How to feed and maintain farm piglets in winter

Keeping animals on the farm in winter is especially important for pig farmers. Care for pigs in winter differs from that characteristic for any other time of the year. How to feed piglets in winter? What are the acceptable living conditions? What should be the content? What are the nuances when caring for these animals?

Winter keeping of pigs

Experienced farmers know that pigs do not tolerate low temperatures, and therefore, with insufficient heating and poorly constructed housing, they often get sick. unpretentious in food, it requires much less food than for sheep and cows, and therefore its contents are beneficial.

It’s easy to arrange and create comfortable conditions for piglets to stay

General rules for keeping pigs in winter

Despite the low temperature conditions in winter, the pig continues to be in its usual pigsty or barn. Some farmers have the opportunity to heat the premises, but in most cases it is really too expensive, so there is a risk of not paying off.

Enterprising farmers from Japan proposed to solve this problem with the help of a deep non-replaceable litter in cold covered sheds in winter. The economically least costly maintenance of pigs in the winter is considered to be their content in such conditions.

First you need a litter with a height of 0.2 or 0.3 m. Next, it needs to be replaced as it becomes dirty and accumulates solid and wet waste.

What is the purpose of covering the walls in such a hangar? Specialists advise using tent covers, because they save budget and energy costs, have a low cost and a high level of mobility.

The bottom of the pigsty should be covered with crops:

• sawdust;
• husk of sunflower seeds;
• wood shavings and sawdust;
• other organic substrates that tend to quickly remove excess moisture.

The pigsty assumes the maintenance of several groups of piglets in the winter in one hangar: this way the heat inside . And the building where the pig pen

Ventilation in the winter is carried out in a natural way: the room is ventilated through the open window without creating drafts. Another way to refresh the cold and stagnant air in the room is to construct openings in the walls, which are closed with special shields for the winter.

Features of feeding pigs in winter

Keep sows and boars not at all simply. The next step after creating a comfortable environment for the winter stay of piglets will be the calculation of a balanced diet. Meals are carried out, thanks to installed feeders and drinking bowls, which must be cleaned and updated in a timely manner.

Fattening involves feeding animals with such products:

• food waste;
• hay flour;
• compound feed with a variety of compositions;
• root crops;
• hay.

If you should not have problems with the first 4 points: they are always available in agricultural stores, it is advisable to harvest hay from summers. Its best composition is tender and fine forbs. At the end of the feeding, it is necessary to increase the number of concentrated feed mixtures so that the feeding is really high-quality. Full-fledged feeding of adult pigs in winter requires the proper selection of food products and the preparation of a special diet.

Growing small piglets for lard is another way of feeding, which is carried out in order to increase the live weight of the animal by more than 50%. Its duration reaches 80-100 days. In such a case, carbon-containing feeds are selected for fatty and common pigs, which are diluted with beets, corn, barley groats and table residues. No need to feed pigs with products containing protein, protein feeds will also be ineffective, so it is advisable to focus on feeds containing bacon. Baby feeding corn should be limited to 30% of its daily food intake.

Care for sows and piglets

As already mentioned, adult pigs are the least demanding in terms of care, therefore, they are the easiest to contain.Some problems arise if you need to feed piglets and pregnant sows in winter.

Keeping pigs in winter with offspring requires special care and knowledge of certain rules.

Farmers need to be resettled young moms in the warmest place of the pigsty. The sow, like pigs, is very vulnerable to temperature extremes and does not tolerate sharp temperature fluctuations.

In no case can you force the sow in prenatal state to go for a walk. Piglets can be on the street for a short time and only after identifying such a desire.

In order not to provoke an abortion in a sow, you must follow the following rules for caring for them:

• In winter you need to regularly replace food and water in sows so that its temperature remains high.
• Feeding is carried out only in a warm and heated room.
• Do not allow sudden overcooling, especially before the survey.
• The diet should be built on the maximum amount of mineral additives (dry nettle, ash , chalk) into the usual food.
• A balanced diet in sows in winter consists of concentrates, coarse and juicy feed mixtures in sizes up to 3, 4 and 12 kg, respectively.

If critically low temperatures are observed, you need to increase the number of foods with a high concentration of protein, fat and carbohydrates.

What about small pigs?They must be placed immediately after the survey in a warm room, where they will have to be with the sow. At first, they can’t walk on the street because of poor adaptation. Keeping piglets in winter also means having good lighting and having more hay, which babies dig into. They grow rapidly, which is why it is necessary to immediately provide for their place of residence.

Features of the content of boars

The breeding boar is a necessity for pig breeding, because it depends on it, whether the sow will have offspring. The air temperature in the room for a comfortable living of the boar should exceed 16 ° C, and humidity should be kept below 70%. The male pig needs frequent walks, so the pigs need to be outside for several Once a day for a short time.

The content of boars-producers as well as the content of pigs in winter consists of its proper feeding. Do not forget to add to the weekly diet herbal flour and combined feed mixtures. This directly affects the reproductive the function of the boar, the consistency of its sperm and sexual activity.

The stirrer also consists of a grain mixture in the amount of about 3 kg. The pig should have meals at one specific time. This is important because there is a great need for pork tenderloin on the market right now. To make sure of this, you should talk with other farmers, watch a video from famous pig farmers and study the market for meat products.