature.

Thank you lovely people. Here's hoping we don't have a Lolita then as a wild boar got in to our adult sow - she's SO loveable - and now she's expecting mid Jan (I'll do another thread). These pigs cause me so many sleepless nights!

The boys are now chilling out in their new bachelor pad. I hope they don't trash the place by morning!

Wild boar cross pork can be mighty tasty!

Yes so we've heard. It is actually illegal here to cross with a wild boar!!! How do they police that! - we didn't do it on purpose needless to say. Anyway, the few locals that know about it told us that the meat was good and gave us a nod and a wink - I reckon there's a few lining up.