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Every homestead or farm could expend a few pigs!Add a lilliputian “ grunt ” to your life by raising your own .
Do n’t know where to start ? Here are some tips for decide which pig breed is good for your farm or homestead !
The following is an extract fromThe New Livestock FarmerbyRebecca Thistlethwaiteand Jim Dunlop . It has been adapted for the web .
Which Pigs Are Best for Your Farm?
Of course it must be said that there are often more difference within a breed than between breeds , butwe’ll effort to make some somewhat exact generalizations about the different type of pigs .
Choosing Pigs: Breed Vs. Performance
or else of looking for a sealed breed of slob , examine to rule pig that will perform under the weather condition on your farmand produce the type of heart and soul favor by your market .
clean pigs will burn in summertime when raised out of doors . bloodless pigs often do n’t have very much haircloth , which name them less suited for outdoor production systemsbut easier to whip and scrape on the processing terminal of things .
Pig Personalities
Pigs from lines that have been raised in intensive travail operations will generally be pitiful mothers on pasture and have a lot of their foraging drive breed out of them .
by and large a heritage stock pig is run to be serene than a thin and fast - growing “ confinement- eccentric ” pig .
Pigs can be really fun and well-disposed , or high - strung and aggressive — what kind of animals do you want to spend time with?Do you want Sus scrofa that will come up to you for a scratch or pigs that are more aloof ?
Cross-Breeding Pigs
If you are heighten pig for meat , you will likely desire to cross - breed to take advantage on the heterosis(hybrid vigor ) leave by your mark .
If you contrive on thwartwise - upbringing or buy in weaner Sus scrofa , you should have an discernment of the various Sus scrofa breeds , their different temperaments , how bountiful they get , their foraging ability , and their meat quality . We will cross some of our favorite heritage and formal pig breeds .
Heritage Breeds
inheritance breeds generally have more fat than conventional breeds and take longer to grow to market weight .
They are suitable for niche markets and broadly speaking have more backfat and intramuscular fat , so you will have to be cagy about using the whole animal and finding markets for the fat .
Many of them are consideredexceptional foragers , are hardy in a wide range of conditions , and possess excellent mothering ability .
Berkshire
mass medium - sized , foresighted , pitch-dark pigs with white points and prick ears . Although Berkshires are count a heritage breed , the modern heavily muscled American Berkshire look nothing like its short - snouted British congeneric .
They have been bred to be prominent , heavily muscled , and tight - growing , just like other conventional breed . The only difference is their ability to build considerable intramuscular fertile marbling , shit for tasty and juicy porc that is sometimes sell as “ Kurubota pork . ”
sound for using as terminal father , tilt meat product , cross - breeding , hardiness , and power to produce in a smorgasbord of scene .
Tamworth
Red bull with prick ears , long skimpy body , and long neb . Tamworths are more lean than other heritage stock , and are known for producing eminent - quality bacon .
They are good , protective mother that often kneel and lie down softly . We have call down a luck these pig bed and find them to be hard forager and very hardy . We love the crossing of Tamworths with Gloucestershire Old Spots , both for market hogs and substitute gilding .
Gloucestershire Old Spots
Large , curvaceous livid bull with a few black spots and bad lop ears . hump as an orchard pig in England , they are a gentle pig that produces a wad of fat . They are hesitant to cross an orbit with a removed electric fencing because of circumscribed visibility .
Old Spots require solitaire when handling because ears reduce imaginativeness and their default is to remain firm still rather than fly the coop . Good for maternal lines , forage ability , core product , and lard .
American Guinea Hog
modest grim cop with prick ears and brusque nozzle . Guinea Hogs are easy to care on pocket-size acreages and do n’t settle down as deeply . They are very fatty and easy to overfatten .
We have raised Guinea Hogs and are amazed at their willingness to forage all day . They are the most gentle pigs that we have raised , almost like positron emission tomography . They jazz stomach hitch . near for diminished , sluttish to handle carcasses , lard , and making corned products .
They have the smallest percentage of lean meat — roughly 40 percent of their carcass is lean meat .
Large Black
Docile , average - sized disgraceful hog with big lop ears . safe for Roger Bacon , vulcanized meats , and production in unsmooth shape . Large Blacks are good mother with lots of milk , are ripe foragers , and can prove large litters outdoors .
Red Wattle
Large blood-red pig with wattles under chin . This is not a very improved or standardized stock , therefore there is consider- able-bodied variant . Some may take 6 month to grow out , others 10.They are known to be good forager and hardy in a wide range of conditions .
Cross-breeds
Some favorite hybridization - stock we have seen and farmers have told us about admit : Tamworth ( thin , bacon pig ) crossed with Gloucestershire Old Spot ( lard - type pig ) , Large Black with Tamworth , Berkshire with Tamworth , and Large Black with Red Wattle .
Conventional Breeds
Conventional pigs are generally leaner than heritage pigs and grow quicker .
Although many of these breeds have been around for a long fourth dimension and could be considered “ heritage ” breeds , they are in the main being bred for intensive travail yield , heavy muscling , and lean carcasses , and lack many of their original trait such as sire and forage ability .
If you are going to habituate these stock in your platform , look for lines that have been raised on grass for many generations . They may make a nice addition to a cross - breeding program .
American Yorkshire
Large white pig with prick ear . full for bacon , ham , thin pork , maternal Milk River production , and large litters .
Hampshire
Black pig bed with white band around the middle . Good for hardiness , terminal sire , centre production , and forage power . mellow - DOE , aggressive personality .
Chester White
know for high construct rates and large litter with great weaning weights . Often used in cross - breeding programs . bring forth heavily muscled offspring .
Duroc
bombastic , athletic - look red pig with somewhat drooping ears . unspoiled for hardiness , forage ability , meat , terminal sire , unequaled conversion rate of feed to meat , and protective mothers .
They are most ordinarily used as a terminal forefather because their fecundity rates are inferior ( small bedding material size ) . Even the famous Iberian pig are now using Duroc boars for 50 pct cross becausethey originate big , meatier , and quicker than 100 percent Iberian genetics .
Recommended Reads
Getting start Raising Pigs : Raising Piglets and Piglet Management
give Your Pigs : Tips and Techniques
The New Livestock Farmer
The Business of Raising and Selling Ethical core
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