SWINE

● stout-bodied, short legged omnivorous animals

● Order Artiodactyla
● Species Sus scrofa domesticus

Basic requirements
● Feeds
● Water (Mature pig will need 25-30L a day -cleaning included)
● Transportation and marketing
● Location
● Housing and equipment

Common Terminologies
● Boar- mature male pig with intact tests
● Sow- female pig that farrowed
● Gilt- not yet farrowed
● Shoat- weighing approximately 60kg
● Barrow- male pig castrated
● Suckling- young pigs up to weaning
● Weanlings- weaned pigs approx. 20 mos.
● Liter- group of piglets
● Liter size- number
● Pork- meat
● Farrowing- giving birth
● Standing heat- sow or gilt ready to be serviced
● Abattoir- slaughterhouse
● Carcass- body of the pig dressed out
● Creep feed- ration for piglets
● F1- first offspring
● Gestation- pregnancy
● Heterosis- superior quality from crossbreeding
● Lactation- producing milk
● Wallow- large container with water for pigs to cool off
● Weaning- removing young

Vertebral formula C7 T14-15 L6-7 S4 Cd20-23

Dental formula I3 C1 P4 M3 x 2 = 44

BREEDS
 ● European wild pig- coarse hair, longer and stronger tusks, young are striped
● East Indian pig- Eat anything
● Largewhite -entirely white with medium sized erect ears
● Landrace- medium to large drooping ears, excellent mothers and good litter
size
● Duroc- red hog, resistance to stress, ears are 2/3 erect and 1/3 hanging
● Hampshire- black with white bands encircling front of the body, also the legs
and feet
● Berkshire- black with six white points and four white feet
● Pietrain- white color with six white spots
● Poland China- black body with six white points, poor mothering ability
● Chester White- Solid white with thick dropping ears, dual purpose breed
● Hereford- cross of white and red blood stocks
● Lacombe- solid white, long bodied, large dropping ears
● Large Black- black, very large with drooping ears
● Mieshan- wrinkled face and skin, most prolific
● Heizou- long, coarse and bristle hair
● Large Black-White- hair coat of black and white patches
● Philippine native- small solid black or black with white belly, prolific, good
mothering ability

Signs of healthy animals

● With shiny hair, smooth skin
● good appetite
● active and moves around without signs of lameness
● normal breathing, respiration snd temp
● no abnormalities
● no signs of scouring
● TEMP adult 38.5- 39.5C piglets 39-10C
● Skin and mucous membrane- reddish or pinkish
● Hair coat is not too coarse
● Respiration 10-20x p/m (very rapid may indicate illness)
● Pulse rate 60-80 beats p/m
● Dung depends on the feed and solid
● should react to noises/movements
● Urine volume 5-30 mL/kg body weight /day
● Normal weight at birth 1.3kg

TRAITS TO CONSIDER
● Growth rate- ADG less than 500 bad, average 550, good more than 600
● Backfat thickness- should produce more meat than fat (minimum thickness
of 2cm for 90 kg)
● Feed efficiency- more than 4.o bad, average 3.5, less than 3 good
 ● Carcass traits- can only evaluated if the animal has been slaughtered
● Sow productivity- liter size, weight at birth
● Conformation- physical build
● Unsoundness- abnormalities affects productive and reproductive efficiency
of an animal (blind teats, hernia)

Selection procedure
Initial selection -done shortly at birth
Final selection -6-7 pos old/ 90kg
Bases of selection
● based on individual performance
● based on pedigree or family
Methods of selection
● Tandem method -one trait is only considered
● Eyeball selection- based on their physical appearance

Selecting boars
● well developed muscles
● 4-6 mos. old selected for masculinity in appearance
● should have big equally sized testicles
Culling boars
● failure to meet standards
● homosexual boars (boars that shows no sexual desires at 10-11 pos old)
● highly temperamental and vicious boars
● impotent boars
Selecting gilts
● Mammary development (minimum of 6 pairs of properly spaced nipples)
● Long body is desirable
● Extremely large or small nipples is avoided
● Good physical appearance
Culling gilts
● Reproductive failure (failure to concieve after 2 meeting)
● Poor milking ability
● Feet and leg problems
● Damaged udder
● Poor liter size
● poor maternal instinct/ mothering ability

● Backfat thickness is measured over the first rib (behind the shoulder),
last rib (can be felt) and the last lumbar vertebra (midway between the
last rib and the tail head).