"In The Farrowing House"

This episode provides an in-depth look at farrowing and production management, covering vaccination, feeding, inducing, and caring for sows and babies during farrowing and lactation. We pickup with pre-farrowing thoughts and take the journey through the farrowing house. This episode is perfect for breeders seeking practical tips and best practices from our vantage point.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Alright, well welcome back again to uh Showpig Central. I'm your host, Josh Brockman, along with my wife, Carrie. And uh we're glad you found us again. Uh however you found us, and just on the front side. If you're listening on Spotify or Apple and you'd rather watch the podcast, um jump over to YouTube and you can watch the video there, or you can just have the audio on Spotify or Apple or any of the other places you're finding it, just on the audio. Uh, if you'd like the video for now, it's the video is only on YouTube. So, with that, welcome. We're glad you're back with us. Uh, we're glad to be back with you and back on another episode as we uh continue through this new journey and kind of figure out times and and how it's gonna work, and we're gonna keep putting them out as often as we can. And so today uh we're gonna jump back in and and talk about the production side of uh the show peg world, I guess you would say. And we're gonna jump in. We loaded our first ones here uh recently in the Farronhouse and uh gonna start firing tomorrow here in Montgomery for the summer of 2026. So uh we decided that would be uh good time, fresh on our mind, to go ahead and start and talk about the Farron House and uh everything that goes along with that. So uh again, welcome back. Glad to have you. Any any words of wisdom before we jump in, honey?

SPEAKER_00 1:29

No, there's a lot to cover today, so we better get right to it.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

Perfect. So um as we uh if you listen to the uh some of the last podcasts, I think we've we've led up to certain points. But what we're what we're gonna do today just to give you a little bit of an overline and an outline of how we're gonna focus on today. We're gonna start uh just a little bit before they go on the ferrinhouse. We're gonna start just as what we do for pre-farro vaccines, um, how we kind of feed the sows through lactation, or not lactation, but gestation, and uh through their their pregnancy there, uh, when we load them in the crate, how we feed them then, uh take you through uh inducing farrowing, how we manage the ferrin house itself, which is gonna be largely carry, um, and then we'll uh we'll go through uh processing baby pigs, how that all functions, uh and then exiting the crate and pigs going into the nursery. And so we'll kind of take you through that timeline that uh that works for us. Uh our way is not necessarily the right way, it's just the way that it works for us. It's evolved and changed over the years, so uh you'll hear a little bit of differences uh as we go through um as well. But to start with, uh we'll just start with that the only prefair vaccine we give is uh litter guard, and um we give it uh one dose two to five weeks out. It's recommended different to give than that, and and regardless, um if you've if you've been giving prefair vaccines or not, uh we try to work with our vets and do lean on them heavily. So I would definitely encourage you on the front side. Don't think just because it's what I do or what we do that's something you have to do, but that is a prefair vaccine that I think is uh very generic, very good as far as helping manage kind of scours and the crates and that type of deal. And that's that's the one we give. Um we used to give two doses to the GILTs or the CALs that hadn't had that vaccine, and then just one dose to the CAWs. Uh things just get away from you now. We give we give one dose of litter guard somewhere three to five, two to five weeks before they uh they ferra. So again, give it your vet, figure that out. There's lots of different vaccines depending on your need, but that's a general one that uh that works really well for us. Uh we talked about feeding on uh on Gilts when we had done the feeding deal at the time before, and um you know on average we feed four to five pounds a day on our sows. We feed Linder 696, Linder 690, um, and then uh as far as gestation, four to five pounds per head. You know, here we're towards the end of May, depending on when this drops, and um so it's starting to warm up in Montgomery, so we're constantly dropping our feed down. Uh, but the main time that we uh decrease feeds the last 45 days before we ferrow. Uh we want to bring those down to four pounds or three pounds uh usually per head per day. We we base that solely on condition. Um some cells are naturally fleshier, some cells are naturally skinnier, so uh you know it's not a one size fits all. But as a general rule, uh three to four pounds is plenty per head per day, uh, those last 45 days before they far. That's gonna help you manage pig size. Uh, it's gonna help you manage body condition because you know you're ferron, regardless if you're ferron in the southwest, especially in the summer or even in the Midwest, um, it's gonna get warm at some point. So uh it helps those cells kind of manage that. I think they milk better when their condition's skinny down. And so, you know, my goal is to have them um, you know, obviously not unhealthily thin, um, but as thin the thinnest part of their life as they're going into the crate. Uh, I think they do the best with that, I think they manage farrowing the best with that, uh, I think they milk the best that way, and so on. So three to four pounds is kind of the number we found that works. Uh again, it depends on where you're at, depends on what your feed is like, what feed you're feeding, um, so on and so forth. So that last 30 to 45 day window is very crucial. Um, you know, if you know anything about livestock, which I don't know a lot, but uh the smaller the pigs are, the easier they come out. And so uh the the more that you feed them, the more those are gonna grow, especially there towards the end. Um, and you know, compile problems. I would say most of the issues that we hear about with people that um are having trouble ferron is uh the number one causes their cells are too fat.

SPEAKER_00 5:45

A lot of times, yeah. I was gonna say you can pretty much set yourself up for failure if you have, especially your gilts, too fat. Um, and and I'm not saying that hasn't happened to us in the past, you know, things just get away from you and you don't get feed dropped fast enough. But yeah, that I mean, number one thing to to try and and have a successful trip through the Farinhouse is to make sure that they are not too fat. Um Josh mentioned the three to four pounds a day per head on feed. Um Lidner South Feed, there's two different ones that we rotate through 690. Uh 696 is medicated with CTC, so uh you'd have to have a VFD for that. But those are really good feeds. Um, if you are feeding a cheaper um, basically just a south feed that doesn't have as much energy in it, you might have to bump that up just a tick. Um but on the on the Lidner South side, the 690 and 696, uh, that's where most of our No, that's one of the things I've noticed.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

Like if I'm feeding 96, I'm gonna definitely feed less. A lot of the times I when I get to this point in the year, I want to feed 90 because I can actually keep them thinner that way and still feed them a normal amount. Uh sometimes even on 96, I think it's high quality enough because it's it's made for a uh a breeding feed, you know, on the front side. Um it's hard for me sometimes to get them skinny enough on that feed versus versus bouncing down to just a generic 690 or something like that. So yeah, I mean, we can talk about feeds and again we'll tell you what we do because that's just what we know. Um it's not a one size fits all in different parts of the country, different parts of the state, um, different environments as far as how your facilities are set up, different feeds, all those things make tweaks, and you've got to kind of put your own to it and and make it mesh. So, but as a general rule, uh that kind of is what works.

SPEAKER_00 7:36

One other thing on that, um, we'll have cells every now and then that are either like boss cells in the pen. Um we have about you know anywhere from 12 to 18 in a pen. And if you have one that's on one of the two extremes, kind of a boss cell that gets a lot more than she should, or one that gets real skinny because she's more timid, uh like my mom, we would always have to pull her out and put her in her own pen towards the end of gestation because she was always kind of timid and um basically could almost get too skinny going into the crate if we didn't do that. So just think about those things, watch that.

SPEAKER_01 8:09

Um that was one of the best things facility-wise, when we finally there was a long time that if if you ran around here you knew um they just had to suck it up because they were what they were. That was the pins that we had, and if they were a little fat, then they were in a pen with a bunch of other ones. If they were a little skinny in the pen with a, you know, and that was just how it went. And I didn't have the the places to just isolate them out and kind of single feed them just a little bit or you know, double or whatever. Um, you know, when you run a hundred in the space, you just run 200, then you've got lots of those places. So um, yeah, pulling those out, those skinnier sows that that don't necessarily need more feed, but need to be you know either put by their self or with other kind of timid sows, and especially pulling those chunky ones, those boss sows, as Carrie said, that eat a bunch, pulling them out to where you can manage their feed amount um those last the last months, month and a half, can make a large difference. And like I say, not only on pig size and getting the pigs out, but I think the way they milk, the way they produce in the uh and and work for you in the crate, I think all of those things, body condition matters immensely, immensely. So if uh always kind of go by the general rule, if you want to hop your sows out and show them to somebody as they're going into the crate, they're probably too fat. So um take that for what it's worth. Some sows are just fleshy, other ones uh you can kind of thin down the way you need to. So as we load them in the crate, um, you know, there's differences in opinion on this. The one thing I would tell you is I would not load them the day before they're due. I would not load the day that they are due. Um uh we we'd probably try to tend to that three to seven day window before their due date to get them loaded. You get in the heat of the battle in the summer sometimes. I'm sure many of you listening have this uh where you just you got to get them in there when you can because you've got other ones in there in front of them. So uh we deal with plenty of that. We've built crates and loaded stuff there and there and ferrowed them and moved them out and around and upside down and everything else to try to get them over the years. But three to seven days, if you can get them in the crate that early before they're due, I think that does a few things for you. I think one, if they fare a little early, you're you're you're you're loaded. Um two, if uh it gives them a few days, especially if they're guilt, to kind of get settled in and used to something they've never been a part of or an environment in. And um three, it helps you regulate again the exact feed amount um head by head. So again, those cells that eat a little more, eat a little less if they're in general population, you can sure enough manage that there as it's getting crucial those last few days uh before due day. So um now that's what about fairing houses and fairing crates. That's how we we have everything. Um there's people that pin farah and and do all kinds of other stuff, and I think there's lots of useful ways of that. Just haven't done it, so can't speak to it very much on our end. So this is just kind of how how we at least currently uh work from there. Most often sales come out of general population for us, um, loaded into the Farrenthouse, into a crate. We've got two double L's that are I don't know, 54 crates or whatever it is. And uh that's where they are until they wanna.

SPEAKER_00 11:24

So one thing on that and my pet peeve is um we always try, we uh well, we don't always try, we always um will dectamax the sows when we move them in. That's gonna help you a bunch later on um on that litter, not uh dealing with mange and stuff. Um but I really get irritated if we forget and they don't get that shot of Dectamax until they get in the crate. I do not like giving that shot in the crate when you first put them in there. So uh what we like to do is wash them before we move them in, and while we're washing, um, you know, give them that shot of Dectamax before we move them in. To me, the worst thing you can do with a guilt that's not real smart anyway is put her in a crate and then give her a shot and then think that she's gonna act good for you in three days when it's time to ferry.

SPEAKER_01 12:09

She's gonna act fine.

SPEAKER_00 12:12

You know a lot about it.

SPEAKER_01 12:13

Hear that a lot this summer, but uh yeah, another thing that Carrie said that's you know is somewhat you know, maybe basic, but uh is uh getting those cells clean, washed, especially if you're coming out of dirt pens. Our main salburns dirt, or the majority of it's dirt. And um, so this first group that we loaded all came out of that barn. It's my favorite salburn that we have. And so it takes a little time to get those cells clean, washed, all the mud, debris, so on and so forth off of them. Um and and you're probably not gonna get it all. But uh get it, you know, do as good a job as you can because again, the less that you can track into the into that fairinghouse, the better it's gonna be. Um just like a hospital and so on and so forth. So uh I guess before we talk any further about that, we could back up just a hair of um how we prep the fairhouses. Uh so we we pressure wash and we try to keep them, we try to wash things as immediately as they're emptied out and clean. So like we'll fare all through the summer and then at the end we'll try to get them clean as quick as we can. Um so they're not just sitting there dirty and nasty for an extended period of time with things growing, so on and so forth. Doesn't always work out as quick as we'd like for it to, but but that's just part of it. So the last group we fared was in January prior to these maze that are going in now. Um that fairness has been setting clean for a while. We've actually so um we'll soak everything and soap everything and let it kind of break down and then wash through. And then uh we started differently this time disinfecting uh twice. Uh so we'll go through once with synergize and then we fold that up this time after we washed that, let it set again, and we fold it up with rescue uh as a second uh disinfectant. Never used it before this the first time through. Um smells good. I like it. We'll see how it all shakes out. But I think that's important. And another thing, especially uh, if you're running a bunch of them and you're gonna go through that fairness, you know, through a crate, use a crate two or three times through a season. Um, getting them clean on the front sides very, very important. And uh, you know, pressurizing, pressure washing with an oscillating tip versus a straight pressure. If you've got the ability to pressure wash with hot water, um we've we've fought hot pressure washers around here, our well water and the valves on them don't agree with one another very well. Um another podcast for another day on malfunctioning equipment, but getting that place is is clean. I'll never forget the first time that that I even learned. Troy Sloan told me about this oscillating pressure washing tip um that spins the water that I don't know what it was originally designed for, but um when we put that on and went through everything the first time, it was like man, I did not realize how not clean we were getting things. That was also the first time we'd used hot water, but um those things make a large difference. They wear out quick around here because we we treat them kind of rough, but uh well worth investing in and oscillating pressure washing tip. So everything's clean, sales are loaded, like Carrie said, we dectomax them as we put them in the crate. Uh you know, you could use Ivamach, I guess. Dectamax is just the wormer that that we use. That helps a lot, not only on your your sal mange and all that, but on your babies um and all the way through. I don't know if the babies are necessarily getting anything out of it, getting that sal getting that shot right then. Uh we've acts we've accidentally we dectomax the babies too at weaning, but um it has helped us quite a bit on general herd health of uh being sure it's an easy way to be sure they get dectomax, that it's a safe time to do it, that they get wormed, um, you know, internal and external parasites are like I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 15:57

I feel like I can tell a big difference if we don't if we don't worm the cell, but it might just be in my head.

SPEAKER_01 16:03

So it's a possibility.

SPEAKER_00 16:05

Um I was gonna say, and then three days out from ferrowing, uh, we'll start supplementing with two different products. We'll use um the trans ripe product. Um I really, really like that as far as um decreasing the time of that farrowing interval. Uh I can always tell when that's gotten skipped. Um and it seems like also mainly more on guilts and sales, even. Um, but I feel like they that um farrowing window is shortened. I feel like they push better, I feel like they milk better afterwards if they've been on that at least three days prior to ferrowing. So we'll start with trans right, and then we'll also um put a uh probably I think that's a two-mouth scoop of Epsom salt in their feed. Um three days.

SPEAKER_01 16:49

And I feed out just a handful in there.

SPEAKER_00 16:51

That's shocking. Um I usually use the scoop.

SPEAKER_01 16:55

So anyway, either way, a handful or two ounces.

SPEAKER_00 16:58

We do that to help them not be as constipated after they far. Um you know, sows uh tend to get constipated after the ferrowing process. Um I don't know how deep we're gonna go into ferrowing, but you know, after we ferrow, we give them a hundred over the next you know what I mean. Um after we fare, we'll give them a pretty big antibiotic shot uh to help, you know, fight anything that may have got introduced uh during ferrowing, especially if we had to help them. And so those antibiotics compound the um issue of them sometimes getting constipated. So if we haven't had really very many problems at all once we started the Epsom salt thing. No, that works really good.

SPEAKER_01 17:39

And and and I'm sure there's there's again lots of products that would that'll work for that, but that one you can get at Walmart or Dollar General and it's easy and it's cheap, and yeah, about a handful works. And um sal's eat it fine. Uh uh really, I'm sure it doesn't taste very good, but they don't seem to care.

SPEAKER_00 17:57

Um And we will continue the Epsom salt like probably two days post FARA, just kind of depending on how fast they go to the bathroom.

SPEAKER_02 18:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:05

And that's gonna um in my opinion, how fast they go to the bathroom after they farrah, um how fast or slow you increase speed post farah, and um it how much dex you had to give them during ferrowing, those three things are really gonna affect their milk supply and how they start milking from the get-go. Um but it seems like getting them to go to the bathroom as fast as you can helps them start milking immediately.

SPEAKER_01 18:34

Right. No, no doubt. And and if you're if you didn't catch those, uh that show right, trans right, Sal Ultra, I will B-roll those up on the screen as as we go through here.

SPEAKER_00 18:45

Well, what?

SPEAKER_01 18:46

B-roll.

SPEAKER_00 18:48

You're so techy. Yeah, I'm learning. I'm learning.

SPEAKER_01 18:51

I'm learning. Learning. So those will be on the should be on the screen. When y'all get this. They're not there right now, but they will be when y'all get this. So um yeah, so we're in the crate, we're Dactor Max, we're we're feeding along uh transrite and Epsom salt uh for all the things that Carrie said. Yeah, I I am uh yeah. That the trans right thing makes zero sense to me how it works. Um, but it is yeah, we won't we won't fare a sal without it. So um very, very useful for us. Um that last uh one once I get them uh in the crate while we're talking about that, um you know the sows on the farm get fed at 7 30 every morning, and that doesn't change when they go into the fairing house. Uh we used to feed twice a day and um really don't know why. One uh one of those sets and seasons, I said, Why don't we try feeding them just in the morning? And I think somebody told us that they had to be.

SPEAKER_00 20:13

Um and in the evenings here they would get so hot that they really didn't want to get up and eat, but they would get up and eat, and then they would get even hotter, and then you're still waiting an hour and a half for them to lay down. So yeah, that was life-changing for us in the summer to only feed once a day. Um and I actually think that we haven't had any more pigs late on. I mean, feeding once a day.

SPEAKER_01 20:34

No, I would say less. Like and and it's like you think of the simplicity of it. For us, feeding in the morning works a lot better. I understand some people that do that don't have a ton of sows that may be listening to this, so I can't I can't feed in the morning, I have to feed in the evening. And I get it, like that's you know, uh you gotta do what you gotta do. Uh if you can't, I would prefer feeding in the morning, especially in the summertime, uh, just because of the heat and the weather, because it takes so long, uh, whether you've got a wide open fairing house or one that's like our double L's that are closed and and more controlled temperature-wise, or as controlled as we can get it, it takes so long for those ferrent houses to cool down in the evening and those sows to cool down and be going through the day um in the morning just seems to work work significantly better. And um what I learned is not only does it make our life a lot easier because like Harry said, you're you're not getting those cells up a whole extra time through the day to eat and then hanging around and making sure they don't they don't smash something um and it's the hottest part of the day, and for you know, you or or whoever, it's the end of the day, it's you know if you've had it whether you full time at this or part time at this, like at the end of the day, it's the end of the day, ready to kind of start winding down. So it helps that. And what I thought uh a lot was those sows are so much more comfortable. Um and there's been times, you know, whether another salfer in or just kind of rolling through, you know, nine, ten o'clock at night. those sows will get back up and eat then, but by that point it's the cool cool of the night. Babies are usually laid up. Sowells are comfortable. They get up, take their time, eat and drink, and and they aren't hot, frustrated, you know, wanting to lay down 'cause they're hot and tired. Babies wanting to eat, all that. Everything just seems to kind of be at their pace versus your pace of wanting them to. So that is uh that has worked really, really, really well feeding them once a day.

SPEAKER_00 22:28

Why don't you go over how we increase feed post ferro?

SPEAKER_01 22:31

So so when we put them in the crate that's where we were just just going, uh they get fed two pounds a day. So even if I'm feeding them three or four out in general population, as I load them in the crate I'm going to feed them two pounds once a day for that three to set however many days they're in there before they ferrow. And and then we're going to let them ferrow and we're going to bump them to three or four pounds immediately, you know, as they're farrowing, you know, the way our drops are uh Carrie or Rachel, while that sales ferrin they're just going to ease up there and and pull that tab down to set it at three or four pounds just depending.

SPEAKER_00 23:06

For the next feeding.

SPEAKER_01 23:07

For the next feeding. So that might be um on Monday morning when a sales ferrin that they're resetting it for the for Tuesday morning. It might be Monday night might be Monday you know however it is but the next feeding they're going to get an additional pound or two. So roughly 12 to 24 hours after they fare they're going to they're going to get a a double in feed intake from two pounds to four pounds. Then we're going to from there work up the next day to six to eight pounds the next day or two because I think like Carrie said on the um on sales getting cleaned out it's very very important you kind of ease feed and and hold feedback so they can get everything through on ferrowing get their system back going digestively to where go to the bathroom bowel movements that things are normal not plugged up and they're going to be hungry. But but holding them that extra and DJ Sanders was the first person that actually put that kind of into my mind at Louisville a couple of summers ago just just withholding that back for an extra 24ish, 36 hours and then um and then we kind of work up and from that point um we continue working up 10 pounds, 12 pounds, 14, whatever we basically self-feed them from that point. They get fed every morning um but we try to make it we're going to feed them as much as they can that we know by the next morning that feeder will be cleaned up.

SPEAKER_00 24:32

But they do have feed kind of throughout the day.

SPEAKER_01 24:34

Yeah so yeah it's you know and um you know if if they eat it right then then we'll then we go ahead over a day or two and bump it up and work it up. And I would say generally most of those sows are are 12 to 15 pounds a day. Some more than that, some less than that. You just kind of got to feel it out. But but doing it that way I think has made our uh made our lactation part better the cells milk a lot better the babies do better um and again they're kind of on their own schedule as far as if uh you know if they don't get up and eat when we feed in the morning normally we'll go ahead and get them up but not always you know in certain situations we might not but as a general rule we do and like Carrie said when those cells are up especially when those babies are three days or younger um there's somebody in there to till they get laid down make sure nothing gets uh gets gets smashed.

SPEAKER_00 25:27

One thing on that every now and then we'll have sows that are just so hungry after they far that they will not lay down and let them nurse um and so I will go ahead and feed those sows about three pounds then and typically those those that are just you know super super hungry once you feed them that then they'll lay down and let them nurse so if you notice that like hey my sow is just standing up looking around she's done ferroin I don't know what's going on feed her and a lot of times she'll lay down um even if it's at night I'll go ahead and feed her so she'll lay down. Now if they're up and down and up and down and kind of acting weird and all that they probably still have a pig in them would be my guess. But yeah from a feeding standpoint every now and then I'll have one that's so hungry that I have to go ahead and feed her right after she fared so she'll lay down.

SPEAKER_01 26:16

Yes very cautiously and carefully and quietly.

SPEAKER_00 26:20

Yeah so we don't get the whole fairing house riled up yeah for sure. How much do you want to talk about fair wing in itself? Is that a whole nother No we could talk about well talk about you do your inducing thing and then we'll talk about that.

SPEAKER_01 26:31

So yeah so the um the the ways of the world where we are we in uh we induce everything um I think that's a personal decision too yeah I you know w we've we've we've gone through every facet of this um possible we've we've went from from inducing them all to only inducing the guilts to only inducing when we had to to only inducing when they don't start by their due date to um not inducing hardly anything um and everything in between I guess. So when it comes to inducing we have covered the basis.

SPEAKER_00 27:12

Yeah no and and I I think it depends on the kind of person that you are um if you don't require a lot of sleep um or if you don't sit up with yourselves then maybe you don't have to induce. I have I require a lot of sleep um and so I want to induce because I want to know when they're gonna fare um Brennan told us his inducing schedule and it helped us tremendously getting that timing right. And so once we got the timing right it has made life so much easier um I know we had some friends that said that they didn't induce and how how good it went and we tried that and that was the worst week of my life um two Januaries ago it was terrible it was like farrowing 24 hours a day. I think we had 30 head due and it for three days it was just nothing but that it was awful.

SPEAKER_01 28:05

Well that was uh yeah that was another another one of those if you haven't listened to smart breeding starts here you can go back we matrix everything also um for a lot of the same reason of just convenience and and uh being able to make it work and it's kind of like same thing with this if if uh for us we can so we induced the first set this morning um and and hopefully by noon tomorrow they've all at least began to fare us so we can you know with that everybody's fresher carrie's kind of knows what to come like at four or five in the morning we're gonna go check the fairing house and see where things are at one of us is I'm sure I know who that'll be but um and then we're kind of planned on on where where we're at versus being stretched out over three or four days for this same set and um and that standpoint. There'll be other people that'll tell you and rightfully so that without inducing they have a lot less um you know issues and and things are more natural and and on all that and and we've seen that too we've seen the positives and the negatives probably of both sides. But if you're on a schedule and you're on a timeline uh we and you want to just make it more convenient then that's what we do. We induce them all. We use estrote as a general rule you know two to three cc's depending on cell size and and that um and the little bottles. And that that's the other thing I was going to say so uh we went back and and we'll fare a hundred of them this summer so I mean there'll be some people that fare more than us but um we don't have you know it's gonna be a be a be a long run but I I would estimate now in twenty mil bottles um versus the hundred mil bottles and just because I would get to the last third of those other bottles and especially if you if you break into one you know for this group and then you your next group's three weeks down the road and then your next group's three weeks from there which a lot of guys set their stuff up that way um which makes sense then uh but if if you're still working off that same bottle in a month or a month and a half um I I don't think it's efficiency and eff efficacy efficacy struggle with English. I don't think it's as good. So I ordered 20 mil bottles um can do nine or ten eight to ten um when we do that and that way everything just stays fresh and I know if I get to the end of a bottle in the last seas last of the season I'm just gonna throw it away because I'm not gonna use it for the next group in the next season. You know the ones I've got a partial bottle that we didn't finish today here in a couple weeks on the next group I'll use it again but I'm not stretching it past that when I got into that smaller file. So um so I like that I would recommend doing that. So that's Estro Mate Estraplan is the generic that we're using right now works good. And then also on Gilts I'll at the same time I'm giving that I'll give four CCs of dexamathasone. I think that helps soften their cervix just a little bit uh kind of gets them on into induction pretty good I like that too we just started adding that got that from some cattle folks thought that was a good ad I think the elephant maybe not well it was Bridget Crone at TBACOM she's cattle folk now yeah um yeah and I um he tries to to hit them at 9 30 in the morning um that was probably our biggest struggle is getting the timing right I would say yeah and and that that's another thing like it it's it's uh so generally yeah by 9 a.m I've hit them um some of them might fare at five in the morning some of them might start at 5 o'clock at 5 in the morning the South and uh so there's still some but as a general rule it 24 hours later they're they're rolling 24 to 30 hours later they're rolling especially from a sales standpoint those guilts will drag a little bit so so again it's not a not a one size fits all but that's where we are I um you know uh as far as an ideal for me uh is to ferrow them on their due date uh as a general rule so I'm figuring off the first dose of semen that I put in 114 days from there and I'm hitting them on day 113 uh with estromaites so they would ferrow on day 114 as of the first dose of semen that they uh they were bred with um we've we've we'll you know the set that I hit this morning some some are due on uh today's Wednesday uh some are due Thursday some are due Friday and I pulled them all uh induced them all so some of them will actually far on day 113 hit on 112. I think you can even in some cases pull them up a day earlier than that hit them on 111 to far on 112. I wouldn't pull them much earlier than that or we don't not real comfortable with that and sometimes there's advantages to pulling them up early if they're gilts that look a little light um or saving sales that look a little light ferrow them a little bit earlier because if if their litter size is a little smaller obviously the pigs are naturally going to be a little bigger and the opposite of that if they look really really heavy we've had some some that we've grouped that way and and we induced them early just to group things together and pigs were a little small everything usually works out fine just a little tougher start on those 12 13 14 size uh litters so you know there's there's a little give and take there but as a general rule Faron on day 114 I think is is the uh the most ideal for us if we can do that.

SPEAKER_00 33:30

Who was it two seasons ago we had a boar that had tiny pigs and it was like you could not induce who was that yeah um we learned after the first set that you could not induce his I mean they had to fare on their due date or even you know hit him on their due date to fare the next day.

SPEAKER_01 33:50

I can't remember now who it was I remember it happened but I don't remember what more it was. Um yeah maybe it'll come to me later yeah there there's some of that that definitely again there's not a if there's a one size fits all in this deal then I haven't found it. And this is all for crossbreads I think birds there's plenty of shovels that are one size fits all but yeah it was a if it was a burke you would have to do something different I think yeah burgs I don't have bur I have a burk but anyways that's a different conversation. She's feral just fine. Hadn't had a Burke yet but um anyhow so that that's other thing to to keep in mind again you know if you've got any further questions on that reach out to us. We're happy to happy to try to answer anything further but that gives you a general idea and fairly specific of uh of that so we do um have heat lamps up and we use towels when they farra um to get those pigs dried off with so like last night which was a Tuesday and the first sales were due Thursday we went ahead and and turned all the heat lamps on and put towels down for everything um that could potentially go early.

SPEAKER_00 35:05

Every now and then we'll have one go two days early and so um we went ahead and and had all that kind of ready to go um just in case somebody went early. So like Josh said in the morning one of us will check the fairing house at five or six o'clock probably um you know typically sales will go um a little bit earlier than Gilts um and the ones that are or that are heavier bred looking will typically go earlier. I would hope when we induce 12 this morning so I hope when I go in in the morning you know the majority of them have discharge by six o'clock tomorrow morning. And they're gonna start out with a clear discharge and then go to like a yellow and then the closer they get get to a bloody discharge. We do we'll go through this evening and check milk and all that just to kind of see if it looks like anybody might go tonight because that's always a possibility but you know we hope by six o'clock in the morning they've got squirting milk and some at least clear discharge. I like sales to start having pigs within two to probably four hours of having discharge if you go over four hours I start getting a little nervous um I'm kind of a nervous person so um it doesn't always mean that something's not right if she's having discharge and nothing's you know is progressing. But if they will start you know discharging and then have a pig within four hours I've two to four I feel really good about that. Typically I when I see bloody discharge you know I'll I'll watch them while they have clear to yellow to to bloody but as soon as they start having bloody discharge I'll kind of sit there with there with them to see if they're pushing or not. I think a lot of times you're gonna get yourself in a bind if you're in and out of the fairing house and and I understand you know we're blessed that we have a lot of help this summer so it might not be possible for you. But if you are just in and out checking on her not real, you know, kind of infrequently you're gonna miss maybe like if she's straining real hard um if you know every now and then you'll have one that can get a back one back leg out but the other one's tucked underneath and if you're not in there and seeing when that happens then you don't know that that you know is the case. So um once they have bloody discharge we try to hang in there with them. And you know it I will not um check a cell unless she is just before she has her first pig, unless if she's like rolling up on her like pushing extremely hard and rolling up on her side a bunch, that to me in my experience it seems that that always means like one is coming breached with its back legs up underneath itself. Here the last few years I've seen some where like their head is coming like this more than having their nose flipped up to come out right. So you know every now and then you can see that if she is really pushing hard and rolling up a bunch and I can just tell like man she should have a pig as hard as she's pushing like to the point of where she's almost kind of wanting to you know have a rectal prolapse, then I'll check with my fingers and just see if I can feel a tail or feel a forehead or kind of you know see what's going on. I do not personally use OB gloves. I don't feel like I can you know just feel as much that way. I use a medical scrub soap um to to you know clean my hands and disinfect them and I use that as a lube. There might be some vets that that just freaks them out but that's what I've done for I don't know however long we've been doing this. And so that that's kind of how I do it make sure my nails are clipped short but use a a medical uh scrub uh like they have you you know take a shower with before you have a surgery um and that's what I use to clean my hands and to use as a lube as well. So like I said if I think she's having problems I'll kind of check with my fingers um every now and then I do have to help and and it's always a guilt of course get the first pig out. And so I I'll just tell you this um if you're often not not real often no no um sometimes one of the worst things we can do is get too impatient and and try to you know force something um that's just it's not ready to happen yet. If you are a male and you have large hands um I personally think you should never ever ever ever check a cell um with your hand. Yeah basically if you're gonna fare sales you successfully or guilt um you really need to have somebody that has pretty small hands to help you or you're gonna cause yourself so much more problems. My parents used to to raise pigs and I'll never forget Billy got his big old hand up and he was like I want you to show me how I'm supposed to do this and he had this you know his big hand and I'm like Billy if if your hand could get through her pelvis there is any pig in America that would could get through your her pelvis so you know it's just not everybody can pull pigs. And you know hopefully everybody's are just maternal and great and gigantic inside and their pigs are tiny and you don't have to worry about it. And if you're one of those people I'm very happy for you.

SPEAKER_01 40:25

And again it's I mean we all deal with what we deal with and it's it's just it's just part of it. I mean we're not we're not at PIC having F1s that are you know laying on their side and having 20 a litter but back to the same I think what helps us a lot is um well I made the reference to that that one salbarn being my my favorite salbarn. Uh my settled rate and conception rate and litter size out of that barn is is better than the other three salbarns. Why I don't know um but it's gotten to where it was significant enough that I rotate them through that barn to breed like that's and um you know your timing on the front side again smart breeding starts here if you hadn't listened to that episode it matters a lot and and then I'll just say it again body condition um on the on the back side and it it matters a bunch. So having those cells thin keeping the baby smaller to where even when you have those instances of a guilt that it was a you know bad weather situation or whatever when you were breeding and she has a short letter of three or four you manage condition you manage pig size the best you can and it usually can you know you can come out of that and a success um you skip one of those steps and she's too fat or whatever and it's it's yeah it's gonna be it's a train wreck. It's gonna be a disaster.

SPEAKER_00 41:52

So um so I mean we can't go through every farrowing s scenario here. That's something if you have something in particular you know um text me or email us or something we'll try to answer that um to you but um I do not give oxytocin until they've had at least you know what I think is about three quarters of their litter. So no more than you know typically after the sixth pig is when I'll give oxy. I had a vet tell me one time and and he's a very nice person and a good vet more probably dog and cat cat vet but told told me yeah just go ahead and give oxy it's fine it's not going to hurt anything even after the first pig. And then I remember Tatum Swinhogen was doing some research and she said well I read where it's gonna make them some of them you know detach their cords quicker if you give it too quick and I definitely think that was that's the case. So um you know if you're a vet and you're listening to this and this is like hurting your ears because you don't you know it doesn't align with textbook um I get it. I'm just telling you what you know the experience we've had of of 15 to I don't know possibly 20 years of doing it and kind of what we've seen. So I only give I give three quarters of a CC of oxy after I think they're about three quarters of the way done. You know one of the biggest things I've got for a long time is how do I know that they are done like I it it pains me when a pig gets left in one and I'll be the first to admit that the first time you you know check a sal and stick your arm in her she's gonna not push as good from there on out sal guilt whatever um but you know some some of these we have to help. So um if you don't have to you know they're gonna clean out easier on their own and finish on their own uh if you don't have to check them um but irregardless even if I have a sal fair in the middle of the night and she has 12 you know nursing on her when I get in there I'm almost always going to check her to be sure there's not a 13th one in there just to just to be sure. I like them to to to end on even numbers. I don't know if there's any scientific thing to that or not. I know last year when we started we had a we had a lot of sevens sevens and 11s and it was kind of freaking me out because I felt like we Needed to end on an even number. Um, but you know, I've bought the sonogram machine to try to check them to be sure that they're done, all the things that didn't really work. Um, so anyway, uh when I think they're done, um, I'll give them oxy, that three-quarters of a CC. Um, or I guess when they're three quarters of the way done, I'll give them oxy if they need it. If they don't need it, then I'll wait till they're almost done, give them oxy, check them, see if I feel anything. Um, I wait 15 minutes after I give that oxy to check them. Um, so if they don't have anything, I'll go ahead and give them their big antibiotic shot. Uh, we give betrel, exanil, and uh for sure banamine. Every now and then I'll still give them decks. I think you can give them if they had to have decks during fairwing because they were swelling, then I won't give it in their shot at the end because I don't want it to affect their milk production too much. Um so like I said, we do betrel. Uh we do exanil instead of exceed because exceed, um, Hal Hendrickson explained it to me, it kind of doesn't, you know, spike as much in their system because it stays in it longer. Um, and XNL is going to spike and do you more good right then and then kind of fall off. So that's why we use XNL. I've been real happy with that since we made that switch a few years ago. Um, and then we'll give, you know, some banamine and possibly ducks right. I like to give it as soon as you can after they're done ferrowing. Now, if it's a guilt and I have fought her to stay laying down and she's been dumb and she hasn't wanted to lay down and nurse her pigs. If she is nursing her pigs and unless she has had a ton of trouble, I'm gonna wait until the next morning when she gets up to eat to give her that shot. I don't like to wait that long. Um, you know, it all of this, I mean, there's no like textbook of how to do it. So you've got to, you know, just kind of assess the scenario that you're in and figure out what's best. Um but if I have fought her, then I'm gonna wait. Uh there is a product that um Ameris Sanders, I learned this from her, that Cal Foss product. Um, if you have a guilt that's acting really dumb, not wanting to lay down, um wanting to, you know, maybe snap at her pigs or try to eat them. Um even on I've had some sales that were kind of stupid and we've used it on and it is done.

SPEAKER_01 46:15

Yeah, and some of that comes somewhat with the inducing thing.

SPEAKER_00 46:19

Yeah, no, the inducing thing makes them a little madder, um, for sure. But um that cow foss product has been incredible to get them to to calm down. Um I've had some that I've lasered to get them to calm down. I think that's worked too. So, you know you just kind of gotta go with yeah, you gotta adjust to ever to every scenario differently.

SPEAKER_01 46:45

No, I think that's uh that's the biggest thing. You know, if you're listening to this and and you're getting to this point, it's like, man, they do things a lot different than I do. And and you know that if you if you've heard anything consistently, it's the we we used to do this, now we do this, we used to do this, now we do this. You know, it's a constant just feeling out and and what works in your facility and your setup on your timeline. And that changes, like just like it's changed for us. So hopefully there's at least uh one or two things you can grab from this to make it uh you know, maybe to add in, or maybe you've you know, sitting there learning and said, Man, this is why we've been having so many issues, and you need to change most everything. Um, and everything in between. So that that's the main reason for us wanting to do it. Hopefully it's helpful. Um, just it's a lot of the the trial and error that we've kind of experienced over the last however long.

SPEAKER_00 47:35

So one thing I forgot to say on the farrowing part, and I could this is kind of my wheelhouse, so I could talk about it all day, but um timing between your pigs. Um at the front end of that litter, I'm good with going 30 minutes between each pig. And I remember asking Gleason, like, am I messing up by checking her religiously every 30 minutes if she hasn't had a pig? And he was like, for what these things are worth now in your arms, little, no, get after it. You know, that's a personal decision too. Some people may think that's really stupid, but if I have a stillborn and I think if I would have just checked her, you know, it cost you, who knows? Um now uh when she gets closer to looking flatter, um, and when I think she might be done, um, so signs that they are getting close to done, she starts calling the pigs, she looks pretty flat. Um, I used to try to gauge afterbirth, like how much they've kind of had, um, if that relates to how many pigs she's had. And now that we have these double L crates with these pits, some of it'll fall through, and so it's kind of hard to tell. Um but those are signs, you know, if she's getting comfortable calling them, sides looking flat, all those things, then she's looking like she's close to done. I will go every 20 minutes at the end um between pigs just to kind of you know make sure that one hadn't been in there too long.

SPEAKER_01 48:58

Yeah, if you've got any questions, I know that's a lot of information and a lot of scenarios and a lot of that. Shoot us a text or email, showpigcentral at gmail.com. Um our cell phones are plenty easily accessible.

SPEAKER_00 49:13

But are you gonna talk about processing or no?

SPEAKER_01 49:15

Yeah, so so again, that next thing pigs are born. We've talked about ferronum, we've talked about feeding the cells, babies are there. Uh just a few things that we do uh from that standpoint is within 24 hours um they get their first dose of iron, ampicillin, and draxin. Uh we order that mixed from from uh Stony Creek. Stony Creek already. Uh it works really well. Uh it's it's mixed up, you don't have to do your own mixing and drawing and that, and you know, uh give them a C C and a half, C C and a quarter, whatever it says on the bottom. And uh so they get that within 24 hours. We spray all four feet and they're navel with iodine wound spray. And um I think that helps just kind of get things dried up, cleaned up, um, kind of helps get them off to the right start. And for the first week of their life after that, they don't they don't get anything. We give them that uh and let them roll, let them nurse, um, let them do that from that standpoint. They actually get two doses of that iron, ampicillin, and draxin, uh, the next one either a week later or after we give our paracol vaccine. I'm not gonna get too much into which vaccines to use and not to use because it it's so herd specific, um, and you really need to just you need to work with your vet on what what you can what you're fighting. Yeah, so um there's a lot of genetic general generic uh not generic but widespread commercial vaccines that that can get you all the way through. Um and then if you're fighting different scenarios, um you can add different ones. But um so they'll get two rounds of that, iron apicillin, and draxin, one within twenty-four hours, the other one a week or you know, somewhere between seven and fourteen days old. And then um that's pretty much it. I uh we ear notch when they get that second dose of that, so between seven and fourteen days old, that's just kind of our sweet spot to earnch. Um it's kind of what's worked for us and been we uh I've earned notched at two or three days old, I've earnotched right before we wean, and so anywhere in between there. But um that's just kind of what works for us. We do that because that's the next time we're handling them, we don't have to handle them an additional time just to earn notch them. I think that works pretty good. Um the next thing that they would uh we creep feed for the last week that they're on the sow and creep feeders, and then they get their vaccines, their weaning vaccines three to four days before we wean. I really like doing that. Um I think it helps we actually vaccinate the pigs and the sows all at the same time, three to four days before we're gonna wean. Um it lets the sows lay in the crate and get over it, lets the pigs lay on their mama still and get over it, and then go into the nursery um quite a bit healthier. So as far as the pigs in that standpoint, uh it's it's fairly simple of what we do. Sometimes you'll get navel that that stay a little moist and don't get dried up right. We'll keep spraying them with iodine. Um sometimes you'll get different stuff that you gotta deal with, but but as a general rule, that's kind of the protocol that we we cover. I dock their tails as we wean them. Um because I'm the only one that I'll let anybody around here dock their tails. And I know I'm gonna be there on weaning day most of the time, so that kind of just works good. Uh as we wean pegs, uh they get batril, um dectomax, and they get their tails docked. So uh they get a cc of batril, they get a tenth of a c of dectomax, and I cut their tails, and we take them to the nursery. Uh so sorry, fighting a little bit of a I don't know what here in the up and down weather scenario. But pretty simple on the pick side of things. If you got any questions past that as far as what vaccines we use or anything like that, you'd be happy to shoot us an email or a text, I'd be happy to tell you. Um, but you'd be better served just getting with your vet that that you work with. Or if you don't have one, find one and not one that that maybe is just local, but one that that uh knows what's that knows what's going on that deals with this. I've got three vets that I use. One lives an hour from here, one lives eight hours, and one lives fourteen hours. So um, you know, find the ones that that uh that can help you, I guess is what I'm saying. So uh with that There's a couple things that we didn't go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 53:38

So when we when we start feeding the sows in the Farnhouse where you switch to 691, it's a lactation feed that has BMD in it, and so it's gonna help with those uh try to prevent those uh milk scours. So uh I've had that question several times this week. What we use as a lactation feed 691. Every now and then you're gonna have a sow that gets in there and doesn't want to eat um after she fares, and so you know, we don't have a ton of that, um, but every now and then we'll fight one. Um we'll start giving them vet zone ulcer, we'll switch them to 685 um or even 611 sometimes just to kind of get them going, and then you can put them, you know, kind of gradually work them back on to 691. Um if you have a cell that is fighting, just not milking very good, maybe she ferret hard, maybe she doesn't like the heat, you know, whatever it is, um, they do seem to milk better on 611 um or you know, kind of more of a show feed type, higher energy type diet. Um, I know that sounds expensive, but you know, it's better than losing a pig. Um, I think as soon as you start, you know, babies can go downhill so quick. Like if I start seeing any kind of little ridges on their back, like I mean the most minute little ripples on their back, I want to start milking because that you can literally lose one in 12 hours. Um, we try to maximize every single pig that comes through. Um, and so, you know, we might have a litter of of 12 and 10 of them are doing fine, but if we have two skinnies, we're gonna milk that litter to try to save those two skinnies. Um last year we had we had two Michon sales. One of them was in our early group, and so she helped us raise a bunch of them.

SPEAKER_01 55:18

And and we don't we didn't talk about this going through. Um, just coming to mind when you said that. You know, if if we've you know, tomorrow we're gonna fare a 16, I think. Um 12. 12. Yeah, then another four the X. Anyway, this group, so tomorrow we'll fare a twelve. They were will hopefully be letters of twelve to fourteen, uh, and there will probably be a letter of you know five to six. And so we we move and and shuffle and shake and and all kinds of stuff um, you know, on those heavier litters and and spreading them out. I think that's a you know a very positive thing um to do if you have the ability. And so uh we do plenty of that too. Uh like Carrie said, we'll add milk replacer on the ones that need it.

SPEAKER_00 55:59

After twenty-four hours.

SPEAKER_01 56:00

Yeah, not before that, because you don't want to mess up your colostrum intake. But uh moving things around and and even if you're you know three or four days down the road um and you notice there's two or three in one of those bigger litters that aren't doing as good. Um if you've got a cell that it just ferrin, uh that that's still because after a certain point those cells they're gonna they're gonna figure out what they've got and they're gonna produce milk for that, you know, that group and where they're at and where they're nursing um and shut everything else off. So you've got to be careful moving stuff later. But if you've got places to move them, if they're hungry enough, they're gonna move and take a hold. Very f seldom are they skinny and they won't grab a hold of another style.

SPEAKER_00 56:38

So unless it's too late, basically.

SPEAKER_01 56:40

Yeah, yeah. So utilize that. Some of them will fight you a little bit and they won't nurse another one, and they'd just rather be skinny on their mama. So you know, kind of just trial and error as you go and paying attention. But there's lots of of little things like that you'll come across. But hopefully, um this has been helpful as a general principle to take and maybe start some questions and and thoughts. It was just kind of all fresh on our mind as we get started here in 2026, um, on the first group of the summer. So what?

SPEAKER_00 57:09

Uh we use um what's the drying agent that we use now? Seek asorb? Yep. So while they're ferrowing, um, like we'll deliver okay. We will um once the pigs ferret, we'll wipe we'll wipe their mouth off um and then we put that drying agent on them. Even when it's a hundred here, the babies will still be cold if you don't get them dry fast enough. And and little babies can use energy so fast. So we we put that drying agent on them. Um it also kind of helps dry their cord up. If you go to process the next day in 24 hours and you have a wet navel, he's probably not gonna live. He didn't get enough colostrum. Um, but the this drying agent does um help with uh getting them dried off. Um and then the other thing we didn't mention is we said we uh started creep feeding a week out, but we didn't say it. We use 600 to creep feed. Um we didn't mention that.

SPEAKER_01 58:04

So yeah, and I've I've I've thought I've played with that because because you know your your pre-starter feeds are gonna be plenty expensive to creep feed with and and just getting them broke to feed, but I still think that's the best way to do it versus creep feeding them on something else.

SPEAKER_00 58:18

Um do you remember the first time we um had litters and you didn't want to creep feed?

SPEAKER_01 58:25

Yeah, a lot of the times I still don't want to. Um but but we stress me smooth out. But I'll tell you it makes you feel good though when you walk down through there and you've got uh you know expensive pre-starter on the on the matter and a feeder there and they're up in the south feeder eating what she didn't eat from that morning. Uh I I like that. So um yeah. With that, any other thoughts? Anything else we forgot?

SPEAKER_00 58:49

Uh um as far as milk products, there's several different ones if you're gonna supplement. Um we like to clean those the milkers out daily. You can put a picture of those little stainless steel feeders on there that we use in milkers. I like those a lot. We we've used every try and kind of contraption there is to feed or milk in, and I like those stainless ones the best. Be sure um we will sometimes it depends on how many you're milking, how many pigs you're milking, and and how much they drink, but we kind of start them off slow and and you know, kind of dunk their head in there to get them started. Um and then sometimes we'll we'll refill it once a day, sometimes twice, but just be sure you get those stainless silk features.

SPEAKER_01 59:31

A lot of the times we'll we'll go through there twice a day so you keep that milk fresh. Yeah. Uh because it'll I mean sour over and kind of get crusty and where they don't want it. So you want to make it make it to where they can take it and try to again figure out the amounts that it's taken and so you don't put too much and waste and and not enough and that kind of deal.

SPEAKER_00 59:48

So I'm sure there's a lot more that we forgot.

SPEAKER_01 59:51

There's a ton that goes into getting them here healthy and all that, but yeah, uh and and we'll probably touch on it again at some point. But uh hopefully this was helpful. Thank you again for tuning in, joining us on this uh little venture. If we can pray for you at all, uh thank you for to those that that have reached out. Um it's a blessing to be able to do that. It's not something we take lightly. And uh just as it's a blessing to uh to sit here and just talk to you about uh about the big deal and the things that the Lord's blessed us with, it's uh uh it's a joy to be able to pray for you, for those of you that have reached out, and and anything that we can do for you from that standpoint, uh we would love to. So we hope you all have uh enjoyed this episode and look forward to the next one. Uh if you haven't liked, followed, uh all that, we've we've really appreciated it. It helps other people find the podcast. And uh yeah, if you if you can share it and uh let's uh see you else can find it helpful. So thank y'all, and we will see you next time.