Lamb Weaning and The Porking Order

Last milk feed for 4 of the lambs

Monday 12^th was weaning day for 4 of the lambs: At 6 weeks old White Face, Red Dot, Dappley and Number 7 definitely didn’t need milk anymore – full round tummies and happy on grass and creep. 

Brownie's still on the bottle

Brownie was another story so he stayed on milk until today. Abrupt weaning is recommended so as not to cause stomach upsets but it’s difficult to ignore the lambs yelling every time we walk past them!

This afternoon we collected our last 3 weaners for this year. They are Oxford Sandy & Black (sow) and Duroc (boar) cross and a lovely tan colour with a few spots. They’re 8 weeks old and been away from the sow for 7 days.  Our black piglets soon came out of the arc to see the interlopers and fisticuffs ensued on and off for an hour or so until the male black piglet was established as Top Pig in the porking order. A couple of bloody ears but nothing major. 

Now there’s more competition for food they are keener to come to the trough at feeding time! We’re following the “all they can eat in 20 minutes” rule from David Norman at The Ansty Herd. At the moment it's around half a scoop per piglet - early days!

New piglets: OSB x Duroc