What Is A Gilt Pig And How Can You Care For Them Correctly?

Gilt pig is a term used to address young female pigs under the age of one year who have not been bred yet.

The gestation period for a gilt pig ranges from 113-121 days. During this stage, the animal must be fed a healthy diet.

Generally speaking, the larger the litter size at weaning, the longer it takes for each pig in that litter to reach puberty. This factor influences which gender you should wean from the mother sow at weaning time and which ones you should leave with her since gender often determines reproductive success.

The age of the gilt pig at breeding varies according to the breed and feeding program, but it is usually between nine and 18 months.

After reading about gilt pigs, also check related articles on the smallest pig breed and hog vs. pig.

What Are Barrows And Gilts?

In the swine industry, a gilt is a young female pig that has not yet been bred and has never given birth. In the pig breeding business, a sow is a mature female with at least one litter of piglets. People who raise pigs for meat or other purposes sometimes call the young females 'gilts' or 'barrows'.

The growth rate of a gilt swine compared to a barrow or a sow is not very different, but it does vary among swine species. A pig pen or a hog pen is an outdoor enclosure for raising a group of domestic pigs as livestock.

These pens are usually built by people who own a group of pigs, feed them and raise them on their farm 24 hours a day. It is also important to provide them with nutritious food for their well-being.

A barrow is usually castrated before it leaves its mother, but sometimes this is done after weaning as well as right before slaughter. Barrows are typically more muscular and grow faster than gilts.

Since barrows are castrated, it increases their growth hormone levels, helping them grow faster. However, some barrows may have less fat marbling than gilts, so their meat will taste leaner.

Male pigs destined to become purebred breeding pigs in the industry are castrated at an early age and allowed to grow until they reach their full size and stature. A barrow often grows faster than a gilt because it does not nurse any piglets.

How Are A Sow And A Gilt Different?

Pigs that have no children or only one litter are called gilts. Pigs that have been mothers before or who have twice been pregnant are called sows.

In male pigs, testes descend when they get to about two months of age. If this had not happened by then, it would never happen. Therefore males with undescended testes are culled from a herd as soon as possible because, occasionally, their condition can cause health problems.

The reproductive tract of a female pig can be damaged if she is bred before she is physically mature.

Breeding gilts too early can result in low conception rates, smaller litters, and higher fetal mortality rates. A female pig can become pregnant as early as when she is six months of age, but most farmers don't breed their gilts until they reach 10-24 months.

This approach aims to ensure that the female pigs have matured enough before giving birth to reduce the risk of health problems during pregnancy or after delivery.

Piglets born prematurely can be much smaller than those born after a common span of time and may need assistance breathing if the umbilical cord becomes wrapped around their necks. A sow also produces fewer young over time than gilts, so many people assume it is best to keep sows for several litters.

The difference between the weight of sows and gilts can be considerable. When breeding, sows usually weigh between 290-570 lb (130-260 kg), depending on whether they are pets or bred for slaughter.

The weight of gilt pigs at this time ranges from between 80-200 lbs (40-90 kg).

Famers need to feed sows more than gilts to sustain their body weight, but gilts can still be fed adequately with a combination of good nutrition to ensure lean muscle development. If you want to raise pigs for meat, buying only gilts might be worth your time.

Do Gilts Or Barrows Grow Faster?

A lot depends upon the genetics of each individual animal and its mother's milk supply when it was young. Modern-day hybrid pigs usually do not reach puberty until they are over 220 lb (100 kg), while their ancestors typically reach sexual maturity at 150 lb (70 kg).

Some breeds used primarily in commercial hog farming may mature even slower than that. On the other hand, an animal's mother is the biggest influence on its eventual adult size.

Studies have shown that male pigs grow faster than female pigs in the first few weeks after weaning, but there isn't a difference between gilts and barrows beyond that age. Most producers feed both groups of animals the same amount of food to encourage uniform growth rates.

Some assume that castrating a male pig will slow its growth rate compared to an unaltered animal. Still, this issue has not been studied extensively enough to determine whether there actually is a difference in the long run.

Barrows tend to be larger after being castrated, and they may have more muscle mass due to the increase in testosterone production from being castrated. The barrow fat-to-muscle ratio tends to be lower than a gilt because they lack estrogen.

So the animal lacks the same amount of fat storage capacity as a non-pregnant female. Barrows are known to have a lower fat marbling score than gilts, so this is another difference between them in terms of meat quality.

Management Of The Gilt Pool

Pigs' nutrition is essential prior to reproduction and gestation. Gilts should get between 13 and 15 weeks of feeding after weaning, including six weeks before breeding at maintenance levels.

Pigs getting close to the breeding age (about 175 lb or 80 kg) may need an additional two-week period of adjusted feed to reduce their rate of gain during pre-breeding conditioning.

It's important for breeders to take these steps so their animals don't attain too great a size before they come into estrus. Large sows are challenging to breed successfully and can also experience health problems due to excess fat deposits in their abdomens that may restrict lung development.

The potential complications are not as much of a problem for gilts, but they may still have difficulty conceiving at heavier weights.

When the puberty period of gilts is delayed, it takes longer for them to get fully primed before they can conceive. They start feeding again about three weeks before the breeding period and should be fed daily at a maintenance level to avoid reducing their rate of gain.

Estrus is also spelled Oestrus. Estrus refers to the period in the reproductive cycle of female mammals during which they are in heat. Estrus or heat indicates that they are ready to mate. Estrus or heat means that a female mammal has a period of reproductive maturity. It is not related to the transfer of heat.

When gilts reach puberty, they experience their first estrus between 17-21 weeks of age. Gilts can reproduce as early as when they are five or six months old if they have the right conditions to come into heat.

However, a more regular onset of puberty occurs in eight-month-old gilts. The length of time from weaning to reproductive maturity varies according to breed type and feeding program. Once the piglet is weaned, it is expected to come into heat within 21 days.

A single-born piglet has a lower chance of coming into estrus than one with siblings, and gilts are more likely than barrows to show early puberty if they were weaned as part of multiple births. Generally speaking, the larger the litter size when they are weaned, the longer it takes for each pig to reach puberty.

This factor influences which gender you should remove from the mother sow at weaning time and which ones you should leave with her since gender often determines reproductive success.

Postnatal Or After-Farrowing Care

After farrowing, you must monitor the sow very closely during the four to six-week postpartum period because she's still recovering from pregnancy and lactating at this time. The piglets also use nutrients that the mother would otherwise use if there were no offspring.

This can cause problems with milk production, particularly later in the lactation cycle when the piglets have grown large enough to compete more aggressively for nutrients with their mom.

Sows need supplementary feed after farrowing to maintain their body and health.

This is especially important if they are also feeding a growing litter. Late-farrowed sows tend not to need as much feed after farrowing compared with sows that have just finished lactating.

The benefits of feeding include improved sow health, better reproductive performance, earlier resumption of anestrus in gilts and sows, larger litters at birth, more pigs born alive per litter, larger piglet weights per litter, lower incidence of mastitis during lactation or pregnancy, greater milk production post-weaning, and higher future reproductive performance of male progeny.

What Is The Appropriate Age For A Pig To Be Bred?

The age of the gilt at breeding varies according to breed and feeding program, but it is usually between nine and 18 months. A gilt with a skeletal size similar to that of a barrow may be too heavy to breed prematurely, so it's best to keep track of her rate of gain before breeding her.

A boar also called a wild swine or wild boar, is a mammal native to North Africa and Eurasia. A boar is a mature hog.

When boars are young, they can be aggressive toward other pigs, especially gilts. It is a good idea to keep boars separated from their littermates after weaning due to their aggressive nature. Mature boars are not interested in breeding their own offspring, so raising a boar with the gilts is not a problem.

Caring For Your Gilt Pigs

Gestation is the stage or period of development inside the womb between conception and birth, after the male pig and the female pig or sow have mated. It's important to palpate gilts regularly once they reach puberty, especially those with large frame sizes and heavy muscling.

The rate of development varies among the different breeds, so if you have more than one breed of pigs, it is best to closely observe which ones are becoming sexually mature at an earlier age.

Here are a few ways you can take care of your gilt pig: Identify the signs of puberty in your gilts, feed the right amount of energy and protein to them and provide a balanced diet, separate boars from their littermates and keep the boar separated from the gilts they'll breed, and boost their immune system before breeding them by vaccinating, deworming, and getting rid of lice and mites on them.

In addition, keep sows together with their litters for as long as possible. You can let the piglets nurse until they are weaned at three weeks old, or you can foster the litter onto another sow who doesn't have a litter of her own to raise beforehand.

Monitor each piglet's weight gain so you know when is an appropriate time to wean them off, and keep your gilts in a spacious area before mating so they won't feel too cooped up when it is time to deliver the piglets. Finally, be aware of the condition of their body and weight.