AI breeding?

[ourflockof4]

My wife has been wanted to get pigs to raise on pasture and breed. She found 2 gilts from a pasture based farm that she thinks will work great for what she wants to do. They are large black, red wattle crosses, both parents on the farm and are supposed to be doing great on pasture. My question is how difficult would it be to AI them instead of getting a boar? With only 2 a boar just doesn't pencil out very well. With our current plan the offspring would all be terminal, so we could adjust the boar genetics to get what we want for a finished hog. If they become good sows we could always add a boar in the future for a true pasture breeding operation.

Does this seem like a viable option? Everything that I've read makes it sound like it isn't all that hard to AI them.

 

[Cornish Heritage]

Like all animals, some pigs have very visible heats. some do not. We have found the Large Blacks to be very difficult to tell on. I can never see any difference in them when they are in heat except that the boars are frothing & going.

Large Black/Red Wattle crosses are known as Black Wattles. We have raised those here before & they are a great meat pig. Large Blacks & Red Wattles are both good on pasture, don't root much & taste WONDERFUL. For a terminal cross you want another good breed.

A word of advice here though, KNOW your market. Pigs have 2 litters a year so piglets can add up. It is highly unlikely that you will eat that many pigs in a year. If you are going to be selling the piglets at weaning then the breed of boar you get is not SO important BUT if you are going to be selling pork then the breed is very important. You do not want to introduce a cross that will tear up your pastures. For example - Hampshires are terrible rooters. If you are pasture raising then you want the semen to come from good pastured stock so that the piglets thrive.

If you are marketing pork then purebreds will sell much better & at a higher price. Chefs want the purebreds so they can charge a premium for their meals.

If you are going to be marketing "heritage" pork then the boar needs to be another heritage breed. GOS makes a nice cross into what you have.

Keeping a boar really is not that expensive - I have written a section on our FAQ page addressing that issue - http://www.cornishheritagehogs.com/index.php/chh_faq (Scroll about halfway down the page.) HOWEVER if you keep a boar its another good reason to get a heritage, docile breed. We found the GOS tore up our pastures more than the Large Blacks but nowhere near as bad as the Hamps.

Liz

 

[ourflockof4]

Thanks Liz. Not having a very pronounced heat cycle is one thing that I have not thought about. We went and picked them up on Friday. Their mother is a LB/RW cross, and their father is pure LB. One of the gilts has wattles and the other doesn't (came from a litter of 16). The mother, father, and grandmother were all onsight and looked very healthy and were much more docile then the commercial hogs we already had at home.

We are still trying to figure out our market, with is another reason we are hesitant to get a boar right now. Without even trying we had 6 hogs sold 2 days after we bought them as freezer pork. With a little bit of marketing I know we could sell a lot more. It also seems that in our area there really aren't many poeple breeding pigs, and the one that are are breeding club pigs. Anytime I see feeder pigs come up for sale they are gone in a day or two.

My thought right now is that we could have 2 different breeding lines. Breed one gilt to another heritage breed and raise them out on pasture, the other could be breed more for fast gain on feed and could be raised on a drylot. We could then get a better feel for our local market and go from there. If we can find a big enough market for heritage pork and feeders then we would more then likely get a LB boar. I hope to be able to get the heritage market to work out, but I'm affraid in my area cheaper pork may win out.

 

[Cornish Heritage]

At least you are thinking things through which is a great start. I know many heritage pork raisers have told us that when they charge a premium price for their pastured pork they sell WAY more than if they just sell a bit above the norm!

Whatever happens enjoy those pigges Yes they will be MUCH calmer than a commercial type hog.

Liz