FARM DIARY
New arrivals at Goscombe Farm,
Gundleton 2012
Early January started with the arrival of
two litters of piglets and by the middle of
January to my surprise another three litters
of piglets had been born; the two boars
Pete and Alex named by Harriet (Katie
Price fan) had been busy boys. One really
cold night I sat with one sow for 3½ hours
(it can take up to 7hrs) producing just two
piglets. On passing the afterbirth she
suddenly became extremely aggressive
towards them and would have killed them
had I not secured them under a heat lamp.
The next day she was no better, so luckily
for the piglets I sneaked them into a litter
born 24 hours previously and the sow
accepted them. I am not looking forward to
the electricity bill with four heat lamps on
the go 24/7.
One piglet became cold and was very
poorly, so we brought it home to the
intensive care unit - yet another heat lamp
with two-hourly feeds, (thanks, Harriet for
doing night feeds). Polly is now a healthy,
happy (but a bit small) house pig sharing
her heat lamp, and in the evening, the
fireside rug with the cats, a funny sight but
seems quite normal now. I think she has
an identity problem as she will not eat pig
nuts but loves cat biscuits.
January also saw the arrival of five calves
and I was looking forward to having a week
or so to catch my breath but the cows had
other ideas; I blame the spring weather we
have been having. 14 calves arrived in
12