How to Breed Gilts

Gilts are young female pigs. Despite their immaturity, these animals can still be used for breeding if you use the right selection methods and provide an appropriate environment for reproduction. Begin monitoring gilts to choose a breeder before they reach adulthood, at an age of five to six months. Choose females that weight 200 lbs. or more, but that are lean with lots of muscle and little fat.

Things You'll Need

  • Private pen
  • Pasture
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Instructions

    • 1

      House gilts of an appropriate age and weight for breeding separately from the rest of the herd. This will allow you to monitor them more closely, avoid potential injury to the animals and choose the best breeders.

    • 2

      Study the health and genetic history of the gilts you have chosen for breeding. Ensure that they do not demonstrate signs of hereditary disorders or contagious disease. The frame of healthy gilts should feature large heavy bones and symmetrical hooves and legs.

    • 3

      Obtain information on the current health of the parents of the gilts to eliminate potential genetic defects that could be passed on to a new herd. If you used a registered stud to impregnate a female who gave birth to a gilt you are considering breeding, contact the Swine Evaluation Center for information on the current health of the sire.

    • 4

      Count the teats of the gilts you wish to breed. Gilts that will be able to nourish young effectively feature at least 12 teats.

    • 5

      Determine the time when the gilts are in heat, or most fertile, based on their ages. Breed gilts the second time they come into heat, which occurs between the ages of six and eight months.

    • 6

      Breed your pigs in a pasture. Assign one boar to two or three gilts. Allow each boar to spend one day with the group and switch him with another to optimize the gilts' potential for conception.

    • 7

      House gilts that have been bred in a pen separate from other pigs. Once a group of gilts has spent several days with different boars, they need a private pen so that roughhousing and potential injury from males or older females does not cause them to miscarry.