The farrowing pen
The farrowing pen should be cleaned and disinfected at least a week before the sow is brought in. With a little bedding, not too much as piglets so often like to burrow in the straw and can get lost, trampled by the mother or at worse suffocate.
This month more than any other month is popular for farrowings.
Can we be prepared, what can we do to make sure that we have everything to hand. The answer is different for all of us and every farrowing is different. Although we can be prepared with the most common question, which is about milk.
Volac Faramate is a sow replacement that is specifically made for piglets. For an emergency you can use goats milk. (We have discussed the values of the various types of milk on the OSBPG Charity Facebook Forum)
Photo and provider of Sows replacement milk from Hyperdrug.co.uk
Did you know, that within the pig field, notifiable diseases are those infectious diseases, generally not present within the national population on a day-to-day basis, which either national or EU authorities regard as undesirable for a range of reasons such as animal health and welfare, the macroeconomic position, national and international trade or human health.
Should they arise or be suspected, then they must be notified to the APHA – the animal health division of DEFRA – whereupon restrictions will be placed on the holding and possibly wider afield, with a view to controlling or eradicating the disease.
Export of animals and food produced from them is restricted. The major pig diseases that fall into this requirement are listed below, but the authorities have the right under the Animal Health Act 1981 to add diseases to this list – as indeed was done temporarily in 1991 with Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS or Blue Eared Pig Disease).
| Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) | 2007 |
| Classical Swine Fever (CSF) | 2000 |
| African Swine Fever (ASF) | Never |
| Swine Vesicular Disease (SVD) | 1982 |
| Aujeszky’s Disease (AD or Pseudorabies) | 1989 |
| Porcine Epidemic Diarrhoea (PED) | Early 1990’s |
| Vesicular Stomatitis | Never |
| Teschen Disease | Never |
| Bovine TB | Current |
| Anthrax | 2006 |
https://www.nadis.org.uk/disease-a-z/pigs/notifiable-diseases/
Source: NADIS
The Oxford Sandy and Black Pig Group (OSBPG) celebrates the success of their Genetic Spread Allowance programme (GSA). The programme was launched in October 2020, and to date, the OSBPG have supported their breeders by providing them with over £1,400 in GSA payments to support further travel for genetic diversity of the OSB bloodlines
over the UK.
The map illustrates how far pigs have moved around the UK with the dedication of the OSBPG Charity supporters, which currently stands at over 2300 members, and the help of the Charity’s GSA programme. The rules
and guidelines are stringent, with checks on bloodline representation in that area or region of the UK. It goes without
saying that the pigs welfare is first and foremost at all times, and the charity prides themselves in ensuring that this
is the case giving confidence to the breeder that they are buying healthy and well looked after stock.
Coefficient of Inbreeding (COI), Kinship and Mean- Kinship are the three tools that are used to assess breeding
matches to ensure the sustainability of the breed is maintained. The addition of Mean-Kinship gives us an indicator of the genetic diversity within the breed and helps us identify our breed with more common breeding and those
with less common breeding. This helps us maintain genetic distinctiveness within certain lines and maximum
genetic diversity within the breed. The OSBPG Register does this and ensures a compatible check is made to ensure
there is no shared parentage and the genetic compatibility of our pedigree is diverse. You may notice that there may
be the same breed of pigs in one region but surprisingly they could all come from one breeder and related to one or two different lines which will in turn prove to have a small nucleus which can put the quality and the survival of the breed at risk. With the help of Cloud-Lines and a lot of hard work, the OSBPG Charity launched the OSBPG Register.
The Cloud-Lines system makes tools such as Stud-Advisor and Kinship checks available to breeders, giving members
more access than ever before to breeding data, and ensuring everyone can participate in maintaining a healthy
and sustainable breeding population.
The OSBPG Register is available to help our breeders run a thorough pedigree breeding search therefore eliminating
inbreeding and enhancing good genetic crossover. The system is efficient because of the Cloud-Lines advanced technology.
The four recent GSA success stories which go forward to enhance our breed, its genetics and bloodlines are:
In 2020, Mr & Mrs Newman took ownership of a rare female line, Sybil, (only 22 of them in UK as of April 2021)
and the first in Cornwall. In August, Mr & Mrs Newman were very pleased with their Sybil gilt, called Gwen, when she
farrowed (gave birth) to 8 piglets. The term gilt describes a young female pig who has not yet had a litter.
To find out more about the GSA program Click Here
It’s hard to imagine that we were all worried about keeping our boys and girls cool and creating appropriate shade and then during farrowing we all worried about our poor girls keeping cool with fans and wetting floors.
As the seasons change different challenges emerge, which makes us ask ourselves how we cope. Especially now the wind, rain and dark evenings are upon us. However, around the corner our hearts will be surrounded with warmth as we enter the season of new life and farrowings.
Straw and Farrowing
Up to and during farrowing it is so easy to give our girls copious amounts of straw for nesting. It is one of the forms of enrichment enabling them to behave naturally, straw also acts as good form of thermal insulation BUT please remember not to give your girls too much straw during farrowing as this can and does lead to piglets getting lost in the straw, sometimes being suffocated and the sow accidentally standing on them as she is unable to see them. Yes she has an incredible nose but during farrowing there are many scents for her sensors to pick up at this busy time. Furthermore, whilst the sow is farrowing and there are two or three already suckling she may from time to time use, what i call the “pawing action” with her front leg. This action will bring straw over the suckling piglets and prevent the other piglets from finding a teat and then burying these piglets in straw. Don’t be afraid to take out some straw should you feel that there is too much. Then after all the piglets are born and she has passed out her afterbirth then tidy her up and add a little fresh straw which will be greatly appreciated.
Varieties of Bedding
As we know there are many options of bedding available to us with the different varieties of straw as well as alternative bedding. Most importantly, whichever bedding we choose and use must be comfortable to lie on, absorbent, dust free, bacteria and mycotoxin free. A good tester is, if it is comfy for you then it is comfy for them!
So what’s out there?:
Most popular is wheat and barley straw. Oat straw is no stranger to us but alternatives to consider is bean straw.
Barley straw – is most popular as it is soft and harbours very little dust. With regards to be absorbent it is rated as very low compared to other straw as it is about 33% less absorbent than say oat straw
Wheat straw – is the pig farmers number one’s choice. It is crunchy with thicker stalks with regards to absorbency it is 24% less than oat straw and pigs tend not to eat it.
Oat straw – is softer than wheat straw and is very absorbent than all the above mentioned straws AND is 10% more absorbent than sawdust. Yes a little more expensive as it is also used as a feed and very delicious it is too. A little minus is that it is a very light and when using it in the arks does blow all over the place.
Rye straw – not a stranger to bedding but is prone to ergot so it is wise to check that it is ergot free. Rye straw that is contaminated with ergot can cause reproductive issues in pregnant sows.
Triticale straw – Now this straw is about 25% less absorbent than oat straw and is not dissimilar to wheat straw. With regards to productivity and compared to wheat or barley triticale produces 30% larger volume of straw, which has proven to be of interest to farmers.
REMEMBER:
Any straw used for bedding, must be clean, dust free and free of mould
Straw Alternatives
There are alternatives. What’s about?
Using a base layer of – rape, pea or bean straw for base layers including sow arks.
OR Woodchips and shavings – Home-grown wood or some types of recycled wood that can be chipped on your holding or farm are likely to be the most cost-effective options. A benefit of wood chippings is that they have limited bacterial growth and less dust than straw. However, can cause respiratory problems to pigs/piglets and is unsuitable for a farrowing material. Good for use as a toilet area.
Shredded paper – Shredded paper is dust-free, low cost and very absorbent, making it an excellent bedding material, especially in the farrowing house.
Miscanthus (Elephant grass) – Miscanthus is a perennial grass, usually grown as a biomass crop. It can absorb up to three times its own weight in moisture and also composts down quickly. It is, however, a high-yielding energy crop so getting hold of it for bedding could prove difficult.
Looking after your bedding
THE GENETICS AND NAMING OF THE LINES – as they are today.
In March 2016 at the #OSBPigGroup Bloodline and Breed Conformation workshop, Mr Sheppy discussed the naming of the bloodlines of which we now recognise today and his frustration in that the bearing shows no exact correlation to the breeding. His explanation, that the dam to daughter and sire to son naming is a genetic flaw in that it does not show any degree of relationship to the name founder as this only indicates where the family originated in the now. He gave the following example (take your time when reading): A sow called Somefarm Sybil 10th is by a boar Otherfarm Alistair 2nd and out of Somefarm Sybil. Otherfarm Alistair 2nd is out of Otherfarm Alice 12th and by Otherfarm Alistair. Somefarm Sybil is by Yetanotherfarm Alexander who is out of an Alice. Therefore,…
THAT MEANS SOMEFARM SYBIL 10TH IS GENETICALLY AN ALICE!
Adam Short of Cloud-Lines shared with us the explanation of breeding and the difference of kinship and mean kinship. Adam is very proficient in animal genetics and runs Cloud-Lines.
Cloud-Lines system makes tools such as Stud-Advisor and Kinship checks available to breeders, giving their members more access than ever before to breeding data, and ensuring everyone can participate in maintaining a healthy and sustainable breeding population. With the help of Cloud-Lines, and a lot of hardwork with the Charitys #OSBPG Register was launched. This system is available to help you run a thorough co-efficient, compatible and pedigree breeding search. Visit our website for more information.
Footnote: All information was directly given to Kim Brook by Mr Sheppy. This information was also shared at a talk Mr Sheppy attended by invitation of the #OSBPigGroup in March 2016. Therefore subject to copyright to the #osbpiggroup Permission will be granted if asked as long as credit is given to the OSBPG.
Photo: at source. Mr Jeff and Mrs Briony Wild dedicated breeders of the Sybil bloodline. They started breeding and keeping the sybil line in 1988 three years after the first herdbook was published by Andrew Sheppy. I had the pleasure of meeting and talking to Mr & Mrs Wild back in February 2017. Now retired
The sow lines both past and present.
Please remember for pedigree breeding purpose the sow must have 14 evenly (or more) spaced and parallel teats as well as all the other attributes as per our interactive map on our website. Good temperament is a MUST as well as ensuring the compatibility of our pedigree breeding whereby our OSBPG Register will be of help.
The Oxford Sandy and Black sow line origins, are a little more complicated than the boar lines. There are relatively small number of main sources. All the present day sows are related to the four surviving boar lines.
The SOW bloodlines as they appeared in Volume 1 & 2
Alice, Buttercup, Clare, Clarissa, Cynthia, Dandy, Duchess, Elsie, Gloria, Henrietta, Lady, Mary, Pippi, Polly, Sandra, Sandy, Sarah, Sybil
Today’s CURRENT SOW Bloodlines:
Alison, Clare, Clarissa, Cynthia, Dandy, Duchess, Elsie, Gertrude, Gloria, Iris, Lady, Mary, Sybil
The bloodlines explained
CLARE AND CLARISSA BLOODLINE: These derive from the two sows from Mrs Watts at Don North’s Donmar Herd. Both Donmar Clarissa 1013A and Donmar Clare 1012A were by Aristotle. Clarissa was a litter sister of the line boar Donmar Clarence 4FS. The Clare bloodline was out of the other sow by Mrs Watts.
MARY AND DANDY BLOODLINE: These two bloodlines were both bred in the Dean Grove Herd of J & K Blackwell and from the same origins as the line boar Dean Grove Jack 1FS. Dean Grove Dandy 1004A is in Vol 1 (1985). There were 8 daughters from Dean Grove Mary all of which are in Vol 1 as well.
CYNTHIA BLOODLINE: All the Cynthias’ descend from Blackwood Cynthia of unknown pedigree and her daughters by a boar called Alfred bred by AG Lyman-Dixon. There are numerous daughters and granddaughters of Blackwood Cynthia registered in Volumes 1 & 2.
IRIS BLOODLINE: The original Iris was one of 4 litter sisters, Elmwood Enid 1127A, Elmwood Izy 1128A, Elmwood Norah 1129A and Elmwood Iris 1130A. All of which registered in Vol 2 (1986-7) by SP Croxford-Adams. Information shows that they were bought from WG Batchelor with Pedigree unknown.
HENRIETTA BLOODLINE: Mrs JE Loggin registered three Henrietta sows in Vol 1 all of which were litter sisters to the boar Edgehill Henry’s Cavalier. There was no further registrations of this bloodline. In the 1970’s there was a sow with piglets at the Smithfield Show and found later belonged to Hedley Le Bas at his farmpark up at Dartmoor but did not appear to be related to Mrs JE Loggin line.
ELSIE BLOODLINE: The foundation Elsie sow was Clockswood Elsie 1017A. Elsie 1017A was bred by John Backhouse who had followed the prick eared type after the disastrously wrong comments on the breed by RBST Technical Consultant, Lawrence Alderson, published in the “The Ark”
GLORIA BLOODLINE: The Gloria came from Gloria of Wiscombe from unknown pedigree. Her two daughters Wiscombe Gloria Sage 1001A and Wiscombe Gloria Onion 1002A were the oldest sows in Vol 1 (1985). They were both by Farway Boris and put back to him and went on to produce many daughters, granddaughters and the boar Happyhogs Boris Caesar 3FS. The Happyhogs Herd was owned by Nancy Howard from Devon. They were based on the Wiscombe Gloria and Farway Boris and then bred back to him. Unfortunatley Mrs Howard refused to be part of the herdbook and would not register her pigs. She later emigrated.
SARAH BLOODLINE: This line was based on Cobthorn Sarah, one of the two gilts purchased from Derek Dunstan in 1982. Cobthorn Sarah was the grandmother of Cobthorn Alexander Brigadier III. Her influence remains via Alexander and Alistair boars but the Sarah bloodline sadly is no longer.
THE CHASEWOODS LINES: Mr Sheppy talked of The Chasewoods and their influence of the lines they upheld at the time. They were as follows: Alice bloodline came via Bemborough Alice 1015A. The Alison bloodline was daughter of Alice. Chasewood Buttercup1007A. Duchess came via Cobthorn Duchess 1022A. The Lady Bloodline came via Chasewood Lovely Lady. Chasewood Polly 1016A, Chasewood Polly 1016A. Chasewood Sandra 1023A and Sybil came via Bemborough Sybil.
SANDY BLOODLINE: This bloodline came from Edgehill Sandy 1021A purchased from a dealer unknown pedigree. This line is now extinct.
PIPPI BLOODLINE: This was from Tanglewood Pippi 1003A who was a known Tamworth cross – line extinct.
GERTRUDE BLOODLINE: This bloodline is unknown in the early herdbooks but is shown in the later herdbooks from the Longash herd.
Tomorrow we will discuss the THE GENETICS AND NAMING OF THE LINES.
Footnote: All information was directly given to Kim Brook by Mr Sheppy. This information was also shared at a talk Mr Sheppy attended by invitation of the #OSBPigGroup in March 2016. Therefore subject to copyright to the #osbpiggroup Permission will be granted if asked as long as credit is given to the OSBPG.
Photos: at source
The boar lines both past and present and remember for pedigree breeding purpose the boar must have 14 evenly spaced and parallel teats as well as all the other necessary attributes as per our breed standard interactive map on our website. Good temperament is PARAMOUNT and we must also remember that the boar is the dominate factor it is he who’s progeny will carry forward the genes of teat alignment and we must always look at the compatibility of our pedigree breeding whereby our #OSBPG Register will be of help.
The Boar bloodlines are a very simple and straightforward analysis.
In the herdbook volumes 1 and 2 the following boars were present:
Alexander, Alistair, Boris, Clarence, Henry, Jack
Today’s Current BOAR LINES
Alexander, Alistair, Clarence, Jack
As you can see, we only have FOUR boar bloodlines and this is how fragile our breed is hence why the Charity beseech you to travel and look at the compatibility of your pedigree herd and any new lines you wish to introduce. Our #OSBPG Register can help you with this, available on our website.
What follows is the description and founding of each bloodline as Mr Sheppy explained.
JACK BLOODLINE: The foundation boar of the line was Dean Grove Jack born in 1977 and the very first animal registered in the Herdbook as 1FS. He was homebred. The Jack line is very simple and straightforward and all current Jacks trace back to Dean Grove Jack 1FS
BORIS BLOODLINE: This bloodline was based on the boar Farway Boris and was bred at the Farway Country Park from stock from Portsmouth City Council’s Leighpark Herd. The only Boris line boar registered appears to have been Happyhogs Boris’s Ceasar 3FS bred by Nancy Howard. The Boris bloodline influence on later stock is via his daughters of the Gloria line.
CLARENCE BLOODLINE: This bloodline is based on Donmar Clarence 4FS. Bred by Don North. Clarence 4FS was out of one of two sows from Mrs Watts and by a boar known as Aristotle whose origins are not recorded. Again this bloodline line is another simple line in that all the Clarences’ trace back to Clarence 4FS.
ALEXANDER BLOODLINE: The original Alexander came from the pigs, which came to Mr Sheppy’s Farm, from Derek Dunstan in 1982. Cobthorn Alexander was the first and his Great Grandson – Cobthorn Alexander’s Colonel 5FS was widely used in the 1980’s and is the origin of the later Alexander Boars. Mr Sheppy told us how Colonel was picked up from farm to farm to service sows up and down the country until one farmer decided to weigh Colonel as he was a big boy. Mr Sheppy was told that Colonel weighed 728lbs! (330kg). Mr Sheppy talked about Colonel with such fondness reiterating how gentle and wonderful he was and how he sired some wonderful progeny. Colonel was out of a Chasewood sow.
HENRY BLOODLINE: The only boar ever to be registered from this line appears to have been Edgehill Henry’s Cavalier 8FS. He was registered as “Breeder unknown” from litter bought from a dealer, pedigree of pig unknown. Although inspected and registered there appears to have been no further pigs of this line
ALISTAIR BLOODLINE: This bloodline comes from Cobthorn Alistair 13FS born in 1985. He was out of Bemborough Alice 1015A who was pure Chasewoods breeding. His sire was Cobthorn Alexander’s Colonel 4FS so could have been called an Alexander, but being three quarters Chasewoods breeding was made a separate line.
Tomorrow we will discuss the Sow lines. Make sure you have a large cuppa ready.
Footnote: All information was directly given to Kim Brook by Mr Sheppy. This information was also shared at a talk Mr Sheppy attended by invitation of the #OSBPigGroup in March 2016. Therefore subject to copyright to the #osbpiggroup Permission will be granted if asked as long as credit is given to the OSBPG.
Photo: at source
#OSBPGHistory
The Breeding programme – Identification
In 1985 Volume One of the herdbook was produced. The search for all Oxford Sandy and Black Pigs in the country was on and all those that were found went into the herdbook, there were 15 boars, number from 1FS to 15FS.
At the time ALL boars were inspected and this was down to Geoffrey Cloke who travelled tirelessly up and down the country. We had 72 Sows, numbered from 1001A to 1072A. There were then 29 herds recorded.
Cobthorn Farm was the largest herd with 10 sows and four boars. Now with the breeding stock underway and the recognition of the bloodlines complete then came the Registration Procedure…As mentioned all potential boars were inspected and if they made the grade they were given a “Foundation Stock (FS)” number. All sows that were put forward went in to the Herdbook with a number and the suffix “A” starting at 1001A. The sows from registered parents were registered with a suffix “B” and their offspring registered with a “C” followed by their offspring with “D” until their offspring were pedigree without a suffix.
The start-up Volume 1 was created in 1985 and it was safe to say that ALL #OSBPigs were recorded in this volume with all their diverse and wonderful naming system. Then in 1986/87 Volume 2 was produced whereby the rules were defined for the future of naming, therefore all pigs that were registered and noted in the herdbook must have the prefix of the herd of birth. Therefore in Volumes 1 and 2, registered pigs have, in addition to the prefix, an individual name or names containing the line name of the dam or of their sire. These names may also consist of the line name with the addition of an individual number. For example, Anyfarm Alice 3rd or Anyfarm Alistair 5th. Then to add a little spice to the naming game of the time you could also give an individual name, which was used, instead of a number. For example: Anyfarm Alice’s Rose BUT NOT ANOTHER LINE NAME e.g. Sybil. These line names were listed in Volume 2.
So to avoid confusion, these line names may not be used as individual names.
Tomorrow we will discuss the individual bloodlines
Footnote: All information was directly given to Kim Brook by Mr Sheppy. This information was also shared at a talk Mr Sheppy attended by invitation of the #OSBPigGroup in March 2016. Therefore subject to copyright to the #osbpiggroup Permission will be granted if asked as long as it carries the OSBPG name.
Photos: at source Catriona Cook Clockswood herd still breeding today and appeared in the Volume 1.
The Beginning of the Oxford Sandy and Black Pig
In 1976 Mr Andrew Sheppy purchased two gilts from Derek Dunstan in Doncaster one called Sarah (a name choosen out of family tradition) and the other Susie, who produced the Cobthorn Alexander.
There was no serious recognition of the breed at the time. Finding a boar to breed from in these early days was, as Mr Sheppy described as “being near to impossible”. So pigs were bred within that family group. Therefore, Cobthorn Alexander was put back to his mother (Susie) and his sister (Sarah) and after several generations and careful selection the famous Cobthorn Alexander Brigadier III was born.
The next steps was to try and grow the herd and bring in new blood. Breeding of the Oxford Sandy and Black pigs continued at Cobthorn with the original bloodlines until 1982. However, in the September of 1982 Mr Sheppy purchased six sows from Bob Brickell’s Chasewoods herd, which were in Oxfordshire. The lines were Chasewoods Princess, Chasewoods Duchess and Chasewoods Lovely Lady. Chasewoods Princess had litter sizes of 20 and 22. After awhile the Princess line could not be put back into pig, which was a great shame for the breed.
As the years rolled on Mr Sheppy needed to get the breed recognised as with no Herdbook (recording the bloodlines and breeding) the RBST and other Associations would not give the recognition that the breed deserved so with the help of Steve Kimmins, Geoffrey Cloak, and Kath Blackwell the first herdbook Volume One was produced in 1985.
Tomorrow we will discuss the Breeding programme
Footnote: On the 26 March 2016 the Oxford Sandy and Black Pig Group was very honoured to have Mr Andrew Sheppy FLS .entertaining us with his knowledge of the breed that stemmed some 40 years! Mr Sheppy, together with volunteers, ran The Cobthorn Trust, which was a charity dedicated to critical genetic and biodiversity conservation work. Cobthorn Farm was Mr Sheppy home which had been in his family for over 200 years.
All information on the series of The History of The Oxford Sandy and Black Pig was directly shared and given to Kim Brook by Mr Sheppy. This information was also shared at a talk Mr Sheppy attended by invitation of the #OSBPigGroup in March 2016.
Photos: at source Front Cover of Volume 1 Official Herdbook. Drawing depicting breed standard conformation of an #OSBPig