We recently traded breeding services with our friends, Nate and Tiffany. They had three goats that needed to be bred. We had two gilt pigs that we needed to breed. So we swapped. We brought her goats and her boar pig home. Well, that was nearly three months ago and our gilts were still coming into heat! Not good. The boar is short legged. But that’s not all that’s short, if you get my drift. Then, to top it off, Will noticed that he only had one testicle! To get baby pigs this summer, we had to do something and quick!

Luckily, Will found a red wattle boar listed on Craigslist only 130 miles from us. So I called and yesterday we made a quick road trip. We met some nice folks and had a good visit. The fellow’s mom runs a family-sized greenhouse business, so we had a good time not only talking pigs, but greenhouse too. It was a lot of fun.

This morning, we swapped boars in the pen after worming the new guy last night…just to be sure.

It just goes to show you, homesteading is seldom cut and dried and even here, a lot of things can go wrong. Like last week when a big round bale tipped over and killed one of our favorite 300 pound angus/holstein heifers. What a blow that was! Homesteading is never perfect; life is not perfect. And you’d better learn to roll with the punches and point toward the future with hope. — Jackie

9 COMMENTS

  1. , Mat, another,

    I called the owners to explain. I was hoping they weren’t waiting for some of their gilts to have piggies, but they butchered them. They’re doing the same with T-rex. Sorry, T!

    Jackie

  2. Ralph,

    Not that I know of; it was just one of those things, although I do wonder at his dwarf legs maybe affecting his “working part” too.

    Jackie

  5. What to do with a Boar that can’t? Bacon, Ham, Roast, Chops, Sausage, lots of options. If he was borrowed, I guess it is just return him home with a note attached.

  6. Sorry about your cow :(. I had to laugh though at your discription of the boar that couldn’t.

    Today we officially began our adventure into farm life with our first purchase of baby chickens. 12 little babies are chirping happily in their brooder in my used-to-be-now chicken-brooding sewing room. We are so excited!
    cindy baugh

  7. Jackie,

    Are short legs indicative of something in boars? Are short leged boars more often sterile than long leged boars?

    I am familiar with some physical clues in cattle for fertility (such as scrotal cercumfrance) , but not in swine.

    Sorry about your heifer.

  8. Those big round bales scare me, and that’s why. I’m trying to avoid having anything on my homestead that I couldn’t wriggle out from under if they tipped and fell on me.

    (My land is pretty steep, so things tipping over isn’t a danger, it’s a reality!)

  9. Too bad about the heifer, but that’s farming!

    Just out of curiosity, were you able to butcher her and thus salvage something from the disaster?

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