Agri Vehicles Insurance from Greenlands

Author Topic: Kune Kunes incoming!  (Read 9445 times)

HappyHippy

  • Guest
Re: Kune Kunes incoming!
« Reply #30 on: March 13, 2014, 11:31:06 am »
Hiya, sorry for the delayed response !

If they've not got BKKPS tags on it's highly unlikely they've been registered. Even if they'd been birth notified (before 40 days old) they're too old now to register as pedigree pigs unfortunately - the BKKPS don't allow registrations for pigs older than 18 months.

What that means for you is that you won't be able to sell any of the offspring as pedigree Kunekunes - it comes back to the "without the paperwork, it's just a pig" situation unfortunately. It won't make any difference if you're raising them for pork, but if you'd hoped to sell breeding stock it effectively scuppers your plans  :(

It's such a shame there are so many pigs that haven't been birth notified and registered because the bloodlines aren't huge and every one not registered/birth notified is 'lost' from the potential breeding pool (and this is true for all pigs, not just Kunekune) it's why the BKKPS keep the costs of membership and registrations low, so as not to discourage people from pedigree breeding. Sorry, this isn't aimed at you directly, it's just a general observation and makes me so  :rant: because there are so many people who are disappointed when they find out they've been sold what they thought was a pedigree pig when it's not AND the registered herd numbers across all breeds are falling, if people were registering piglets the rare breeds might not be in the dire straits that they are  :'( (sorry ! It's my soap box subject  :-[ I'll get back in my box now  ;) :innocent:)

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but if there's anything else I can help you with just give me a shout  :wave:

Clansman

  • Joined Jul 2013
  • Ayrshire
Re: Kune Kunes incoming!
« Reply #31 on: March 13, 2014, 01:56:08 pm »
Thats perfect Karen thanks, answers all the questions we had.  :thumbsup:

We are keeping them purely for pork, we weren't planning on selling at all.

Ideally if they had been pedigree we could have added to the national pedigree stock but we may well buy some pedigree Kunes in the future with that in mind.

Cost is the main factor here for us, we are trying to produce home grown food, (not just pork) as cost effectively as we can and at the end of the day we have picked up 9 pigs for £70 (not counting diesel costs) which came with about a months supply of food so we can't complain  :innocent:

I suspect we would have possibly paid more than that for one pedigree Kune?

Kunes are perfect for us, i looked at many different breeds but felt most were too large and ate too much for what we actually need.

We have the boar in with the the two sows and he's been getting on with the job in hand this last week so hopefully that will be next years pork supply already on the way.  :thumbsup:

HappyHippy

  • Guest
Re: Kune Kunes incoming!
« Reply #32 on: March 13, 2014, 03:29:24 pm »
You'll be expecting litters in early July then  :excited: better get reading up and sorting out heat lamps, farrowing kit etc.  ;) :thumbsup:
You could potentially end up with quite a few pigs though - each sow might have anything up to 17 piglets, (though 10 is more 'the norm') :o especially if you plan on weaning the July litters and getting them back in pig straight away - that would mean another 2 litters in January sometime. Do you have somewhere to overwinter them next year ? Hard standing is a good idea to save them from being belly deep in cold mud and really trashing your ground - and you'll need to make a separate pen (if you haven't already) so you can separate the younger gilts from the boar - he won't be able to stay with them once they get to around 6 months old, or you really will be over run  :innocent: We have a very sturdy boar pen to confine Big Red when his services aren't required - it's as much to keep the gilts and sows out as it is to keep him in  ::) It's soooooo handy !

They're lovely looking pigs though - I'm certain you'll be really happy with them  :thumbsup:

NicandChic

  • Joined Oct 2013
Re: Kune Kunes incoming!
« Reply #33 on: March 13, 2014, 04:09:09 pm »
Watching this thread with interest  :)
I'm liking the idea of a couple of girls & kune kunes have been my preference so far, were just past Ayr so not too far. We would also be looking to use them for meat as first timers it would be super handy to have someone close to keep us straight/ possibly deal with/ transport for slaughter etc (just thinking/ typing out loud)
Good luck with your new additions & the coming months/ litters.

Clansman

  • Joined Jul 2013
  • Ayrshire
Re: Kune Kunes incoming!
« Reply #34 on: March 13, 2014, 04:13:32 pm »
A hard day in the sun!  :thumbsup:


Clansman

  • Joined Jul 2013
  • Ayrshire
Re: Kune Kunes incoming!
« Reply #35 on: March 13, 2014, 04:42:13 pm »
Watching this thread with interest  :)
I'm liking the idea of a couple of girls & kune kunes have been my preference so far, were just past Ayr so not too far. We would also be looking to use them for meat as first timers it would be super handy to have someone close to keep us straight/ possibly deal with/ transport for slaughter etc (just thinking/ typing out loud)
Good luck with your new additions & the coming months/ litters.

Didn't realise you were so close, i'm just North of Kilmarnock  :thumbsup:

We're planning on home slaughter/butcher/consumption only, no trips to abattoir etc and have been researching it pretty extensively for the last few months.

Its amazing how difficult it is to find information sometimes when people don't want you to find it!

Anyway we're nearly there with the legislation etc and are all sorted for overwintering/separate pens etc, just getting the killing/butchery equipment set up at the moment as we have 6 piglets nearly 8 months so hopefully in a another few months we can make a start and actually eat a few  :thumbsup:


NicandChic

  • Joined Oct 2013
Re: Kune Kunes incoming!
« Reply #36 on: March 13, 2014, 06:22:10 pm »
We're between Maybole & Minishant.....if your looking for some cockerels in a few weeks I've a few  :-J
http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/index.php?topic=42439.msg407341#msg407341

 

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