Ummmmm.
Excuse me Mr. Pig? Ummm. Why do you have teats? I am very confused. Please enlighten me. No? Just be quiet and feed you? Oh, well....okay.
I had to search out the answer for myself. I found a blog that may explain why boars have teats. At least I found a hypotheses. I was really pondering if it was just a big joke and God was laughing at the confusion. No, I'm sure he has a reason. Maybe it is this?
The following post was found at http://sugarmtnfarm.com/blog/2008/05/useless-as-tits-on-boar.html
There's an old phrase that describes something unnecessary - "Useless as tits on a boar." But these things can be deceiving.
One of our breeding goals is to increase the number of strong tits per sow. All of our breeding sows have at least 14 teats and a few have 16 teats. Realize that in judging competitions for pigs at least 10 teats is the rule so our ladies have already a head start on that score.
We started with sows with 14 teats. To move towards our goal of infinite teats what I did was keep gilts who had buds, under formed sixteenth teats, at the very back, that is to say hindmost. Some of them had daughters with rudimentary teats. Some of those daughters have now had fully producing teats in that hindmost quarter. The newly evolving teats are appearing at the back end of the line.
Why select for more teats? With the idea that more teats means more ability to produce milk. There are other factors in condition scoring but that's one thing to keep in the mix.
This explains what use are teats on a boar - he might throw more buxom daughters who produce more milk and bigger litters of bigger piglets.
One of our breeding goals is to increase the number of strong tits per sow. All of our breeding sows have at least 14 teats and a few have 16 teats. Realize that in judging competitions for pigs at least 10 teats is the rule so our ladies have already a head start on that score.
We started with sows with 14 teats. To move towards our goal of infinite teats what I did was keep gilts who had buds, under formed sixteenth teats, at the very back, that is to say hindmost. Some of them had daughters with rudimentary teats. Some of those daughters have now had fully producing teats in that hindmost quarter. The newly evolving teats are appearing at the back end of the line.
Why select for more teats? With the idea that more teats means more ability to produce milk. There are other factors in condition scoring but that's one thing to keep in the mix.
This explains what use are teats on a boar - he might throw more buxom daughters who produce more milk and bigger litters of bigger piglets.
Hmmmm. Interesting.
What do you think?
3 comments:
That was fascinating about the one family breeding program!
Hey, I wanted to comment on your "keepin it real" post, but those pages only have one massive comment section at the bottom! I wanted to add my "keepin it real" .02....or maybe .08.....lolol
Love you! Have a GREAT day!
Yeah, since blogger does not have "tabs" to make different sections, I decided to back date posts then make links at the top of the blog in order to make it look like there are sections. I am learning to use html code and link things together.
Anyway, that is why there are not individual comment sections for each of the posts in the different sections. You can still comment at the end. Maybe you could just reference the posts title or date?
How do I make my ginormous profile picture on my blog smaller? Anyone?? Anyone???
I have no idea, but it is fun to see what you look like.
Interesting fact about the piggies, I had no idea!
I also have to mention that I liked your post about "keeping it real". Everyone else always look like they have it all together, while I feel like I am just making it through the day.
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