You just had a sow farrow overnight. By morning, you're trying to remember which piglet was the runt, how many were stillborn, which sow had complications, and whether she's been bred before. Without a system, that information disappears — and so does your ability to make smarter breeding decisions next season.
A proper farrowing record sheet fixes that problem completely. This printable template gives you one clean, structured place to capture every detail at farrowing time — from litter size and birth weights to piglet processing notes and sow health observations. It's designed for working pig farmers, not paperwork lovers.
Whether you're running 5 sows or 50, consistent pig record keeping is what separates profitable operations from reactive ones. This template gives you the structure to do it right, right from the start.
What Is a Farrowing Record Sheet?
A farrowing record sheet is a structured farm document used to record everything that happens during and after a sow gives birth. It captures key data like litter size, number of live and stillborn piglets, birth weights, sow identification, breeding dates, and any complications during delivery.
Why Farrowing Records Matter
Most pig farmers understand that record keeping matters — but many still rely on memory, rough notes, or nothing at all. That's where performance quietly leaks out.
When you consistently fill out a sow record card for every farrowing, you start to see patterns. Which sows consistently produce large litters? Which ones have repeated piglet losses? Which breeding lines perform best under your management conditions?
Without records, you're guessing. With them, you're managing.
Benefits of Using This Farrowing Record Sheet
1. Saves Time at the Busiest Moment
Farrowing is hectic. The last thing you want is to be designing a system from scratch at 2am in the farrowing pen. This template is ready to print and use immediately — no setup, no formatting, no spreadsheets. Just grab a pen and start filling it in.
2. Builds a Long-Term Breeding Performance Record
Each completed sheet becomes part of your sow breeding performance record over time. Stack them in a binder or folder and you've built a complete farrowing history for every sow on your operation.
This is the kind of data that helps you make confident culling decisions, identify your top-performing animals, and track how your herd is improving season over season.
Who This Template Is For (And Who It's Not)
This farrowing record sheet is built for:
- Small to mid-scale pig farmers managing multiple sows
- Hobby farmers and homesteaders raising pigs for the first time
This template is not designed for large commercial operations using digital herd management software. If you're running 500+ sows with a dedicated farm management system, this printable format won't replace what you already have.
What the Template Includes
This printable pig record keeping template covers every key detail from the moment farrowing begins to the early days of piglet care. Here's what you'll find inside:
- Sow identification — ear tag number, breed, age, and parity
- Breeding and due date — so you can predict and prepare for farrowing
- Farrowing date and time — with space to note duration and any complications
- Litter data — total born, live births, stillborns, and mummified piglets
- Piglet processing notes — iron injections, tail docking, ear notching, and identification
- Birth weights — individual or average litter weight
- Sow health observations — feed intake, milk letdown, and post-farrowing condition
- Weaning date and litter weight at weaning
- Notes section — for anything unusual that doesn't fit neatly in a box
How to Use the Template
Step 1 — Print and Prepare Before Farrowing
Print a fresh sheet for each sow when she enters the farrowing pen, ideally 3–5 days before her due date. Fill in the top section with her ID, breed, and breeding date right away — don't wait until she's actively farrowing to start.
Keep a clipboard with printed sheets, a waterproof pen, and a small flashlight near the farrowing pen. That way you're ready to record the moment things start happening, even at odd hours.
Step 2 — Record During and After Farrowing
As each piglet is born, mark it down. Note the time farrowing started and ended, count live and stillborn piglets, and observe the sow's behavior and milk letdown. Complete the piglet processing section within the first 24–48 hours as you carry out routine procedures.
Come back to the sheet at weaning to record final litter weight and any observations. Then file it — either in a dedicated folder per sow or in a general farrowing binder organized by date.
A Real Farm. A real Difference
Sarah runs a 12-sow farrow-to-finish operation in rural Ohio. Before using a structured system, she tracked farrowings in a notebook — loose entries, different formats every time, and key details missing whenever she needed them.
After switching to a consistent farrowing record sheet, she identified that two of her sows were consistently losing more than 2 piglets per litter in the first week. Looking back at her records, she noticed both sows had low litter weights at birth and poor milk letdown scores. She culled both and replaced them with better-performing gilts.
Within two farrowing cycles, her average litter survival rate improved noticeably. That one change — made possible by readable, comparable records — paid for itself many times over.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Waiting until after farrowing to fill it in. Memory fades fast, especially during a difficult or long farrowing. Record as you go, even if it means rough notes you clean up later.
Skipping the sow health section. Many farmers focus only on piglet numbers and forget to note sow condition. Early signs of mastitis, poor appetite, or abnormal discharge are much easier to spot when you're reviewing a completed form.
Not filing records consistently. A pile of loose sheets in a drawer is nearly as useless as no records at all. Set up a simple binder per sow or a monthly farrowing folder so you can actually find and compare data when you need it.
More Printables You'll Like
If you found this farrowing record sheet useful, these related templates will help you build a complete farm record keeping system:
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