[Joy Bell Farm]

i found a 50/50 boar piglet berk sire,york sow large litter sow has 16 teats. Think that will be a good trait to add into my pigs genetics. I dont care breed just want meat pigs that taste good and do good on pasture. Since im on pasture i dont want lots of white pigs. So breeding him to my red wattle mix, berk and york, hamp doroc mix will i get a good mixture of colors? I dont mind if i get some white those will be sold but i only want to keep colored pigs out of the breeding. He is white with black spots. I did not know how dominant white is in pigs. Is there a site that talks about gentics lol

 

[highlands]

White is a dominant gene so it is very easy to select against.

White is not a problem for us on pasture. I assume you're worrying about sunburn. We are north of you but shade, wallows work wonders.

 

[Joy Bell Farm]

Thanks so will be some work it sounds lol. My area is mostly open cattle pasture not lots of shade. My york mixes i had burned all the time. So i sold most but kept 1 back. I had there shelters and tarps but they where to busy rooting to notice they where burning lol

 

[highlands]

Genetics is fun work. Color is one of the easier things to play with.

For the shade a few posts and a awning suffice. We have brush and trees which work very well as shade for the most part.

We have a Yorkshire line but don't get burning in other than piglets. They have a lot of hair, use the mud wallows and the shade. Might be climate some too but I don't think so. Certainly we're not like Arizona, Texas or Florida but here's probably not too different sun-wise than Missouri. I think the shade may be the big issue.

The place we've occasionally seen burning is in piglets if a sow farrowed out in the middle of a field with no shade. But there even black skin and hair is not enough protection - they all burn, all colors. What I do in a case like that is set up an awning. Rare but it works.

-Walter