How to Care for Xiang Pigs Before and After Farrowing? Detailed Breeding Techniques

I. Feeding Management Before Farrowing

The focus of feeding management for Xiang pigs before farrowing is to ensure the sow gives birth smoothly and to improve the survival rate of the piglets. The main measures are good prenatal care and prenatal preparations.

1. Prenatal care. Take corresponding care measures according to the sow's body condition and udder development. If the sow is in good condition and the udder develops normally, the daily feed amount can be appropriately reduced about 10 days before farrowing, especially bulky, hard-to-digest roughage, which should be reduced to prevent constipation. From 3 to 5 days before farrowing, the feed amount should be reduced to 1/2 or 1/3 of that in late gestation, and green, juicy feed should be stopped at the same time, to prevent food accumulation in the pig's stomach and feces accumulation in the intestines from pressing on the fetuses in the uterus, causing premature birth, dystocia, or stillbirth. At the same time, it can also avoid milk that is too thick in the early postpartum period causing piglet diarrhea, or excessive milk causing mastitis. Sows in poor condition with shrunken udders must not have their feed reduced. About 10 days before farrowing, add some high-protein cake-type feed or animal-based feed, such as soybean cake and fish meal. From 2 to 3 days before farrowing, do not feed too full; appropriately feeding some thin gruel-type daily ration is enough.

2. Guard against constipation. From 3 to 7 days before farrowing, field grazing or pen exercise should be stopped, and the sow should be allowed to move freely inside the pen. If a sow about to farrow develops constipation, measures must be taken urgently to relieve it and promote bowel movement, otherwise it will be unfavorable for farrowing. Appropriately increase the feeding of green feed and wheat bran, or use soapy water at the same temperature as the sow's body temperature to give the sow an enema once every 12 hours until bowel movements return to normal. But never use irritating laxatives, so as to avoid causing premature birth.

3. Prenatal preparations. From 7 to 10 days before farrowing, prepare all farrowing tools and medicines, clean the farrowing room, choose 3% to 5% carbolic acid, 2% to 3% Lysol, or 2% caustic soda water for disinfection, whitewash the walls with limewater, keep the floor dry and sanitary, and spread soft, clean dry grass. The abdomen, udder, and area near the vulva of the sow due to farrow should be washed clean with warm water; first brush off dirt from the pig's body with a bristle brush, then clean and disinfect with warm 2.5% Lysol. Whether the sow farrows in a dedicated farrowing room or in the original pen, the room should be kept clean, dry, warm, quiet, and ventilated. Generally, the farrowing room temperature is controlled at about 20°C, and the relative humidity at 65% to 75%.

4. Signs of imminent farrowing. Fifteen days before farrowing, the udder swells and the abdomen visibly droops; 24 hours before farrowing, colostrum is secreted; when about to give birth, the sow is restless lying down and standing up, urinates frequently, carries grass to make a nest, and the vulva is red and swollen, etc.

II. Care After Farrowing

1. Assisting farrowing. Midwifery work must be done well when the sow farrows. After each piglet is delivered, the midwife should cut the piglet's umbilical cord and disinfect it properly, then dry the piglet's whole body with a dry towel. Generally, a sow gives birth to 1 piglet every 5 to 25 minutes, and the whole farrowing process takes about 2 to 3 hours, or even longer, but more than 8 hours is considered dystocia, and corresponding midwifery measures should be taken according to the situation to ensure the safety of the sow and piglets. If farrowing is normal, 20 to 30 minutes after all piglets are delivered, the afterbirth will be expelled from the body. At this time, the midwife must promptly clean up the afterbirth and soiled grass, and replace it with clean bedding grass; if the afterbirth is retained for more than 3 hours and cannot be expelled, inject the sow with pituitrin to promote expulsion of the afterbirth, so as to prevent affecting the sow's health.

2. Avoid feeding cold water. During the sow's farrowing process, an appropriate amount of warm thin bran salt water can be fed to replenish strength and prevent the sow from eating piglets due to thirst. Never feed cold water, so as not to stimulate the uterus and affect farrowing.

3. Postpartum diet. After farrowing, the sow is extremely exhausted, thirsty, and has no appetite, and is unwilling to move. There is no need to rush to feed a large amount of feed; feeding some warm thin bran salt water is enough. Even if the postpartum sow has a strong appetite, only an appropriate amount of thin gruel feed should be fed about 6 hours after farrowing. Under normal circumstances, on the first day after farrowing, only warm salt water or bran salt water is fed, and an appropriate amount of plantain can be added to clear internal heat; from the second to third day, only thin gruel feed is fed, and it should not be too full; afterward, gradually increase the amount of gruel feed, and around the eighth day reach the normal feeding level for lactation, with fixed-quantity feeding. Only for sows with a weak constitution and poor body condition, or with no milk or low milk yield after farrowing, can an appropriate amount of concentrated feed be added on the second day after farrowing, but they must not be fed too full.