Last week we drove to Salt Lake City, Utah to pick up our new kunekune boar from Susan Drake in New York. This is a new line that just was imported to the United States. The boar line is the Tutaki line. My first thoughts upon seeing him in the crate at the airport, was that he was huge. Usually kunekune piglets grow really slow. He is very large for being just 9 weeks old. Big works for us with kunekunes. I think girls with girth do better at farrowing time than those that have small compact little bodies. We are quite pleased with our new boar and after much discussion (we drove 900 miles that day, so we had lots of time for discussion) we decided we are calling him Yankee. He is a wonderful addition to our farm. We look forward to using him for many years to come as one of our breeding boars.
That same day we also talked with a swine nutritionist and picked up some sow concentrate. We also raise Berkshire pigs and Duroc pigs in addition to our kunekune herd. Sows require more nutrients and vitamins than pigs that are to be finished for butchering do. We got some great information from the swine nutritionists and we are very happy to have met him. They we were off to look at some Berkshires. The owners wanted to sell the entire herd. They were not really what we were looking for. We are pasture based opperation. We like short snouts on our pigs. The shorter the snout, the better suited the pig is for grazing and not rooting. These Berkshires just did not meet our requirements.
