38 FORTY YEARS' EXPERIENCE OF A PRACTICAL HOG MAN 



arranged so they may feed from a very low, shallow trough by them- 

 selves, unmolested by the mother, giving them the same feed given 

 the mother. 



During this period of the early life of the litter the sow and 

 litter should take plenty of exercise for the necessary good of the 

 pigs, for they must exercise considerably during each day, or they 

 will become fat around the heart and die with what is known as 

 "Thumps," which is nothing more or less than fatty degeneration 

 of the heart, which they will certainly have unless they are exercised 

 daily in some way. 



Weaning Pigs. As weaning time approaches, which should 

 not be earlier than ten to twelve weeks, in my opinion, the feed 

 may be lessened for the sow and more given the litter, so that the 

 sow would gradually give less milk and have no trouble when the 

 pigs are taken entirely away. Some breeders have made it a prac- 

 tice to gradually wean the litter by taking them away for a few 

 hours and then returning them to the mother and following this 

 up for a few days until they are taken away entirely. Others have 

 practiced taking one or more of the most thrifty pigs in the litter 

 away from the mother first, then after a few days a few others, and 

 finally taking those remaining, believing that pigs so weaned would 

 leave the sow in better condition and less danger of swelling and 

 soreness of the udder. We never have practiced this, however, dur- 

 ing our forty years of breeding. By letting the litter suckle until 

 it is ten to twelve weeks old or a little over, the sow naturally is 

 inclined to wean them herself and if she has been properly fed the 

 last part of this period she will practically give no milk at the end 

 of three months or thereabouts. 



When the litter is finally weaned the sow should be given a good 

 fresh pasture of some kind with a little grain and she will need 

 very little else during the next month or two or until time to begin 

 to bring her in condition for another season's breeding. 



We pastured 40 brood sows that had weaned their pigs in May, 

 by turning them directly into a fresh white clover and blue grass 

 pasture where there was plenty of shade. They had no grain or 

 slop for four months, but were given daily from a water fountain 

 all the fresh clean water they could drink. They did well on this 

 grass and water diet, but hereafter we will feed two or three ears of 

 corn daily to each sow, besides the grass and water, as I believe for 

 best results they should have a little grain. The sows that were 

 bred for fall litters ran in the pasture with the others and were 

 removed into individual lots about a month before farrowing where 

 they were given a little corn and some slop with plenty of grass. 



To have two litters a year sows must wean their spring litters by 

 May 1, so as to be bred for early fall farrow, and the fall litters 

 must be weaned in November or early December so as to be bred 

 for March and April farrow. In the north it is not always prac- 

 tical to have two litters a year and we find it often advisable to breed 

 the sows so that they will farrow one litter the first year and two 

 litters the next year, or in other words, three litters in two years. 



