Thread: PIGS 101 (A start)

Originally Posted by IsaanAussie

Well I am definitely qualified as a poor farang and I after 7 years of breeding them here think pigs are great. I have never cut a pigs tooth so cannot comment. But I also agree with your own view as expressed on your avatar you are obviously an asshole

Originally Posted by SpicyMartin

And how do some piglets tails become damaged? Because if you keep the sow and litter in a small farrowing pen the piglets will get bored and start chewing on stuff, including tails...... which is why you also clip teeth! It's not just about them damaging the sow's nipples.

off course they will bite anything, but still there is people hat will disagree with teeth trimming, tail trimming, all over the place

Originally Posted by Gravesend Dave

Keeping livestock does not need to be complicated,once whatever animal is housed properly its usually just a matter of feeding and watering and then mucking out!

you are right dave, it is not complicated but you must be aware of many things, early diagnosis of problems, prepared to loose sleep lose money and keeping a stict set of rules and self discipline, you cannot just say, of fok it, i am going for a beer i feed them tommorow, or ill clean the shit out next week,
by raising pigs i have manure enough to keep 10 rai of rubber happy and 15 rai of sugarcane looking decent( at least most of it) still get some chemical fertilizer but much less,
not to mention the trees around out property, mangos, coconuts and vegetables too,
i know some of you TD members are too classy for this matter but personally i am hands on full of shit everyday, after work, and i am happy with it,

Originally Posted by poorfalang

Originally Posted by IsaanAussie

Why? Because that is what someone told you "Had to be Done" Rubbish, you clip teeth of a piglet that chews its sows nipples. Very few do. You need to dock tails if one is damaged so now they are all the same again. Cutting or tying the chord why? Trim a bitif its very long but it will dry and fall off all by it's self in the first few days.
Lets go one further and include castration of boar piglets, why? Barrows grows faster but produce lower quality meat. Boar taint? Not in my experience.

regarding the teeth personally we allways trim, all of the piglets, why?
to avoid bitting of the nipple, simple preventive action
tail? we also trim every piglet, only about a inch,
umbilical cord, if me and missus are together we will tie it, if one alone we simply trim and yes you of course are right it will dry by it self and fall
castration, nasty foking thing to do no? but my customer want castrated so i have to please them, simple

Tainting, i believe is in the butchering process, the way i see it there is a way to butcher a pig and then there is the right way to butcher a pig,

Agreed completely. Never had a problem with the teeth, could have been just a Duroc thing? Used to trim the tails but most of the last litters went to an organic customer who didnt want them cut. Same thing with castration, we used to do it as a matter of routine. Then starting selling boars and slaughtering at low weights for restaurants and their preference was boars not barrows.
Of course it is in the butchers skill.
Sounds like you are having too much fun. I sure miss my herd.

Originally Posted by IsaanAussie

Sounds like you are having too much fun. I sure miss my herd.

could say that, but i am down to 2 sows from 8, due to age thats all,
i have where to buy new sow, but i dont want a (new) sow first time momma, at least one round of piglets under the belt,
here is the thing,

all said about pure race sow one thing, but there is one fella in the village that disagrees with having o be a pure race, in fact this guy does not even know what a landrace is,
so i asked him how do you pick a (sow to be) and at what age.
You know what he said?,

i picked them when they are born, i care for them, i play with them, every day, like if it was my dog, they are not scared of me, i almost trained them to speak lao,
then at 5 months you will know which out of the herd are really friendly, they have a good chance to give many piglets and most importantly not kill her own piglets in fear or whatever other reason because they are a bit freak and keep jumping around scared

I bought 17 pigs to start my herd and two boars after that. Messed around with a few buyin growout lots early on but never bought another pig. Bred what I needed. About time to take at least part of this conversation offline.
For those thinking about pig farming, start with your market. Understand it and what it wants. As much personal satisfaction as raising pigs is, you have to pay the bills and commercial pig feed is not cheap.

odorless pig pen?
i find it hard to believe

Believe. I will come and spray your pens out (at your expense) and the smell will be gone in an hour. Same deal on deep litter, same stuff used. It works.

^ you mean completely odorless?
How long for?
could i raise one set of pigs 5 months without changing the fill?
i was thinking it is rice husk and soil 50/50 used, is there something else?

MARCH 2006 PRIMEFACT 68

Deep-litter housing for pigs?

My curiosity went a bit further and i found this article be the Department of Agriculture Western Australia,

very interesting indeed

http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/ass...t_68-final.pdf

Try the systems used in the Philippines. Bit more applicable here,no tractors or large bale handlers. Basically a pit into which all compostable material gets put and a topping layers of straw, rice hulls, sawdust, whatever is available. Healthy dose of biology throughout. Giant compost heap really. The tools are a rake and more rice hulls added as needed. The batch is sold and the pit emptied. The real trick is overall moisture and composting as a mass. The pigs tend to relieve themselves in one spot so what they add you can not control placement. But it will not be uniform.
Lactic Acid Bacteria is the smell killer.
For the pigs you need to maintain a dry top surface, adding material as the lower layers decompose. The pigs will play with it and you rake it back out flat. Some people still collect up the solids and compost seperately, others bury it in the bedding.

even though i like the idea i dont know if can be bothered.
i found a system that works for me, and i am happy for now.

daily prices
http://www.swinethailand.or.th/index.php

Thailand Successfully Opens Market for US Pigs

Full story
http://www.thepigsite.com/swinenews/...et-for-us-pigs

The deep-litter system using rice husks was already being done by at least one Thai chap in my district back in 2006 when I started growing pigs. In fact, I purchased a lorry load of husks to follow suit but changed my mind and left it in my godown, where it still is. The idea was being promoted for the bonus of the excellent soil improver and fertiliser that would be available at the end of the fattening cycle. I poured concrete instead when I learned that that chap was getting less for his pigs from the middlemen since it was believed (by them or their customers) to result in poorer quality pork. I couldn’t see that that could be the case but the poorer price when margins were always going to be tight anyway saw me abandoning that idea.

I still think it’s a great idea if you’re not going to be penalised.