2 February 2023
DOUGLAS COUNTY (KSNT) – 27 News Stormtrack Meteorologist Becky Taylor welcomed the newest additions to her family’s homestead when her sow, Wendy, gave birth to her third litter of piglets.
The piglets arrived on Tuesday, Jan. 31, when temperatures that morning, and the morning after, dropped into the single digits.
“Our animals always seem to pick the worst weather possible to give birth in,” Taylor said. “Whether it’s extremely cold, snowy or stormy, they just have got to do it right then.”
Wendy had a litter of 11 piglets, and 9 survived the first 24 hours.
“It’s very common for some of the litter to not make it past the first few days,” Taylor said. “That’s part of the reason pigs have such big litters, because the mortality rate can be fairly high.”
Becky and her husband are registered Idaho Pasture Pig breeders. They also raise Nigerian Dwarf goats, chickens and keep honeybees on their small farm.