_ CHAPTER VIII. MATING THE YOUNG SOW
As in most other details in the management of our domesticated animals there exists a variety of opinion as to the age at which the young sow, or, as it is commonly locally termed, a gilt, yelt, yilt, hilt, elt, etc., should be mated with the boar. Perhaps the most important point to consider is the time of the year when the anticipated pigs should arrive. If possible the period between the middle of the month of September and the middle of December should be avoided. The long nights and the short and dull days generally experienced during this period are most unsuitable for young pigs. Many litters of pigs farrowed in October are not any larger nor nearly as thrifty in the month of March as those farrowed during the early portion of January in the following year, and very frequently the loss amongst the October and November farrowed pigs from lameness, or, as it is commonly termed, cramp, is very large. An attempt should be made so that the two litters which should be bred each year from the sow arrive so that they are weaned during the longer and brighter days of the year; thus a sow which farrows in the beginning of February may be expected to farrow again in July. The weather is sometimes rather cold for little pigs early in the year, but it is surprising how little they are affected by it providing the sow furnishes a good supply of milk and the bedding is dry and plentiful. The pigs farrowed in the months of January and February are generally the most profitable, as they will be ready for the consumption of the separated milk, butter milk, whey, etc., which is generally abundant in the month of May in districts where dairying and cheese making are followed. These pigs are also ready for turning out to grass in April or May, or as soon as the weather is suitable, and the grass has grown sufficiently. These young pigs will grow and thrive splendidly providing that some additional food is fed to them and shelter provided.
This natural system of pig raising is of great benefit to those pigs which are intended for breeding purposes and was consistently followed by the writer from the year 1863. It was by no means a new plan even at that period, although strange claims have recently been made that the system is a novel one and originated in the fertile brain of one or two enthusiasts who have gone the whole hog in pig breeding. In the middle of the last century it was quite a common practice in parts of the counties of Cambridge, Essex, and Suffolk to graze the seeds which comprised clovers, trefoils, etc., with pigs which received in addition extra food, such as peas or beans in accordance with the amount of vegetable food obtainable or the purpose for which the pigs were required; those intended for pork receiving the larger supply.
Although it may not be possible to allow the young boar pigs to have their liberty after they become five months old, yet the sow pigs will grow and develop far better in the field if properly fed than they will in an inclosed sty; further, the young pigs which they produce will be much more lusty than if the sows had been kept in close confinement.
Although the sow pig will generally come in heat when she is about six months old, it is advisable that she should not be mated until she is some eight months old, so that her first litter of pigs is not farrowed until she is about a year old, when she should be quite strong enough to rear a fair litter of pigs and also to grow and develop into a fully natured specimen of its breed.
In some districts where the breeding pigs are generally kept in confinement and high keeping is followed the sow pigs are mated with the boar at an earlier age, but the system has its disadvantages which more than outweigh the saving of the extra few weeks of the keep of the yelt ere she is put to the boar. This early mating is especially harmful if the number of the pigs in the first litter should be large. So few pig keepers have the hardihood to knock a certain portion of the too numerous litter on the head, and so reduce the number to say seven or eight, which most young sows should be able to rear fairly well and without any undue drain on the sow's system--but the whole of the large litter are left on the sow, which becomes very much reduced in condition, and checked in growth, whilst the too large litter of pigs are badly reared and frequently become a source of trouble and annoyance to the owner.
On the other hand, there are many practical pig keepers who make it a rule to delay the mating of their young sows beyond the eight months' age. They contend that a sow pig at eight months is not sufficiently matured to bear the strain of producing a litter of pigs when she is about one year old, and then to furnish the pigs with a sufficiency of milk to give them a good start in life. The plan which they adopt is to mate the sow when she is about a year old so that she is some sixteen months old before her family troubles commence.
Another very curious reason has been recently made public by an enthusiastic novice for delaying the mating of the yelt until she is at least a year old. It is the following, that it is quite possible to ensure that the produce of young sows which have reached the age of sixteen or seventeen months ere they farrow their first litter shall possess the desired characteristics of the breed, whereas this is by no means certain if the young pigs arrive before the sow has reached that age or is about a year old. Unfortunately, we have see no attempt made to account for this alleged curious variation in the qualities inherited from a parent of about one year old and the parent which had arrived at the more matured age of about sixteen months, so that it is impossible to discover a solution of the strange problem.
Therefore, we should be unable to admit the correctness of the assertion even though it was not directly in opposition to our belief which is founded on experience of a most extensive character extending over some sixty years. To aver that the power of a young sow to impress its hereditary characteristics on its young are only fully developed by deferring the arrival of the young pigs for four or five months, or until the sow is sixteen instead of twelve months old when she farrows must surely cause surprise, if not, disbelief. Perhaps the object of the propounder of the theory was to create a discussion--it could not have been to bring his name prominently before the public.
Another advantage in mating the young sow so that her first litter appears when she is about a year old, her daughters will in turn farrow during the most suitable months of the year, providing of course that she herself had been farrowed in early spring or about the month of July.
When the sow pig which is intended to be kept for breeding has been farrowed in some other part of the year, it is advisable to defer beyond the eight months the mating of her so that she farrows at the best times, or perhaps even better than that, if the pigs are not intended for breeding purposes, would it be to have the sow mated when she is about eight months old, and then allow the pigs to remain on the sow a few weeks beyond the usual period of eight weeks so that the pigs are taken off the sow three or four days before it is desired to have her again mated with the boar. The risk of the sow returning to the boar will be minimised, as a sow which has been baulked is sometimes difficult to settle. In addition, the sow will be stronger and more vigorous and likely to produce a strong litter of pigs, whilst the piglings will scarcely miss their mother's milk when they are weaned from her.
Those pig breeders who are in favour of withholding the boar from the young sow until she is about a year old aver that early mating results in the sow becoming worn out and useless for breeding at a much younger age than if she be not mated until she is well matured. This is not in accordance with the writer's experience, as many of his sows which farrowed their first litter when they were about a year old continued to breed regularly until they were six or seven years old--indeed, one Middle White, Holywell Victoria Countess farrowed her last litter when she was in her eleventh year. This sow also disproved the confident assertion that the showing of sows renders them comparatively useless for breeding purposes, since she not only continued to rear her pigs well, but she produced a number of most successful prize winning boars and sows, and also won many prizes herself from the age of five months to five years.
The principal cause of premature old age amongst sows is not due to their being first mated when they are eight months old, but to the want of care in the management and feeding of the sow during her pregnancy and whilst she is suckling her litter of pigs. To a sow with a good constitution the act of breeding and rearing a family of pigs is only the most important act of nature which cannot be harmful to her, providing that she received that amount of proper food and attention which nature required.
There may be very occasional instances of harm being done to the breeding sow by over feeding, or rather by injudicious feeding, but in comparison there are hundreds of instances where under feeding and neglect are the cause of trouble and loss. _