Durocs to make cross barrows?

Luke30 · Post by **Luke30** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 8:49 pm

floppy eared belted hogs, ans chester/hamp cross pigs were the cats meow whe I was showing back in the late eighties and early nineties. but today they just don't use the floppy eared cross pigs very often. It's funny because my dogs don't discriminate when I buy pigs ears for them to chew on. Is'nt that all there good for?

Darin · Post by **Darin** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 9:06 pm

My dog only likes Landrace ears.

kam · Post by **kam** » Fri Oct 02, 2009 9:22 am

I've done this, but its been years ago. I had a duroc sow that I bred to Prototype from LVS. We had up and down ears, BUT, one of the barrows was Grand Champion in a local County Fair. All the pigs grew great and they seemed to all do well.... Maybe I should do it again.

MidnightCurfew · Post by **MidnightCurfew** » Mon Feb 01, 2010 12:16 pm

khog wrote:ears on a hog are like hair coat on a steer. I don't eat either one. As far as major shows go you may not win there, but I did see some down eared blue butts do decent at a local show. Maybe the judges at the large shows don't have the sense to pick the best pig no matter what their ears look like. Or maybe no one is showing bent ear hogs because they are afraid they won't be pretty enough to place in the crossbred class. Be the trend setter. It may take a few shows but it will only take one judge picking a bent eared hog to make everyone scramble to find floppy eared crossbreds.

I bred a Duroc Sow to Midnight Curfew at Shipley's.

As far as the pigs go, I bred another one back to him.

I don't know if that tells you anything

KID · Post by **KID** » Mon Feb 01, 2010 4:22 pm

I just had a litter of Brut pigs (blue butt from Cain's) out of our pure Duroc sow. She had 9 all hamp looking pigs, 5 are boars and they are wide, great rib shape, nice rumps and packed with muscle. And it appears that all 9 will have erect ears.

ns · Post by ns » Wed Feb 03, 2010 12:29 pm

been doing this for years to make females. We breed Duroc boars to exotic sows and keep lots of females to breed. Have show lots of the progeny from this too, almost all have up ears if sows have much york in them at all from my experiences. You do get lots of solid black hogs doing this, and even some tri color funny lookin stuff. But if you need mass, and just sheer stoutness I would not be affraid of doing it at all.