Meet our new boar

We recently made a big decision: to get our own boar. After some initial successes with artificial insemination the last few attempts have drawn blanks. The fact of the matter is that getting a sow in pig using AI on a small scale is somewhat hit and miss. This is partly because with saddlebacks it’s difficult to be certain when the sows are in season and the two day window of opportunity is easy to miss. For a boar the whole process comes naturally and should do a better job than me.

Because we have been breeding registered pedigree British Saddlebacks we could not locate a boar within reasonable distance that we could borrow. Although there are issues with bio-security and movement protocols on and off respective holdings, the advantage of borrowing a boar is that you don’t have the cost of keeping and feeding an additional pig. 

It was not straight forward locating a boar for sale either. There are not that many around. At the end of 2018 there were only 128 registered saddleback boars in the country. Taking into account the need for a different bloodline as well as distance their scarcity increases. 

Eventually we located a suitable one for sale near Scunthorpe. We have been up to collect him and he now seems settled in his new home. His pedigree name is Tudor Dominator 6. For day to day use, all our pigs have Anglo-Saxon names so we will be calling him Alfred or Alfie. 

I've had to do some re-arranging of our pig paddocks including some new fencing and gateways.  

We have great expectations for our new boar and he has already been into action with one of our sows.

Our rather handsome new boar