What Could Be Better Than Seeing Ribs On A Bar-B-Q?

silly question, more ribs!

OK pig rearing 101, pigs are unusual in that they can vary in the number of ribs, ranging from 13 to 17 ribs, so why breed ones that have only 13 when you can grow pigs with 16 or 17 ribs? that is the question that Jeff Braun, a farmer in Mount Gambier, South Australia who has bred pigs for the past 30 years asked himself, and this is the answer he came up with,

'a sow has double the butter fat and double the milk solids in its milk compared to a dairy cow and when we look at the 21-day litter weights we are now achieving, it has to produce more milk solids in a day than the best dairy cows in the world', Mr Braun said, 'we can alter the length and the capacity of that udder as we change the length of the middle, by selecting for sows with 16 to 17 ribs we can get 30 per cent more udder capacity, most sows at Myora Farm now deliver 21-day litter weights of more than 100 kilograms, Europe is typically averaging 80 kilograms, this has enabled us to now produce a 100 kg live weight animal by 16 weeks of age, which is also some of the highest growth rates of animals in the world', as a bonus all Myora Farm pigs are also resistant to E. coli and the next goal is to eliminate all respiratory diseases, along with the need to administer vaccinations,

like I said at the beginning, more ribs, bring them on!