For this post, we are going to focus on the section just below the official name of the pig. Much of this information is basic and self-explanatory, but there are a few parts that need some explaining or elaboration.
The first thing you’ll see at the top left corner (“Registration No.: AKKPS 3230”) is the registration number that the AKKPS assigns your piglet once you notify them of a litter being born on your farm. We discuss the registration process in more detail here, but for this post, just know that this number is given by the organization. One neat aspect of this number is that it’s actually an indication of when the pig was registered since the beginning of the AKKPS. The very first pig ever registered is #0001, so George here, was the 3,230th pig to be born and registered through the AKKPS. You can use these numbers to see how quickly the AKKPS has grown over the years, as well as the popularity of Kunekunes! For example, I have a sow named Betsy. She is AKKPS 0263, and she is 5 years old. In her most recent litter of piglets on my farm, one of them was given registration number 7263. This means that in the 5 years since Betsy has been born, the number of piglets registered through the AKKPS has grown from 263 to 7,263!! Isn’t that amazing?!
The next item of information is simply the DOB, or ‘date of birth.’ On this paperwork, we learn that George was born on April 2, 2016.
Next you’ll read “I.D. #: Ear Tag 08.” This tells you how the pig was identified on his home farm. Within the AKKPS, there are three options for identifying pigs: microchip, ear tags, or tattoos. By far, the two most popular are microchips and ear tags. If you elect to use tattoos for pig identification, the AKKPS website tells you where and what to put on your pigs. Every farm selling registered Kunekunes elects which kind of these three forms to use. Here, at Home Away From Home Farms, we use ear tags. A pig must be assigned an ID by the breeder, before it can be sold. Check out our video about ear tagging piglets here!
Under that, you’ll find “COI: 3.6%.” We have a video and blog post that goes further into detail about this, but for this posting, all you need to know is that “COI” stands for Coefficient Of Inbreeding. This basically tells you how closely related the pig’s parents were. Every individual farm has their own preference on how significant COI’s are, what an acceptable COI is, and what an unacceptable COI is. Before we ever bought our first Kunekunes, I spoke with someone on the board of directors at the AKKPS, and she told me that her farm standard was 15% or less. Here at our farm, we shoot for less than 10%, but we aren’t thrown off if we breed a pair who’s piglets are in the 11% or 12% range. One thing about COI’s is that a pig’s COI is no indication of what their offspring’s COI’s will be. This means that just because a boar and a sow both have low COI’s, it doesn’t at all mean that their piglets will have low COI’s. In fact, the sow on my farm that has the highest COI of all my breeding stock has consistently given piglets with some of the lowest COI’s. Confused yet? No worries…if it’s something that you’d like to dig into a little more, definitely check out our other video/post about it. For now though, lets move on.
At the top of the right hand corner, you’ll see where the sex of the pig is listed. Here we see that George is a male.
Next, you read “Wattles: 1.” Wattles (also called “Piri Piri” in Britain) are elongated skin tags that hang from either side of a Kunekune’s face. It is a heritage breed trait that is often times desirable to many buyers. A Kunekune can be born with 0, 1, or 2 wattles. The registration paper will tell you how many wattles the pig had on the day it was born. The reason I specify that is because are known to fall off, either simply due to age, or even because of a fight with another pig. There’s no reason to worry if you’re looking to buy a pig who’s papers say she was born double wattled, but when you see her, she is single wattled. She just lost it somewhere along the way!
Under wattles, you’ll find “Color: Ginger/Black.” There are a specific number of coloration patterns you’ll find within the Kunekune breed. We have a video describing many of them here, and a post showing them as well. For the most part, the colors a pig is born with won’t change, with the exception of browns. If a piglet is born brown, brown/white, or white/brown, their colors will most likely change within the first year or so of their life, so that the brown colored areas change to black. So again, if you’re buying a pig who’s papers say she is brown/white, but you go to pick her up and she looks like she is black/white, there’s no reason to worry.
Next, you see “DNA Case #: NCS 6400.” This is another number that will be assigned to you once you have gone through the registration process. It is a number that is given to each individual piglet by the company that does the DNA testing. The number will always begin with the prefix NCS.
Underneath all of this information, you’ll see where it reads, “Breeder: Alejandrina Goldberg / De Colores Farm.” The breeder tells what farm the pig was born at, as well as the owner of that farm. Because he was born there, George’s ‘breeder’ will always be listed as Alejandrina Goldberg / De Colores Farm, no matter how many times he is sold.
Underneath the breeder is where you’ll find “Owner: KaTrina Brown.” This information tells who the current owner of the pig is. This information changes every time a pig is bought/sold. Since I am the current owner of George, it is my name that is listed. Sometimes, only the owner’s name is listed, while other times the name of the owner’s farm is listed as well. This just depends on what information has been submitted for the paperwork. It’s no big deal if the farm name is missing.
And that sums up everything you need to know to understand the second portion of an AKKPS registration paper! Check out the post covering Part 3 to better understand the last section of information!
Here’s a video that explains everything we just covered: