Cedar Break Farms Red Wattle Pig Breeding Program,
Our Pig Promise to You,
and how we work to keep that promise:
Our primary goal, as preservation breeders, is working to promote awareness of, and increase the numbers of, quality Red Wattle Heritage Hogs.
Our Breeding Goals:
- Producing only the highest quality breeding stock:
- Continually evaluating our own breeding stock and refining our program
- Farrow to wean on pasture with detailed records per sow
- Hogs are pasture-bred and pasture-maintained to evaluate for suitability to natural conditions, including structure for long term soundness under native conditions, varied terrain, and heat and cold tolerance.
- Routine weigh days for growth rate tracking,
- Daily interaction to identify stock that is amenable to socialization and building trusting hog/human relationships,
- DNA testing for genetic profiles on breeding stock, more information below.*
- Producing only the highest quality feeder stock:
- Getting those fat, happy, delicious feeders in the hands of as many eaters as possible.
- This is generally most people’s first introduction to the all the wonderful qualities of the purebred red wattle.
- We know we only have one chance to make a good first impression and our goal is for every feeder to have a great growth rate, be easy to handle on the family farm, and to be so delicious that those buyers come back for more.
- Our focus is on producing breeding quality piglets and getting that stock in the hands of other breeders who will fall in love with the stock as we have and help grow awareness of the many wonderful characteristics of this breed and help increase their desperate numbers.
Our Genetics Testing Program
*Please note that while being able to peek inside the hog is valuable, it’s only one tool in a very large toolbox and must go hand in hand and balance with the overall hog. Our selection criteria and breeding program reflect that.
HERD HEALTH:
We test for two traits related to herd health.
HAL (stress gene) Results can be "normal", "carrier", or "affected".
F4 (E Coli resistant) Results can be "resistant", "carrier", or "non resistant".
100% of our breeding herd tests "normal" and "resistant" and will pass those traits to 100% of their piglets.
MEAT QUALITY:
We test for four traits related to meat quality.
RN: (affected stock has less water holding capacity and low muscle pH resulting in lower meat quality.) Results can be "normal", "carrier", or "affected".
100% of our breeding herd tests "normal" for RN, and will pass that to 100% of their piglets.
PRKAG3: (deals with increased tenderness, moisture, and favorable color.) Results can be "AA", "AG", or "GG". Consider GG to be "average red wattle" and AA to be superior, with AG somewhere between.
75% of our breeding herd tests "AA" or "AG" for PRK.
This is where it can get complex. (Check out the Punnett Square to see how alleles combine)
Our few sows that test "GG" on PRK produce overall great meat, as well as having many other wonderful characteristics to contribute to the breed, such as structure, growth rate, superior teat lines, maternal instinct, and much more. As with all traits, we look at the balance and overall hog.
CAST249 and CAST638: (also deals with increased tenderness, moisture, and favorable color.) Results can be "AA", "AG", or "GG". Consider GG to be "average red wattle" and AA to be superior, with AG somewhere between.
100% of our breeding herd tests "AA" or "AG" for CAST249 and CAST638 and 100% of their piglets will have one those combinations.
GROWTH:
We test for two traits related to growth and hunger.
MC4R (relates to feed efficiency and faster growth) Results can be "GG", "AG", or "AA". While GG hogs have less feed consumption per pound of gain, AA hogs show 10% faster gain, with AG being somewhere in between.
Most of our herd is AG, and while we personally focus on feed efficiency, we don't fault piglets who are genetically geared toward faster growth, and so we do not select for or against this trait.
CCKAR: (relates to hunger, feed intake, increased daily gain) Results can be "GG", "AG", or "AA".
100% of our breeding herd tests "GG" for increased daily gain and will pass that to 100% of their piglets.
