Back when I was a kid and my dad had pigs in every building that could possibly contain them on the farm we had a boar for a short while. I’m not really sure why we had it, I just remember having him … thinking he was HUGE … and then that he was gone. His name was Vindicator and I have always thought that was the perfect name for a board. In fact I like it so much so that it just may become the “boar name” for the farm (regardless of how many boars we have over the years). Naming our new boar is even more fitting though because of where the name comes from.
My dad got the name idea from a Jimmy Stewart/Maureen O’Hara movie titled, “The Rare Breed”. Basically it is a cowboy movie about a bull that comes over from England and needs to end up in Texas and it has Jimmy Stewart (he’s Bulldog Burnett) and Maureen O’Hara, so what else could you want. Here is why Vindicator is the perfect name though … the bull in the movie … it is a Hereford! It’s a perfect fit for us then. Our Hereford boar is now Vindicator!
Now that we have the name thing out of the way, here is why I decided to purchase a purebred Hereford boar. Right now we have one Hereford sow and a couple other crossbred sows (Berkshire crosses). They all have had nice litters and been good mothers and each of them has their benefits. With the crossbred sows we gain a little hybrid-vigor and with the Hereford we help maintain a pure line that was bred for an outdoors based system. By having a purebred boar we are able to have the best of both worlds right now.
In the future I can see us adding to our Hereford herd and possible adding some other crossbred sows to make some three-way crosses, but for the time being I need to work slowly and make sure I’m doing things the way I want to and the way they need to be done. Right now … Vindicator is hanging out with the Hereford sow. I can’t wait until she farrows again because those little red pigs with white faces sure are cute!
