Post by dunderi on Jul 17, 2013 17:27:23 GMT -5
this post is mostly just me having a whinge. (fair warning!)
I want to keep pigs. specifically i'd love Gloucester Old Spots, but they are extinct in Australia - and because of the quarantine laws you cannot import any new live genetics. There are lots of other breeds of pig here, like large whites (supermarket pork) Tomworth (critically endangered) Wessex Saddlebacks (critically endangered) Large Blacks (critically endangered) then berkshires, durocks, landrace, hampshires...... the list goes on.
I want decent sized, spotted pigs. lots of em!!
so, i found a litter of piggies, remarkably close to us - they're a large black cross apparently - a bit hush hush about what the cross may be, but being SPOTTED!!!! like they are, i'm going to take a stab in the dark and say likely with a wild/feral pig (its illegal to raise/keep feral piglets)
they are the epitome of cuteness. there's even a warning stating that "these are NOT teacup or mini pigs, but large pigs and will grow to be huge" (there seems to be a huge market for little pigs for pets or something going on at the moment) they've got them marked at $60 each!!
now we cannot have even one pig where we are. the land is too small (our shire says you cannot have pigs on smaller than 40 acres, go figure) and we're on a main road so i couldn't hide it :/
so technically these little piggies are not in my range. however, when we move to the property we're hoping to acquire soon (6 months, and counting) i'll be hunting me some baby piglets like these ones.
a question for the swineherds:
what i do want to know is, if you take spotty, large growing pigs of unknown parentage, and maybe do a sibling breeding to start with and then cross it with something more common (ideally i'd like to breed something halfway between the size of a tamworth and a duroc, with spots. maybe even with floppy ears like that)
what would you cross it with? what breeds would you integrate over the generations? will a big spotty boar throw spotted piglets if crossed over a duroc?
I want to keep pigs. specifically i'd love Gloucester Old Spots, but they are extinct in Australia - and because of the quarantine laws you cannot import any new live genetics. There are lots of other breeds of pig here, like large whites (supermarket pork) Tomworth (critically endangered) Wessex Saddlebacks (critically endangered) Large Blacks (critically endangered) then berkshires, durocks, landrace, hampshires...... the list goes on.
I want decent sized, spotted pigs. lots of em!!
so, i found a litter of piggies, remarkably close to us - they're a large black cross apparently - a bit hush hush about what the cross may be, but being SPOTTED!!!! like they are, i'm going to take a stab in the dark and say likely with a wild/feral pig (its illegal to raise/keep feral piglets)
they are the epitome of cuteness. there's even a warning stating that "these are NOT teacup or mini pigs, but large pigs and will grow to be huge" (there seems to be a huge market for little pigs for pets or something going on at the moment) they've got them marked at $60 each!!
now we cannot have even one pig where we are. the land is too small (our shire says you cannot have pigs on smaller than 40 acres, go figure) and we're on a main road so i couldn't hide it :/
so technically these little piggies are not in my range. however, when we move to the property we're hoping to acquire soon (6 months, and counting) i'll be hunting me some baby piglets like these ones.
a question for the swineherds:
what i do want to know is, if you take spotty, large growing pigs of unknown parentage, and maybe do a sibling breeding to start with and then cross it with something more common (ideally i'd like to breed something halfway between the size of a tamworth and a duroc, with spots. maybe even with floppy ears like that)
what would you cross it with? what breeds would you integrate over the generations? will a big spotty boar throw spotted piglets if crossed over a duroc?