Farmer Focus: Sow rations up to counter cold and wind chill
Rob McGregor © Jason Bye Well, it didn’t take 2026 long to remind us what winter can feel like, after what had been a pleasant, mild end to last year.
When the temperatures drop below freezing, we all need a bit more in our bellies to keeping us contented out in the fields.
That’s applicable to the sows just as much as it is to farmers.
See also: Tips on preparing your pig unit for winter
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Keeping ahead of the game with things such as bedding and maintenance make dealing with the tougher winter spells much easier, but extra feed is essential.
As a general rule, for every 5C fall, we should be adding 0.25kg to the daily base rate of feed.
That is just a rule of thumb, as we have to also think about wind-chill, which in recent days has pulled us down to -12C.
Higher feed losses also occur when the ground is covered in snow, and the local bird population turn up because they are feeling the same hunger.
So, as much as 1kg/day could easily be justified, with much of that burnt off creating body heat to combat the chill.
Keeping water supplied becomes extremely difficult, even with the best efforts of the team working hard with a tractor-towed tanker.
But I am always glad at how quickly our clean water drinking tanks return to full function following a freeze and with very little, if any, damages to repair.
In days gone by, when we used open sheep troughs, the after-effects of an Arctic week on our water system could add another week before we were back to a proper functional state.
Some farms are also carrying out site moves and expansions at the moment.
The result of that is an increased workload and the need for a few unpopular tasks, like pressure washing, to be done.
That’s a job well down the preference list for most people, even during the more temperate times of the year.
To help combat this, the farm team have established an end-of-week motivational reward: fish finger sandwich Friday.
And if Friday looks like it’s going to be disrupted, then fish finger Thursday steps up.
I’m not going to go into kg a head like I did with the sows, but let’s just say there are some big guys and a lot of fish involved.