Key Benefits:
By using AI for your breeding you are not bringing all the germs to your farm that a live boar encounters.
Also AI will not harm your sow; we have observed boars breaking the hind legs on a smaller sow or gilt.
AI gives a full dose of sperm!
Let me start with a comment: many of the village families have one or two sows that need to be bred periodically. Many times a breeder is called who uses a live boar to breed the sow. You do not know how often that boar has been used which affects the quality of the sperm. You are also getting all of the germs that boar has come into contact with on all of the farms he has visited. If you need to use this process good luck. You are also able to call our farm, or another farm like us, or your farm vet to get AI sperm and to use this for breeding. AI sperm is processed in a sanitary condition and you can demand that the breeder that comes to your farm has "cleaned" properly prior to coming to your farm.
1. Is your sow/gilt ready? Please read, at least, the first three sections of AI Sow that will give you all the insights needed.
2. Clean the vulva. Make sure you do not push any dirt or stool into the sow.
3. Stimulate the sow. We use the "walking boar" to start our stimulation process. We also apply pressure on the sows back. Your sow is even stimulated by you and your farm hands just being close to them. Remember you want to get the uterus contracting as the semen is not injected into the sow, it is sucked in by the contractions of the uterus. If you are going to aid the process using Oxytocin give the shot about two minutes prior to inserting the rod.
4. Inserting the rod: Please refer to the pictures in Sow Organs to help you understand pictorially what is going to happen. There are many insemination rods on the market. We use the foam tipped rod on our farm. When inserting the rod use a slightly upward angle to make sure you do not get into the urinary tract. In order to get the tip of a rod seated properly into the cervix you need to apply a counterclockwise twist to the rod. Foam tips do not really need the twist but it does help seat the rod. With the foam tip you gently push on the rod until you feel the tip catch in the cervix. A little gentle back pull will let you know if it is locked.
5. AI Artificial Insemination: Now it is time to (as the old song from the 1950's said) slip the juice to me Bruce! Remove the tip of the semen bottle and insert in on to the end of the rod. To get the semen started you can apply a small amount of pressure to the bottle. Remember you are not putting the semen into the sow, her uterus should be pulling it in. When the bottle is nearing empty remove it and let air back into the bottle so you do not have suction built up in the bottle. Reattach the bottle and finish the process. If there is a little semen left in the bottle after about five minutes squirt it on the sows nose as a "treat" (and that actually will help stimulate her more for the second breeding in 12 hours). Do not be worried during this process if a little semen flows back out of the vulva. If it is "a lot" you need to reposition your rod to make sure it is locked in place.
6. Take the rod out. If you used the screw in style you will now need to use a clockwise twist to get the tip back out of the uterus.
7. Wait about 12 hours and repeat the above process. If the sow is no longer in heat BUT was in good standing heat the previous time you most likely got a good breeding. If she is not in heat any longer do not breed her again (you do not want to take a chance on any infection).
8. Our farm keeps records of the breeding date and boar used. We check in 21 and 42 and 63 days to make sure the breeding took place. We do this by letting the boar walk around all the bred sows while watching to see if any "respond" to him. Actually they all enjoy his coming around and you will be able to see the ones that are in standing heat again. If you do not have a boar just be observant watching the signs of a sow being in heat.
Breeding
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