First Litter!

We'll fill in the back-story later... this whole Natural Farming thing we're doing, Mike's piggery design, what the pens are filled with, our first pigs, what we are growing for feed, etc.
But right now we are so excited to announce our very first litter of piglets!


Suey is one of our two breed sows. Yesterday she started into labor about 12:30pm. After a couple hours, the first little snout appeared... and as afternoon turned into evening, we were pleased to have ten healthy little piglets. They were born in mama's deep litter pen, which is filled with natural plant materials, inoculated with IMO's, and occasionally sprayed with lactic acid bacteria (LAB) or fermented fruit juice (FFJ).

Only one little guy needed help. Their umbilical cords snapped naturally in their own good time. And they all learned how to suckle before bedtime. Mama Suey is a really good mother pig, very calm and careful of the piglets.

During the night, Suey surprised us with two more piglets! So that makes twelve altogether!
 
There is one runt who's only about half the weight of the rest of them. He made it through his first night, but time will tell.


We are told by our University of Hawaii Agriculture Extension agent that not only are these our own first litter of piggies, but they are also the first litter of pigs born into the Korean Natural Farming method in Hawaii and, in fact, in the entire USA!


 By the way, CGNF stands for Cho Global Natural Farming, a method utilizing indigenous microorganisms (IMO's), developed in South Korea by Master Cho. More about that later.