Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Babes in the woods

Woke to a gorgeous, crisp, sunny morning and found this:

A brand new litter of 12 piglets ! Congratulations to mother Dot and father Mad Max. Dot is a crossbred we purchased last year from the Wettstein Organic farm in Congerville, Illinois  and Mad Max is full Red Wattle which we purchased from Dot and Brian Jordon of Kiss My Grass Farms in Indiana.  This is therefore Mad Max's first sired litter.  This is also our first litter born completely ouside. (Special thanks to Walter Jeffries of Sugar Mountain Farm for all his on line education in this area.)  Litters born last winter were in the big Hogcienda Keith had built. Dot could have chosen that area as well this time but instead went to the far north end of her pasture and picked this very private , cozy spot.



To get to her you have to walk through chest high grass and weeds. We had noticed Dot going in circles last evening, pulling up weeds and knew she was making a nest, yet at 0630 her nest was a little hard to find. Since we have been very hands on with our sows this summer, Dot greeted us with a few grunts but felt no need to jump up or charge us to protect her litter. Close up shots were easy to take. So everyone, lets raise a glass of raw milk and toast all animals on pasture, where they should be.

7 comments:

  1. Not having raw milk I raised a glass of beet juice instead! Congrats on the new ones. We'll see how the pig trial goes I just may want to emulate this set up!

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  2. Beautiful litter! We just had one born this morning too. It is a day for fine birthing. We are supposed to have nice weather coming up which will give all those little piggies a chance to get their feet on the ground.

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  3. Just curious...do the babies have wattles??

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  4. Walt, the babes are 1/2 crossbred (mother is a mix of several breeds) and the father is full Red Wattle. We don't have an exact count yet but some have wattles, some don't and one has just ONE wattle !

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  5. Donna ~ I'm so glad we connected! Not only do we have GOD and horses in common, but also pigs! Your pigs are beautiful ~ and such a great shot of the new litter of 12. And ditto on Walter J's wonderful online information. We love Walter.

    We just had piglets born last night...I absolutely love raising pigs!

    Your Blog is awesome...can't wait to dig in deeper and catch up.

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