24 Pork Production 



the sows are not settled promptly and the energies of the 

 boar are unnecessarily sapped. When running with the 

 sows, the boar should not be expected to breed many 

 more than one-half the number which under the other 

 system he would be able to take care of. Even when 

 records are not a necessity, it is commonly better to 

 arrange to turn the sows in to the boar. In this way 

 the number of services of the boar can be controlled and 

 his energies conserved. The result is that a maximum 

 number of sows can be gotten in pig in a given time. 

 With convenient arrangement of the lots and the practice 

 of breeding the sows at feeding time, or just before, very 

 little extra time will be required. 



In pure-bred herds where an accurate record of the 

 breeding of each pig is necessary, any other system than 

 that of bringing the sows to the boar is practically out 

 of the question. In pedigreed herds, the number to be 

 bred is frequently large, also, and several boars are usually 

 in service at the same time, and it is desirable that each 

 sow be bred to a particular boar. The importance of 

 getting each sow successfully bred the first time she comes 

 in heat and the desirability of maintaining the vigor of 

 the boar at a high pitch, are so great as to warrant the 

 time and attention required to breed the sows individually, 

 under most conditions. 



With the opening of the breeding season, the sows 

 should be watched closely for evidences of heat. While, 

 as a rule, a sow in heat is sufficiently demonstrative in her 

 behavior to make detection easy, yet in every herd there 

 are ordinarily a few sows which show few of the usual 

 symptoms. The practice of having the boar and sows 

 in adjacent fields facilitates observation. When in heat, 

 the sow will be found along the fence next the boar and 



