The Pig: Breeding, Rearing, and Marketing — John Shaqi
The Pig: Breeding, Rearing, and MarketingSpencer, Sanders
Science
The Pig: Breeding, Rearing, and Marketing
Spencer, Sanders
Swine; Swine -- Breeding; Swine -- Marketing
One of the most important points in connection with the reproduction of
the species of our various domestic animals is the provision of a full
supply of milk for the young in the early portion of their existence.
Nature herself has set us a good example in a duplicated source of milk
supply even amongst animals which usually produce only one animal at a
birth. If this duplication be necessary under such conditions, it must
be imperative on us to select those sow pigs which are intended for
breeding pigs which possess a well-formed udder, having a full supply of
teats, and these of good shape and properly placed on the belly of the
sow. Not only is this necessary to ensure the rearing of a fairly
numerous litter of pigs in a satisfactory manner, but it is held that
the number of teats possessed by a sow indicates to a remarkable extent
the probable degree of prolificacy of the sow. One can readily
understand that nature would not be likely to endow a sow with the power
to produce a larger number of young at each birth than she would be able
to rear. Of course it may be said that the sow of the present day is not
as nature first made her, in that, by selection and by feeding, the
number of pigs produced at each birth is now so much larger than the
litters of the wild sows, which have some seven or eight teats and
farrow at each litter a similar number of pigs. On the other hand,
neither the number of teats nor of the young is fixed either in the
domesticated sow, or the sow in a wild state, so that by continued
selection we are able to permanently increase, within limits, the
production of larger litters and the increased supply of milk for their
sustenance when young.
The provision of a suitable udder is even of more importance with the
domesticated than with the sow running wild, since the latter produces
each year one litter only, and that in the season of the year when the
young are less dependent on their dams; whereas the domesticated sow is
expected to rear at least two litters per year, and frequently owing to
want of care on the part of the owner the young pigs are farrowed at the
most unfavourable time of the year.
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