Time to Catch Up, Part 2: The Pigs

Our original two sows, Lola & Suey, made delicious additions to our freezer and our diet. Not being one to waste food, or a life, I have learned to make use of as much of the animals as possible. I make bacon with the belly meat, render beautiful healthy lard, and we've ground some of the meat into breakfast sausage. Pig trotters make a lovely addition to stew and broth... but I have yet to tackle head cheese. There are a few other choice bits still in the freezer, for future use. The bones, after being boiled for nutritive bone broth, are picked clean by the chickens, then charred to make Water-soluble Calcium Phosphate, one of our Natural Farming inputs.

Last fall, we had a big mahalo lu'au to thank everyone who helped us get started on our pig-raising venture. Hulihuli was delicious!
 

We kept Suey's two biggest daughters, Big Girl & Spot. They have both been bred via artificial insemination. We've been using semen from the boars at UH-Hilo's Panaewa research farm. Big Girl is due next week! Spot has another 6 weeks to go. We keep getting asked how long a pig's gestation period is. The answer is a fun one to say: 3 months, 3 weeks, and 3 days.

You can read about the pen preparation in the previous post. Here, I will tell about what we are currently feeding our pigs. Every morning, each sow gets 4-1/2 lbs commercial pig feed. (NOTE: This is why we are working so hard on raising our own crops, to replace this commercial feed and still maintain the proper protein, amino acids, and nutrient levels. We're getting there, but not there yet. Mostly, we're waiting for the plants to grow bigger, and of course, planting more crops.) To this feed, we add a handful of IMO4. They also get at least 1-2 lbs of fresh greens -- honohono grass is a current favorite, or whatever else we gather that morning. And they get a half a coconut each. Sometimes, later in the day, as a treat, there is papaya, avocado, kabocha, or whatever might be in abundance. We don't feed these fruits and vegetables exclusively though, as many hereabouts do, because pigs need protein and fats to really thrive, and that's what we're aiming for -- their long term health.

When the sows start nursing, their diet will change to accommodate their increased needs to ensure a good milk supply. Their feed increases to 5-6 lbs commercial feed each, plus another 1/2 lb per piglet she's nursing. More greens will be added, too.

 When Big Girl lays down these days, we can see the babies inside moving around! It's so amazing! Her teats are getting huge and all the signs of birthing preparation are beginning to show. But she has yet to begin digging her nest, so we have a little time still. I'll let you know when the piglets are born. Won't be long now!