How we Built our Farrowing Unit
So you would like to breed?
Here in Maine, it gets very cold in late winter/early spring and can get down into the - 10-20°F range. My husband built our farrowing unit with two units inside, so we can have two litters simultaneously, making it possible to offer breeding pairs to new KuneKune breeders, small farms and homesteads.
On our farm, our family works together all year, and the girls are homeschooled. Part of their education is learning how to use math to apply it to build infrastructure which supports our family business. The unit rests on cinderblocks, has a hotbox inside to keep piglets warm, and crush rails for safety of piglets not being accidentally sat on by the new mother. This also gives the piglets a space to try food later on without the mother if need-be.
We are experimenting with Dutch doors to control temperature levels, and use rubber flaps for commercial refrigeration units to add an additional level of warmth in the winter. Since predators are around, especially at night, we start the first 8 weeks by closing up the unit at night with mother and piglets inside. We do a final bathroom trip before we go to bed, and let everyone out first thing in the morning. As piglets get bigger and mom is separated for weaning, we leave the unit’s bottom door with flaps open at night for around-the-clock access to outside for bathroom.
We feed inside the farrowing unit in the beginning, and outside if the weather is nice. We always make sure our pigs have access to fresh water at all times. A nice little addition to the unit, especially when we were going out nightly to allow for the last bathroom trip before morning, was an outdoor light on a sensor. This is always on in the dark, which helps deter predation, and allows us to see where we are going in a dark or cloudy spell.
