Black Boar Walking
This is our youngest breeding boar, Guy Noire. He is one of the triangle nosed pigs. He is a cross of Blackie, one of our top sows, and Spot, who used to be our top boar.
In the photo above he is foaming at the mouth because he is courting a nubile young lady, a gilt pig who is in heat. This photo was taken this spring when the leaves were just starting to come out on the trees in May. The piglets from that union should be born soon. In our climate, now is the easy farrowing season, the warm months of summer.
Outdoors: 70°F/49°F Sunny
Tiny Cottage: 70°F/66°F
Daily Spark:
The Three Laws of Politics:
For every action there is a reaction.
For every reaction there is an regulation.
For every election there’s a reelection.
Foam faced. I love it. Going to sell it to college students as new party lingo. Will split profits with you
Great idea. T-shirt with his face on it. That would sell. You put in the effort (CafePress?) of clipping him out of the original image and putting it on the shirt with the text. Let me know and I’ll put the original high rez photo where you can get it. Could be fun. :)
Wow. How long of backs can you breed for until they start having problems?
Holly calls them Choo-Train pigs. They just go on, and on, and on. One of the butchers once commented a pig was unloading that the pig “went on forever”. It is something we’re breeding for. The negative is if they get too long then they do not winter as well. We need winter-ability too. The loin is the most valuable cut. Not I’m working on figuring out how to get eight legs so they’ll support that long loin and gives us more hams and Boston butt. Maybe if we cross them with spiders… :)
My WORD Walter I have never seen a pig so long. He is like a dockshound but huge as I can tell from the trees. He must produce fantastic bacon and chops. Your breeding program is quite the success. I know someone who got one of your boars and two sows from you and she is really happy with them. Your making a reputation for yourself among those of us looking for good pig genetics and a good reputation. I am trying to convince my husband to get one of your bred gilts for next year to add to our tiny herd. If we did would we be able to keep back one of the boars? We have another sow we could keep a boar from but I would rather have your pigs genetics going into her.
What I would do is select the very best boar from the litters of your existing sows and also the very best boar from the incoming sow. Cross them to the opposite females. Rebreed them a few times watching the outcome for the very best gilts and sows. From this foundation I would then select the very best for breeding and eat the rest. If you keep doing that with each generation you will improve your herd genetics over time. It takes patience but is well worth it. Hard selection is the key. Make a list of the criteria that are important to you and evaluate each pig against that.
Walter Iwould love to hear about the criteria you use to pick your animals I know part of it is temperamant as you have mentioned that. This could be a whole book.Breeding for pasture.
In the works…
Walter, we have been raising pigs this last year in Oregon and currently have 3 sows and 1 gilt, all three sows have delivered nice babies and my son had a breeding gilt for 4H this year. I am wondering if you can tell me your thoughts on when they are ready to breed. Older then 1year? Over 300lb? Any info on helping to determine the right time would be great thanks!
We breed gilts around eight months. Typically they’ve had their second heat. They generally farrow around their first birthday.
Hi Walter,
I am trying to put together a pastured pork business on our farm in South Africa. I have been reading your blog which has been such a valuable source of information, there are not too many folks around here I can learn from so your blog is a lifesaver. Most people I have spoken to around here tell me its impossible. Our climate is a lot more forgiving in terms of winter, we seldom get any frost.
I have been trying to figure out what would be the minimum amount of paddocks/herds/separating/groups I could get away with to start off on a small scale. I am in the process of fencing a perimeter with 5 strands of high tensile electrified wire, giving me 3 ha (7 acres) to play with . So wandering how many permanent divisions (to be sub-divided on rotation) do you think are necessary for effective management considering our mild winters. I’m trying to get away with as few rotations as possible (savory style) to maximize use of space.
I think I will probably start off with 3 or 4 duroc sows and a boar and build up from there.
Do you separate your grower guilts from grower boars at a certain age to prevent pregnancy or for other reasons?
Please keep up all the great work you doing.
Many thanks,
Brian.
You’re doing the right things. Secure an outside perimeter that is solid and animal tight. I would then suggest sub-dividing it into a nine-square or tic-tac-toe type grid where you can move the animals between paddocks and house them in the center. This central area can be further sub-divided to shift where they beat up. Then just move them each year to a different part of the center, using the rest for plantings. Each week or so rotate them around the outer portion. This makes it easy to house and feed them while still being able to do managed rotational grazing. Plant fast growing crops behind them. If you get the grazing pattern down right they graze more than root. This also leaves parasites behind to die.
Three or four sows and a boar would be the minimum I would suggest. More sows would make better use of the boar – he costs feed and space. Fortunately, the more you pasture the less he cost. I like having two boars or more in a field – One is the main boar and one is the upcoming replacement boar.
We don’t separate our boars and gilts because the gilts don’t get pregnant that early. Once in a rare time we’ll get a Lolita that will take early but normally gilts don’t take until they’re eight months old and then farrow at a year. Since we slaughter at six months they don’t get that big unless I’m keeping them back because I want them to breed. Boars will start sex play at four months but aren’t really producers until after slaughter age. We slaughter boars for roasters younger and then finishers around six months. If I had groups large enough that I wanted to sub-divide then I probably would do it along sex lines as they get to finisher hog size.