Helpful Terminology!

Boars: Intact male pigs

V-Boars: Intact male pigs that have undergone a vasectomy procedure. They act like an intact male but aren’t able to father their own litters.

[caption id="attachment_866" align="aligncenter" width="625"]Beautiful boars Kraft and his buddy Duke before a day of hard work on the farm.[/caption]

The hardest working pigs on a sow farm are, hands down, the adult females (sows). In previous posts I’ve talked about how they deliver huge litters, provide milk for their own pigs, and sometimes even foster the piglets from other moms. While the sows are working hard, what are the adult males (boars) doing? Simply put, they are stinking and strutting.

In the wild, boars have to find a mate, get her attention, and father a litter. At the sow farm, we use artificial insemination (more detail in a future post!). Long story short, the boars that live on the farm are not the boars that father the litters. Not only do they not have to father the litters, but they also don’t have to find a mate. These boars are one of a couple males on a farm with hundereds or thousands of eligible females. Their only job every day is just to get the attention of the females around them.

[caption id="attachment_864" align="aligncenter" width="625"]boar strutting This boar is heading out for a day of strutting. Since boars are large and can occasionally be aggressive while working, he is being led around the farm with a harness and leash attached to a robot.[/caption]

They wake up each day and eat a quick breakfast, then it is off to work. They walk in alleyways between groups of females or they mingle amoungst pens of females. While they walk, they rub against the pens, smell the females, and spread their scent. Female sows appreciate the scent of boars much, much more than the caregivers at the farm. At the end of a long day of strutting and stinking the boars get to relax all afternoon and evening in preparation for the strutting and stinking of the next day.

[caption id="attachment_867" align="aligncenter" width="625"]V-boar asleep on the job. I caught this V-boar asleep on the job.[/caption]

How do some boars become so lucky? At a young age, a couple lucky male piglets are chosen to become the farm’s token boars. When they are a couple weeks old, the farm Veterinarian comes to anesthesize the group and perform vasectomies. From that point on they act like males, but cannot father any litters. Usually by the time they reach puberty the caregivers have already named most of them. Then it is just a matter of time before they are ready to go out into the barn and strut their stuff.

[caption id="attachment_775" align="aligncenter" width="676"]Romeo relaxing after a hard day. Romeo relaxing after a hard day.[/caption]