It’s registered, it must be. Right? Or maybe not? What does purebred mean exactly? Can it be purebred but unregistered? What does registration mean in your program? As a breeder, genotype is important to understand as that is the stock’s potential of what it can pass on to future generations. As a consumer, it can be more important to understand phenotype, what it looks like, and more importantly, what it tastes like.
All domestic hogs descend from Eurasian wild boars (Sus Scrofa) that were captured and selectively bred starting, according to mitochondrial DNA studies, about 9000 years ago. Because of the profound differences created by selective breeding over the years, domestic hogs today are variously considered a subspecies of the wild or even a distinct species, Sus Scrofa Domesticus or simply Sus Domesticus.
Going to the simplest definition, a purebred is a cultivated variety of an animal species achieved through the process of selective breeding. Selective breeding for specific traits will eventually consistently produce those specific traits. The trick is to set the desired traits without setting undesirable ones, and all that while maintaining genetic variability.
In the most basic terms, if your Red Wattle, bred to a Red Wattle, consistently produces Red Wattles, it could be considered “purebred”. While this is true, documentation is important and more commonly, people rely on registries and associations to provide supporting documentation to their buyers, using the definition that a registered animal bred to a registered animal of the same breed will produce purebred/registrable offspring.
Why are we circling these definitions? It’s important to understand where you are coming from in order to have a map to where you want to go. Red Wattles, as a breed, haven’t been around 9000 years. We aren’t sure how long they’ve been around, but we do know all our current animals are descended from a small herd recovered in East Texas in the 1970s. We also know Durocs, Landrace and other breeds were used in the recovery, even a pot-bellied pig is documented. The important part is that our current Red Wattles are documented and breeding true.
So you do have purebreds. If you are happy with your program, why would you register?
Registration allows you to sell breeding stock as well as feeders with documentation and confidence to the buyers. It gives your hogs value and identity if something should happen to you and someone else needs to place them. It also gives you a supportive community of like-minded red wattled hog farmers and ranchers who can provide you with registration, documentation, and confidence in the both the genotype and phenotype when you bring in fresh genetics.
Registration gives your hogs their heritage and their future.