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Pigs
The herd
FAI has a herd of 3 boars and 20 sows, plus their piglets.
The breed used at FAI is the Gloucester Old Spot - one of the oldest traditional breeds of pig.
The Gloucester Old Spot comes from Britain, and was chosen because the sows are very good mothers and the breed produces high quality meat.
The herd lives in an indoor housing system because the ground around the farm is too wet for them to be kept outside. However, they are provided with deep straw bedding and rooting substrate in order to enable a wide range of natural behaviours.
The sows live in groups of 5 and give birth to 10-12 piglets twice a year after a pregnancy of nearly 4 months.
The piglets of each group of sows are mixed soon after birth, and stay as
a group
until about 7 months, when they reach their final weight (~85kg).
Pig fact-file
Males are called boars
Females are called sows (‘gilts’ prior to their 2nd litter)
Young are called piglets
Food products we get from pigs include: ham, pork, bacon and sausages
