Burrrr street! Brass monkey cold. A different globe's being warmed, cold. The ground will break your plow point, cold. Make a farmer wish he was an office dweller, cold. Well, not quite that cold.
Yesterday, while doing the "shiver me timbers" shuffle down to the water shut-off valve, (which is right beside the road) a neighbor slowed down, cracked her window about a quarter of an inch, an hollered out, "how do you keep them little piggies feet from freezing off with all that snow around?" With synapse firing slowed to a near standstill by the cold, I hollered back "I make them change their socks twice a day!" Expecting the middle finger, the message must have been lost in transmission, or translation, both a result of the fierce wind and the itty-bitty crack of her window. She started laughing a great big ole laugh, I just didn't know if it was at me or with me.
Actually, it's the beau-coup amounts of straw that keep the pigs from freezing. The more the better. Straw is as important to outdoor pig production as refrigerator loads of antibiotics are to indoor pig production. In these parts there are two main types of straw available, wheat and oat straw. Wheat straw is to oat straw what lead is to gold, in other words, if you can find oat straw, buy up all you can. Oat straw is more absorbant, and it's a thicker and cleaner straw than wheat. The problem is, you're as likely to strike gold as you are to find a source of oat straw this time of year.
All that being said, any type of bedding is better than no bedding at all, so hay, shavings, sawdust, or even old newspapers can be used in a crunch. The main thing is getting something between the cold ground and the animals, especially if you have young ones.
We normally put a foot deep layer in the huts for cold weather, and a three or four inch layer for warmer weather. Between being ground up by the sow's hooves, or being eaten as roughage, we add a little straw every four days or so. Here's a little video action about straw in our huts:
With actual low temperatures expected to be below zero ( 
ruh rhroo, Shaggy) by Thursday, we'll put a big load of straw in the huts tomorrow. This Febuary, a farming neighbor is going in halves with me to grow five acres of oats on his land. I'll supply the seed and labor to get it all sown, and he'll harvest and bail it next summer. Not a bad deal on my end, as good oat straw is hard to find.
We'll be sending out an e-mail fairly soon with new order and pick-up info on our pork products. Thanks for reading!
Pork & Greens