We are a family of five located just outside of New Glarus Wisconsin, see www.swisstown.com for details on our village. We currently have two red wattle gilts which we hope to breed. We also are raising a few Dexter cattle at this time with plans to breed them as well. In the past we have raised Shetland sheep and commercial sheep but currently have NO sheep.
We are looking for an unrelated boar for the gilts but Clyde Grover has yet to send me the paper work on the two females. Has anyone used AI? I would be VERY interested in finding someone willing to try to provide us with a straw or two.
We did successfully raise three barrows this Fall/Winter with the last one gone to the butcher last week. Yes they can survive extreme cold weather of Wisconsin and still gain weight. We saw some -20's at night and the pigs are basically living outdoors under cover (three sided leanto on Northside of chicken coop). The girls are doing good by digging into the ground and covering themselves with straw. They are also getting along well with the flock of hens that share the covered space as their outdoor run in the winter time. The gilts enjoy playing "follow the leader" around the pasture with my wife daily. The hens love thawed out pumkins more than the pigs. The hens are starting to drink of the pig's water nipple these days. the nipple has only frozen once so far and not badly. Only took a little soaking in a pail of hot water to get the flow going again. The stock tank is inside the coop (with a floating heater) and the pipe coming out and down the wall is wrapped in electric heat tape.
That's are setup this winter. In the Fall we grazed the pigs using electric netting from Premier1, which I use to use for rotational grazing of sheep.