AN AMERICAN PIG IN THE PHIL IPPINES TO MEET ASIAN DEMAND, THE U.S. IS SENDING IN ITS BEST PORCINE DNA

摘要

Three hundred thirteen-five is a beauty and sure to have beautiful babes, too. Born on March 30, the fifth piglet in litter 313, she's an elite sow, bred to produce several generations of breeding pigs that will ultimately produce delicious piglets-a lot of them. She's a Yorkshire, a breed known for strong maternal traits, such as the size of their litters, the birth weight of their piglets, and a relatively short interval between litters. The best ones grow up fast and also produce lean meat. Even among Yorkshires, though, 313-5 comes from exceptional stock. Her father, a boar with the romantic name BTI4 the Unit 30-6, was ranked, as of Dec. 15, sixth in the U.S. among Yorkshires on the "sow productivity index," a measure of maternal traits, and fourth on the "maternal line index," which combines maternal traits with edible traits, such as stores of back fat and muscle. Her mother is a descendant of the late Wisconsin Steel, the champion boar at the 2009 Wisconsin State Fair; the name is a play on the relatively cheap price, $2,500, paid for the boar-a "steal" for such a productive stud. In short, 313-5, her children, and even her grandchildren will be bred to breed and enhance a widening gene pool. Her great-grandchildren, though, will be raised for slaughter. And though she doesn't know it yet, she's going global. She's headed to the Philippines.