Pig Temperament and Choosing a Sow

[Kelsey]

After realizing just how hard it is to find good healthy piglets each spring, we decided that it might be better to keep a sow and raise our own.
This spring we purchased 3 Tamworth piglets, 2 for fall butchering and 1 to (potentially) keep.
2 are females and they're about 200 pounds now.
I'm not committed to keeping one of them - happy to butcher all 3 if she doesn't have the right temperament or we don't get the winter facility ready in time. But I'm wondering how to assess temperament in a gilt to decide if she's a keeper or not.

Our first Tamworths were related to these three. I fed them very differently though - they were my first pigs ever so I vastly overfed them with restaurant scraps (mostly fried potatoes, plus our whey/milk, veg, etc). So they were full and content at all hours of the day. Of course they grew way too fast and one went gimpy from joint stress. But they were so sweet and calm and feeding time was so low-key. Whenever they saw anyone approach they would just flop over and wait for a belly scratch.

Now we feed whey/milk-soaked whole grains and they get a set amount, twice daily. It's the correct amount but of course they get riled up at feeding time and there's lots of screaming and tussling. They get alfalfa hay for lunch and they have lots of room to root, etc. Anyway, the way they behave at feeding time is NOT my preferred pig energy but I know feeding time is pretty exciting for them.

We will be slaughtering the dominant male and the submissive female, leaving the more dominant female. Will she be ok by herself? We could get her a feeder pig for company at that time, but it won't happen before the slaughter day.
And do you think she will calm down once the others are gone?

Like I said, if there is an issue with our plan we can always butcher all three and have loads of pork, but I would like to keep a sow at some point. We have until mid-Oct to decide.

How do you all choose which gilt will make for a good brood sow?

Thanks!

[finallyfarming]

I am not a pig expert, by any means, but here are my two cents. If you keep either of the gilts, keep the submissive one. Like with any other domesticated hierarchical species, you want to be top pig, or cow, or dog, etc. If both gilts are otherwise the same, I would go with the easiest to live with. And if you are not sooooo sad to butcher one of the gilts, I would butcher both and try again next year or when your facility is ready. If you are only keeping one or two pigs, they should be easy to work and live with. Like the house cow, basically a working pet, vs the range cow, a cow where you need proper working facilities to be able to handle them at all. Pigs, like cows, are capable of inflicting a great deal of damage to a human, I don't think you can be too picky about who you keep. If you have to ask, eat them both.

[thasista]

We have hamp/York crosses. 2 gilts were super easy going until they pigged. One is super aggressive if you go near her piglets and they squeal the other not so much. SIL is the only one who goes in and handles them. The meaner one is pretty gentle When she doesn't have piglets around. She has had 3 litters and will probably get processed after this last batch is weaned just because of temperament.

We keep a boar for a couple of years and then send him off for processing when he gets harder to handle

[haecklers]

Tamworths are a little high energy anyways. I'd keep the mellower one.

[simplynaturalfarm]

I wouldn't have gone Tamworth as I find they have the potential as sows to be squirrely and they are higher energy than I like. I would not keep the dominant one - I want a gilt who lays down slowly, is mellow mellow, isn't pushy with me over food, good number of teats, good conformation for what I want and I would never just keep one pig. They are social animals and very unhappy alone.

The problem finding feeders every year is how we end up cycling through breeding pigs for 4-5 years and then doing a "let's just buy them next year!" As we see lots in the paper (assuming everybody has the same idea lol) and the next year we raise a bunch of bought duds and say never again ! *G* I have been doing it for 22 years now

[suzorse]

I cull on temperament , I do not keep flighty pigs , pigs can be trained to back up and wait to be fed , and I also will keep only 1 pig as they will kind of bond to you , I want a pig where if I call it over ,it will come over to the fence to be scratched and listens to a small stick if I have to move it or it gets out , the one that had babies with a c section here will be culled /butchered , with her I am glad she is in a crate
as she would have got me more than once if she could , and it dose not have anything to do with squealing babies ,as that is normal for a sow to protect her young , and this one was standoffish before farrowing , I will be replacing her with 1 of her babies , which is the friendliest one , as I AI and I need a pig to stand for me to breed her ,
for butcher pigs you need more than 1 as they gain better with competition for food
Suzanne

[Kelsey]

Thanks for the input, everyone!
I think I just need to spend more time with them when it's NOT feeding time. It's been such a busy summer...
They're really ok at feeding time - they back up and wait until the feed is out, then freeze until I say "Ok" and then they can come forwards to eat. I think having the male gone will help immensely.
That's what happened last time we raised 3 pigs - butchered the "complainer" for our wedding, then held the other two until several months later. The day the annoying pig was gone, the other two were so much calmer.
I'll post some photos of them when we get back from our trip this week.