Breeding any animal is a big commitment, and I would suggest anyone wishing to take on the challenge, may wish to talk to a variety of breeders, and even arrange a visit to a similar set-up before taking on the challenge. There may be sad times when you lose an animal and hard work with the extra additions, but mostly you will thoroughly enjoy it.

Joining the Kune Kune Pig Society is a great support system, particularly if you are breeding. You will have to notify the Society of all litters born to your sows. Pedigree certificates are issued by the society showing all the history of the parentage and bloodlines.

The sows gestation period is 3 months 3 weeks and 3 days, The average litter being 7-9 piglets and although they manage with the birth very well, unknown to the mother pig she can be a bit clumsy, so if your not on hand to watch over them, piglets can be crushed by her body weight. Handling the piglets is best left for 24-48 hours as them mother will be very protective.

If your piglets are showing signs of distress or feel cold then it may be advisable to remove the piglet(s) into a warm environment using a heat lamp or covered hot water bottle. If you think the sow isn't producing enough milk then it's a case of bottle feeding with a substitute milk powder.

It's important you keep the piglets together as much as possible, so in-between feeds place the piglet back with the group, it may keep trying to get milk from mum and hopefully this will work. My experience has been that once the piglet has been bottle fed the association with the mother is very limited.

Keeping all the piglets together is priority to gain knowledge from mummy pig on how to snuffle into the grass to get their iron intake and keeping a family unit is always the best solution.

Breeding Boars

A young boar won't be very fertile until around 12 months and doesn't reach maturity until 2 years of age. If you plan to buy a breeding pair you need to bear in mind they can be fertile from 6 months of age so they will need to be parted until suitably grown. Putting them in a different paddock with others of the same sex is ideal then they won't be lonely.

Once a boar reaches 18months of age they start to develop strong masculine characteristics with a thickening of the shoulders and their tusks can now be seen protruding from the mouth with the upper tusks being ground short by the very action of the lower tusks which curve upwards and then outward over a period of time.

With regard to the various bloodlines available, here at Brambles we are able to offer a selection of those listed below.

The Kune Kune boar bloodlines are as follows:

• Andrew
• Tutaki
• Ru
• Te Whangi