CULLING PEDIGREE PIGS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 234, 3 October 1928, Page 21

CULLING PEDIGREE PIGS.

The pedigree pig-breeder who aims at maintaining a high standard of excellence in the herd—and nothing less than that is of any good in these days—must be a man, or maybe a woman, whose heart is hard in the matter which is the subject of this article. Culling can never be entirely dispensed with in a single operation. It may begin when the litter is no more than a few days eld, and it will propablv have to be repeated at least twice later on There are faults in a litter which may only become apparent as time goes on. just as there are others which are obv'ously to be discovered at the very beginning. It is when a large litter has to be dealt with that the greatest difficulty in deciding which pigs shall be saved and which shall be scrapped may arise. During the first few days nothing need be done unless it is to scrap one or two obviously undersized or ill-developed members, for this .is the danger period, during which accidents may happen.

At the end of the first week, however, all risk of accident of the ordinary kind should be over,- and then, supposing the eow has ten or twelve average pigs, comes the time when, so to speak, the sheep must be separated from the goata. Though there are eome sows which are such exceptionally good mothers that they can rear as many as ten or twelve piga without hurt to themselves or to any of the progeny, it is more usually the rule that a litter of eight ia quite enough. And here it should be noted that w1..1e the eow may be capable enough to deal with a large family, the matter is often more in the hands of the piglets than in her own.. The weakest of the litter invariably go to the wall, and no one can help it even if one wanted to. Perhaps this is just as well—at any rate, it simplifies the question of sorting the better and stronger pigs from the weaker. Here, however, the question of sex asserts itself. One will always try to save the gilts as far as one can in preference to boars. It is only when the former are plainly of too poor size or quality that they should be sacrificed at the first culling. The. removal of a boar or two may help here, and may often be a wiser proceeding than scrapping a gilt which for the time being does not seem so promising. One should, at any rate, always be more severely discriminating at this stage with the boars than with the gilts, and if the latter, especially when the proportion of them is small, show any signs of promise, they should be saved for the time being. A little later on one will be able to give a more definite opinion on this point. When weaning time arrives there should no longer be any doubt as to which are the best pigs of the litter, and the inferior ones should then go straight away. At that age the pigsare marketable. If culled at an earlier date it means either knocking the culttOn the head or giving them away t4 someone who is prepared to take ojf the trouble of rearing them. At weaning time one may find that most of the pigs of the litter are worth keeping; On tlie other hand, thefe may be very few. But in any csle'a further culling will be needed, and' that may not be possible for some little time. . Between the ages of eight weeks and four or five months certain faults wnich were not apparent at an earlier stage', may develop, hit the really good judge' has not much to fear on this ocore. If be has done his pigs as they ought to be done after weaning he will very soon be able to satisfy himself ,as to most of the points which have to be taken into account. As growth proceeds boars, present more difficulties than sows, foi .jood and bad points do not develop so rapidly as in the gilts; but a boar up to four or five months old, and sometime* even longer, can still be, marketed for food and if the worst comes to the worst, that is the best -hing to do with him father than let him go as a second-rate aire to somebody else's herd. He is better out of the Way than transmitting his weak points to progeny which will never be; i- credit to the herd from which no eame.