Show i I Hybrid Hogs Produce Super Meat I I Development of a super meat I yielding hybrid hog by the application application application cation of the same inbreeding methods methods methods meth meth- that produced hybrid corn is the goal of farm fann authorities Thirteen state experiment stations are cooperating in what is known as the Regional Swine Breeding laboratory George A. A Montgomery writes in Cappers Capper's Farmer They are inbreeding some of the more popular breeds with the hope of establishing superior types In this they are following the methods of those who developed inbred parent stock for modern hybrid corn The uThe hog men are little further advanced in their program than corn men were 15 or 20 years ago Mr Montgomery points out They have their but the work of I main in his herd 1 Sows must be beable beable beable able to produce large litters of live pigs 2 A high percentage of pigs born alive must survive to market age 3 Pigs must gain rapidly from birth to market weight 4 Feed requirements requirements requirements re re- re- re for each unit of gain must be low 5 Body form must be besuch besuch besuch such as to produce high yields of the most desir desirable ble cuts of p pork rk He uHe has succeeded in fixing the thelast thelast thelast last three characteristics so some of his lines and crosses of these lines excel purebred Polands that have been propagated by ordinary breeding methods However inbreeding inbreeding inbreeding in in- breeding lowers vitality and to a lesser extent fertility and crossing two unrelated inbred lines of the same breed does not produce the hybrid vigor that comes when two breeds are crossed Winters ex- ex G r p r l 6 l p 5 New type Minnesota hybrid hog combining them to see which ones nick has hardly started Minnesota and Iowa for example have crossed inbred lines of Poland Chinas with certain elements in the results highly encouraging others distinctly disappointing U At At the Minnesota station Dr M. M L. L Winters working with Poland Chinas has saved only individuals that best combine five economically economical economical- desirable characteristics To ly re- re plains that this is because the base is too narrow Work done at the Minnesota station with ordinary purebred boars bears out this theory A Across Across Across cross of a purebred boar of one breed with a purebred sow of another another another an an- other gave pigs that were superior to either parent breed The crossbred crossbred crossbred cross cross- bred gilts mated to a purebred boar of a third breed were still better better better bet bet- ter than a two breed cross If Winters' Winters beliefs are borne born out a farmer of the future may start for example with sows obtained by crossing the best line of inbred Polands that come out of Minnesota's Minnesota's Minnesota's Minne Minne- sota's experiments on the fastest line of developed at the Illinois Experiment station These would then be he bred to an Inbred Duroc boar Doar from the line developed at the Ohio station Gilts of that line might be mated to an inbred Berkshire after which the producer might go to a Hampshire boar and continue thereafter the Hampshire- Hampshire Poland-Duroc-Berkshire Poland rotation |