# Pigs Mating



## Kiera (Apr 28, 2017)

If a pig is brother and sister can the be bred together?


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## greenTgoats (Jul 1, 2017)

Breeding any closely related animals results in magnification of all traits, both good and bad. You need extremely top quality hogs for that to go well. I wouldn't breed full brother and sister.


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## cpnkrunch (Dec 6, 2014)

Remember it also brings out the worst traits. Not sure about pigs because I never had a brother/sister mating, but I have seen misformed calves from father/daughter matings. Also causes problems at the gene level. Not a recommended process, sell the boar and purchase one that is unrelated.


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

If you have good clean genetics then mating close relatives, even parent-child or siblings, does not create monsters. Done intentionally it is called linebreeding. No matter how closely or distantly related always breed the best of the best and eat the rest. I figure that I cull 95% of gilts to meat and 99.5% of boars to meat. This is quite similar to how Mother Nature does it. Be the selective pressure.

-Walter


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## cpnkrunch (Dec 6, 2014)

Walt is correct, but most don't have good clean genetics anymore, too many crosses to fill the Smithfield's pig farms. The selection criteria he suggests was used to develop and "clean up" our modern breeds more than a hundred years ago. Selective breeding. That's why I suggest selling the boar and get the best available candidate consistent with your wallet.


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## krackin (Nov 2, 2014)

So cpn you are arguing against what you say was done 100 years ago. You leave a bit of a credibility gap there.


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## gerold (Jul 18, 2011)

Kiera said:


> If a pig is brother and sister can the be bred together?



If they are both the best of the Litter there should be no problem. I have done it many times with no problem.

Of course some of the offspring may be a little dumber then some of their brothers and sisters. LOL.


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## barnbilder (Jul 1, 2005)

You could probably do it for ten generations without seeing a problem, truthfully. And then only in a small percentage of individuals from each litter. The fears surrounding close matings of livestock are highly overrated.


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## cpnkrunch (Dec 6, 2014)

I do not wish to leave the impression that I was arguing against 200 years of american breed development. The american developed breeds as well as those with the -shire suffix imported from UK were refined over the years by selective breeding. The early hogs were huge 7-800 pounds, they were trimmed down somewhere around 1895-1910 to a more manageable size. Somewhere in the 50s demand went for longer and leaner, less lard, less waste. Breeders started using that as their selection criteria, we stretched them out, made more bacon, bigger hams, more loin eye, less backfat. It was about then that 3-way crosses started entering the equation, we heard the word "hybrid vigor". Sadly the number of purebred breeding animals of any given breed is now about 2000 animals. That is the gene pool for breed improvement. The animals going into the pork factories/hog farms today are crosses designed to survive and thrive under confinement conditions, maximum food conversion to watery pork for the yuppies to buy at the local wally world. Back to the original question, yes you can breed a brother to a sister, I wouldn't personally, but the pot bellied pig mills do it everyday for the pet market. Or to make sausage.


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