Your Tamworths give birth!
These heart-wrenchingly cute piglets are the offspring of the four Tamworth gilts you MyFarmers helped name. Some of you may remember voting for a quartet of related names with: Scarlet, Ruby, Crimson and Cherry winning out. Appropriate names for our gorgeous red-heads!
In the past few weeks all four have had their first litters of piglets — with Ruby the last to ‘pop’ just yesterday. In all there are now 25 new Tamworth piglets in the piggery.
The contrast between litters even among the same breed, with the same boar is marked. The largest litter was nine (Ruby — which perhaps explains why she was last!) and the smallest was four (Crimson, who was second in line).
There was around a month between the first and last piglets born but the difference in size is enormous. Cherry’s, who were first out, are considerably bigger than the newborns in Ruby’s pen, as you’ll see from the great photos above.
MyFarmerAndrew
MyFarmerMorris
MyFarmerRob
MyFarmTeam
MyFarmerWendy
What’s going to happen to these? Will some be kept for breeding or is it off to the sausage factory for them all? Or is it too early to make that sort of decision?
Presumably we won’t be naming all of them – but how about Crimson 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 and 1.4 etc. ?
(Do you think I work with computers too much).
Most likely they’ll end up as food at some point, though some may be kept on as breeding animals. As you suggested, a little early to make that call yet.
I’ll suggest Crimson 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 etc. but not sure the farm team will go for it!
Thinking of 25 new names may be a daunting task even for all the myfarmers. Perhaps leave it up to F. Moonshine to name all her grand-piglets?
You can carry on the 1.1 generation quite a long way but you would always need to know where you started from. From my great-grandfather I would be Walter 1.1.1
25 huh? Make life easy and just use Brit Gold Medal winner names….. Crimson Mo has a ring to it/ Ruby Jessica……….
and of course the male with the biggest set of thighs would have to be named Chris right?
As I named their mums, and Tamworths are my favourite pigs…. do I get to keep one of the piglets? I’ll happily take a spare runt or something…
One’s in the post to you now Farmer M…
(not really!)
Strictly speaking the piglets aren’t Tamworths… not pure-bred at least. Our resident boars (a Berkshire & a British Lop) are the likely sires.
Well done all four Mums. Funnily enough going to a wedding near Tamworth this Saturday. My niece is marrying a Mr Barley. Perhaps one of the piglets could be named Barley and the others along the same lines? Are there 25 crops though? A good quiz for MyFarmers?
Barley, wheat, oats, rye, corn… though I’d feel a bit sorry for the piglet called “Oilseed Rape”!
maize, linseed … only 17 to go!
hhhmmmmm I thought Tamworth was mainly wheat.
MyFarmers have done well so far but to continue – millet (sp?), mustard, sunflower(s) angelica, worzel(s), sugar beet, spud(s), celery – the latter are root crops I know but are still crops.