A.I. (Hogs)

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What does boar semen cost roughly, and how may times would I administer it during estrus?

-- KeithSmith (peepee125@hotmail.com), January 17, 2002

Answers

I have seen it in catalogs for $25.00 a dose and up. You may be able to get it from a small breeder cheaper if you can find it in your area. We inseminate 2 - 3 times depending on the cost of the semen. We try to do gilts 3 times, 12 hours apart. Sows only 2 times, 18 - 24 hours apart. I am currently on baby pig watch. We have seven due in the next week. All of them were A.I. bred with semen costing from 50.00 to 100.00. Ours are show pigs - we sell and show the best from the babies and raise the rest to sell as feeders or raise till big enough to butcher and then sell the meat. Good place to look for semen, showpig.com

-- Joanie (ber-gust@prodigy.net), January 18, 2002.

Hi Joanie; Could you elaborate more on the subject ? There was a thread posted a while ago but not much info.We are interested in keeping a sow for a pet and babies for the freezer.In our area it is always very difficult finding baby pigs.How often are you successful ? How much does it cost per sow ? I am not interested in 'show quality' are their cheaper sources ? Is it easy to AI ? Any insight would be helpful. Thanks

-- ourfarm (ourfarm@noaddr.com), January 18, 2002.

Cant vouch for the price, but heres how you would apply to sow: You would (this is the way the farm here does it) expose the sow to a boar, but not allow contact, by keeping them in adjacent pens. (If there are no boars, more careful monitoring of saw would be appropriate OR even get somme boar pee on a rag and keep it in a sealed glass bottle and let her sniff it from time to time and see how she acts- this works on our goats, because we HATE keeping a billy around.) The sow will show it if shes in season or not. Umm, you get the picture, she confronts the boar with NOT her front. At that point, you insert the Ai tube, it is a long plastic tube with a bulb on the end, and you then attach the (keep it cold inn a cooler until the last minute!) bag containinng the semen. You sit on the sows back- facing rear wards holding the bag...she will be ok with this, if shes "in".... to stimulate the sow. The bag will drain, and youve got a pregnate sow, thats all there is to it. AI will, if your supplier has his/ her stuff strait, yeild higher numbers of piglets. On the farm, the were applying 2 secessions of AI to each sow, but they were at the time, having problems with their supplier watering down the product too much and low birth count as a result and were trying to remedy.

-- Kevin in NC (Vantravlrs@aol.com), January 19, 2002.

Oh, OURFARM: where are you located? I might be able to supply all your piglet needs, I have connections and am getting two bred sows soon. I would, of course, much rather trade than sell.

-- Kevin in NC (Vantravlrs@aol.com), January 19, 2002.

Hi Keith,

We just got our boar semen in the mail today to AI our sow. There are many places (all seem to be in Iowa) that sell semen. We did a search with google and ended up buying from a company named Fox. The seme costs range from $6-10 or more per dose. For 2 doses it cost $12 plus the one day shipping. That is where it got a little expensive here on the west coast. We had checked locally tho and couldn't get any and the cost is minimal compared to keeping and feeding a boar just for mating purposes. If you live close to Iowa, it should be cheaper than here. It is parishable and only good for about 5-6 days. We will admimnister it twice, 12 hours apart after Patty (our sow) has gotten over her angry and frustrated stage of estrus. She should be ready in the morning! The web sites for the companies with the semen are very informative and should help you! Darlene

-- Darlene in W WA (tomdarsavy@cs.com), January 19, 2002.



Keith, for more info go to purdue university web site and check out their pork pages. There is great info and instructions complete with pictures.

-- Joanie (ber-gust@prodigy.net), January 21, 2002.

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