A sketch displaying labeled body parts of a swine fills the screen, accompanied by a small image of a swine in the right corner.
It’s important to know the words used by swine producers. When you know and use the right words, other people who own swine will be able to understand you. So, if you are interested in working with or showing swine, you should be able to identify the anatomy using industry terms.
A woman guides a muscled pig across a farm using a thin stick while a man brings a brush near the pig's mouth. The pig licks the floor and the brush.
Pigs need to move athletically, have sufficient body capacity to digest feed, and good muscling to provide meat. Important items to consider when selecting the ideal pig or hog include body structure, muscling, structural correctness, and reproductive soundness.
When considering swine to be used as market hogs, they should be lean, more heavily muscled than not, and be between 240 to 270 pounds when they are harvested.
The loin of the pig is highlighted.
A lean pig or hog will have a loin that is narrower than its shoulders and ham region and will be trim through the lower body. As a meat animal, we want the pig to have a muscular loin and wide, deep ham.
The woman continues guiding the pig.
A more heavily muscled hog will show muscle definition, rather than just looking “thick”. When looking at the hog, you should see muscles move when the pig walks. Often market hogs that are extremely wide over the top are fatter than is desirable.
A series of close-ups highlight the feet and legs of a hog.
It is also important for a market hog to be sound. Soundness refers to an animal’s ability to get up and move around with ease. Most market hogs are raised on a concrete floor, so sound feet and legs are essential. Sound hogs will have good feet and legs and will generally grow more quickly.
Multiple hogs are caged inside an animal farm.
Selecting feeder pigs involves some of the same criteria, such as considering leanness, muscling, and soundness. In addition, producers should look for animals with a large frame because they will generally mature later and stay leaner at higher weights.
A still side image of a hog transitions to a series of images depicting boars and sows, with their reproductive body parts highlighted.
Selection of hogs to be used as breeding animals should involve evaluation of reproductive soundness and growth potential, in addition to the other previously mentioned qualities. Boars that are to be breeding animals should have two functional testicles and sows should have fully developed vulvas and a minimum of six teats per side of her belly.
Baby pigs are lying near their mother, transitioning to a scene where many piglets are suckling milk from their mother's teats inside a cage.
Producers should also note the age of the animal when it reaches 230 pounds. Fewer days are more desirable. Breeding animals coming from a large litter are also desirable as it is more likely they will have large litter sizes of their own.