DH AI'd Sophie!

[Mitra]

With the help of Josh Grams of Flying Pond Farm, DH Max AI'd Sophie yesterday evening. The Grams bred Charlotte (Sophie's sister who moved to Flying Pond Farm) on Tuesday and only ended up using one of the three semen doses they had purchased. I happened to run into another of the FPF farmers, Tobin, yesterday while running errands and got a first-hand report on how it went with Charlotte - they think they missed her standing heat by about half a day. They decided it would be pointless to use the remaining two doses which were to be used at 12 hour breeding intervals. I told Tobin that we had failed to order the semen in time (from the same company they had ordered semen from) for this heat and Sophie was in heat already . I needed to have ordered by Tuesday in order to have it in time for Sophie's heat. I didn't make the deadline.

When I got home from my errands, the phone was ringing and it was Tobin. The Grams wanted to know if we were interested in breeding Sophie today and if so they could give us the rest of the semen, 2 doses, (shelf life of 5-7 days). DH came home and we went and checked on her "readiness". She stood like a rock for him. We ran back and called Flying Pond Farm and within minutes Josh was on his way with the stuff! He brought the other two doses and the "equipment" and Max did it (with Josh's help)! Sophie stood like a rock again for about three minutes and did what she was supposed to (I'd read Shelley's account about AI-ing and she said when the insertion is done correctly, the pig will draw the semen into her own body and that's exactly what Sophie did!) DD Roshan took pictures. I missed it all because I had to go get DD Shireen from ski practice right when Josh arrived.

This morning, I got to participate in the administration of the second dose. She was not in standing heat and was not the least bit pleased about Max's advances. There was a lot of walking away with DH following her around. She never acted agressively, just annoyed. I hope it worked last night!

We (Laura of Flying Pond Farm and I) are already fantasizing about Charlotte and Sophie being bred and future little red piglets. They'd be due in May!

[Stacy]

Well, that's an interesting adventure. Is that your first time impregnanting a pig? I can't wait to see the pictures. Baby pigs are cute... at first.
How long till you all know if it worked on both girls?

[Janene]

Sounds like she was "ripe"......and I like to see the pigs "take" the semen---a super great sign!!
Keeping hooves crossed for y'all to have some May babies!!
Janene

[Mitra]

DH has already said, "You're not going to post the pictures of me and the pig are you?" He got a lot of razzing at the feed store last night after he told them what he'd done. They wanted to know if she'd winked at him after wards etc. So now he's sensitive to me showing the "procedure" in the photos my daughter took.

Yep Stacy, that was our first try at AI. We basically read a manual on-line at the site where we ordered the semen from and then just did it. I've also been printing out things from the cow website for the last two years on various pig topics. We have a quite a few experienced pig people here who are never stingy with their good advice. I can't tell you how gratifying it was to see things unfold the way I'd read about them here.

[Liz]

Great Job Max!!!
The pics would be helpful to some of us that fantasize about having pigs to breed--not just eat!
Congrats!!!
The gestation is something like 3 months, 3 weeks and 3 days? Or is that something else?
I am looking forward to seeing a herd (pack? litter?) of mini Sophies!

[Jessika]

sounds good! Here's something I've noticed, if her vulva seems like it doesn't totally go back down, but remains a tiny bit pink and more swollen than before heat, she took.
Jessika

[Shawn]

Jan 24, 2009 6:57:32 GMT -5 Liz said:

The gestation is something like 3 months, 3 weeks and 3 days? Or is that something else?

That's correct. And hopefully she'll have a nice litter of pigs for you.

Mitra: That's funny about Max. You'd think he'd been through it all and wouldn't bat at an eye at something like that! But I can imagine the feed store boys, he should be more selective in telling stories.
The first thing I thought was "Oh, good, pictures." We're just all eager and willing students here.

[catherine]

ROFL...ya, just tell Max that a gentleman doesn't AI and tell!

Oh...and about their post date vulvas...Walter Jeffries says that his pig mentor told him that their "little pointy thingies" point UP when they are pregnant, instead of down like usual. Walter hypothesized that it was cuz the increasing weight of having a litter in the uterus pulls things down on everything and the "pointy thingie" shows the strain.

[Mitra]

Oh dare we hope......? Little pointy thingy pointing up (thanks for that tidbit Catherine!) and Jessika's observation that, "if her vulva seems like it doesn't totally go back down, but remains a tiny bit pink and more swollen than before heat, she took" is also exactly how Sophie is looking. If she comes into heat it will be this week.
We're keeping our fingers crossed for Sophie and her sister Charlotte a few miles away

[Shelley (whistlingtrain)]

Mitra, the important question is did they share a cigarette after the deed was done? :-)

I'm glad everything worked--as long as the semen was good, and the planets were aligned properly, it sounds like the first attempt was perfect.

Something I've noticed too (although not every time) is that some girls will have a white discharge that looks kind of like yogurt and leaves a white powdery look to the vulva--sometimes you'll see yogurty-looking stuff on the ground. When that has happened, it nearly always indicates that they are indeed pregnant. Not all of them do it though, so don't be disappointed if you don't see it. I'm glad my suggestions helped!