I'd like to share what i've learned so far about kunekunes
Jan 22, 2021 17:57:16 GMT -5
treatlisa, elnini, and 5 more like this
Post by josiegirl on Jan 22, 2021 17:57:16 GMT -5
Ok so this is going to be a long post but I thought I'd share some of what I've learned about keeping kunekunes for other people who have them or are thinking about getting them. We've made some good decisions and some bad decision reguarding picking the right ones out and thought it could help some people ni the future. It also just feels good to share what i've learned since I find it all very interesting, and I dont personally know too many(any...) people to chat about this stuff with.
first off, we decided to get pigs because we were really looking for food security. We got our stimulus checks and with the corona stuff you really never do know what can happen our supply chain is quite fragile as it is so complex. and I personally think scheming no good plutocrats will work to make meat pretty scarce in the coming years coronavirus or not. anyway enough tin foil hat. pigs are such a fantastic farm animal especially if you have cows. i was told that by every single person w talked to about cows lol and i agree. i have butchered a boar before and have dabbled in charcuterie so it would make sense to raise our own pigs.
the only problem is that if you're depending on a breeder for piglets, youre subject to piglet prices which i imagine would really skyrocket if there is a meat shortage. not exactly secure. also, feeding a pig a literal ton of grain is not appealing to me since again you're relying on a very very complex supply chain. the other problem is that pigs are freaking scary. when my husband first proposed we get breeding pigs i said heck no!!! i didnt want a 600 lb boar with a little toddler around. noooo way. he suggested potbellies but our neighbor had gotten bit by one so i didnt want one of those either.
i ended up hearing about kunekunes from a youtube video and thought they were just the best but i figured id never find one in wisconsin and if i did theyd be way out of our budget. well i checked craigslist and lo and behold, i saw several options for way way less than i figured. we ended up taking a gamble and paid 600 dollars for a registered unwattled gilt who had been exposed to a boar but was not guaranteed pregnant. thank you jesus she ended up being pregnant and had her little piglets 6 of them one was stillborn but the other 5 were healthy and she was such a good mama. we castrated 3 and kept the nicest boar and the one gilt who was the largest and a pretty spotted ginger color just like her mama. so basically for 600 buckaroos we got the proven sow, a baby boar, baby gilt, and 3 feeders. not a bad deal! from what i can gather, she is a pretty good candidate for a breeding sow and so are the 2 breeding piglets we kept.
we figured we would need another blood line of course so we found a farm that had 3 litters upcoming. we put down the first deposit so we had first pick of 3 litters. welllll this purchase was not such a success. first off, there were not nearly as many wattled boars to choose from as we(and the breeders too) were hoping for. second, they were all the way across the state, which meant we really didnt get to see or meet them before picking them out. so they ended up giving us their recommendation and we went with it. they also did something which completely befuddles me to this day and weaned him at 5 weeks. whyy?
i dont know. we had already put our deposit down otherwise i wouldve walked away. so when my husband brought him home at 6-7 weeks i knew from looking at him right away that he just didnt strike me as breeding stock. we named him bilbo and he is by far my favorite pig. he has just the absolute best personality. problem is, he is so so small. the breeders told us his parents were medium sized, but i think they were actually very much on the small end of the kune spectrum. like mini pet pig small.
So here is my first bit of advice: there are different blood lines and different lines mature faster than others. some come from lines that people had started to use as pet pigs. they mature much much slower and wont ever get as big as other lines. bilbo i would think will be 150-175 lbs tops. our other pigs however probably 200-250. corvabella and akpr have some good information about how they are trying to steer the breed back into being meat producing hogs instead of being bred into mini pet pigs. theyve managed to scale up meat production quite a bit in recent years and according to their websites can have a 200 lb pig at 12-14 months. it will take little bilbo(and presumably his offspring if he even can mate) about 2 years to reach 150 or 175. so beware of what line your prospective pig came from!!! and dont be dumb like us and be sure to meet multiple piggies before purchasing. i know sometimes theyre very far and there arent many options tho.
Rooting i think is also genetic, some have longer noses than others. ours truly dont root at all!!! ill post some photos and you can see their enclosure. there is a gate, and a portable electric fence around that its like their yard. its not even on lol they just dont even try to get out. during the whole summer they were in that enclosure and besides damage to the turf from just walking on it there isnt any rooting whatsoever and its still grassy. amazing! they truly truly dont test fences or root.
the second thing people say is that they can eat hay and get fat on grass. we didnt get to pasture them this summer unfortunately but we've transitioned to feeding our cow hay which is clover mix 2nd cutting with skim milk poured over top with a little bit of grain. of course the hay is not their favorite and if there's no milk on the hay they look at ya funny. but they do eat it and its kept em fat and sassy. the one thing im not sure about is whether its good for the growing piglets as im just not sure what the protein content would be and cant find info about how much grain to replace milk and hay with.
another option is to learn to ai a sow with ipp semen or something. that is what im thinking about looking into. then if you decide youd like a nice big pig for roasts and hams you could plan a litter of kune crosses, but without having to keep a huge boar.
for us, i think we'll always stick with kunes i am really in love with their smooshy little faces! and ours are everything they are advertised as, besides the problem with the boar's size of course but we're going to keep him anyway he is just the sweetest. if you like the idea of breeding your own pigs but dontlike the idea of having to feed buckets upon buckets of grain to a 600 lb boar and sow or have small children you're worried about them being around kunekunes are just little darlings. if you have a cow all you need is to dump some skim milk on some nice alfalfa or clover hay with a small supplement of grain. i know its not fast food, but i do think its secure food and takes way less infrastructure and fencing than a typical hog breed.
anyway thank you for reading my book lol!
first off, we decided to get pigs because we were really looking for food security. We got our stimulus checks and with the corona stuff you really never do know what can happen our supply chain is quite fragile as it is so complex. and I personally think scheming no good plutocrats will work to make meat pretty scarce in the coming years coronavirus or not. anyway enough tin foil hat. pigs are such a fantastic farm animal especially if you have cows. i was told that by every single person w talked to about cows lol and i agree. i have butchered a boar before and have dabbled in charcuterie so it would make sense to raise our own pigs.
the only problem is that if you're depending on a breeder for piglets, youre subject to piglet prices which i imagine would really skyrocket if there is a meat shortage. not exactly secure. also, feeding a pig a literal ton of grain is not appealing to me since again you're relying on a very very complex supply chain. the other problem is that pigs are freaking scary. when my husband first proposed we get breeding pigs i said heck no!!! i didnt want a 600 lb boar with a little toddler around. noooo way. he suggested potbellies but our neighbor had gotten bit by one so i didnt want one of those either.
i ended up hearing about kunekunes from a youtube video and thought they were just the best but i figured id never find one in wisconsin and if i did theyd be way out of our budget. well i checked craigslist and lo and behold, i saw several options for way way less than i figured. we ended up taking a gamble and paid 600 dollars for a registered unwattled gilt who had been exposed to a boar but was not guaranteed pregnant. thank you jesus she ended up being pregnant and had her little piglets 6 of them one was stillborn but the other 5 were healthy and she was such a good mama. we castrated 3 and kept the nicest boar and the one gilt who was the largest and a pretty spotted ginger color just like her mama. so basically for 600 buckaroos we got the proven sow, a baby boar, baby gilt, and 3 feeders. not a bad deal! from what i can gather, she is a pretty good candidate for a breeding sow and so are the 2 breeding piglets we kept.
we figured we would need another blood line of course so we found a farm that had 3 litters upcoming. we put down the first deposit so we had first pick of 3 litters. welllll this purchase was not such a success. first off, there were not nearly as many wattled boars to choose from as we(and the breeders too) were hoping for. second, they were all the way across the state, which meant we really didnt get to see or meet them before picking them out. so they ended up giving us their recommendation and we went with it. they also did something which completely befuddles me to this day and weaned him at 5 weeks. whyy?
i dont know. we had already put our deposit down otherwise i wouldve walked away. so when my husband brought him home at 6-7 weeks i knew from looking at him right away that he just didnt strike me as breeding stock. we named him bilbo and he is by far my favorite pig. he has just the absolute best personality. problem is, he is so so small. the breeders told us his parents were medium sized, but i think they were actually very much on the small end of the kune spectrum. like mini pet pig small.So here is my first bit of advice: there are different blood lines and different lines mature faster than others. some come from lines that people had started to use as pet pigs. they mature much much slower and wont ever get as big as other lines. bilbo i would think will be 150-175 lbs tops. our other pigs however probably 200-250. corvabella and akpr have some good information about how they are trying to steer the breed back into being meat producing hogs instead of being bred into mini pet pigs. theyve managed to scale up meat production quite a bit in recent years and according to their websites can have a 200 lb pig at 12-14 months. it will take little bilbo(and presumably his offspring if he even can mate) about 2 years to reach 150 or 175. so beware of what line your prospective pig came from!!! and dont be dumb like us and be sure to meet multiple piggies before purchasing. i know sometimes theyre very far and there arent many options tho.
Rooting i think is also genetic, some have longer noses than others. ours truly dont root at all!!! ill post some photos and you can see their enclosure. there is a gate, and a portable electric fence around that its like their yard. its not even on lol they just dont even try to get out. during the whole summer they were in that enclosure and besides damage to the turf from just walking on it there isnt any rooting whatsoever and its still grassy. amazing! they truly truly dont test fences or root.
the second thing people say is that they can eat hay and get fat on grass. we didnt get to pasture them this summer unfortunately but we've transitioned to feeding our cow hay which is clover mix 2nd cutting with skim milk poured over top with a little bit of grain. of course the hay is not their favorite and if there's no milk on the hay they look at ya funny. but they do eat it and its kept em fat and sassy. the one thing im not sure about is whether its good for the growing piglets as im just not sure what the protein content would be and cant find info about how much grain to replace milk and hay with.
another option is to learn to ai a sow with ipp semen or something. that is what im thinking about looking into. then if you decide youd like a nice big pig for roasts and hams you could plan a litter of kune crosses, but without having to keep a huge boar.
for us, i think we'll always stick with kunes i am really in love with their smooshy little faces! and ours are everything they are advertised as, besides the problem with the boar's size of course but we're going to keep him anyway he is just the sweetest. if you like the idea of breeding your own pigs but dontlike the idea of having to feed buckets upon buckets of grain to a 600 lb boar and sow or have small children you're worried about them being around kunekunes are just little darlings. if you have a cow all you need is to dump some skim milk on some nice alfalfa or clover hay with a small supplement of grain. i know its not fast food, but i do think its secure food and takes way less infrastructure and fencing than a typical hog breed.
anyway thank you for reading my book lol!
