The first of our the new hogs that will be coming to Tick Creek Farm soon, is an American Guinea hog gilt named Sharon. She is coming from Branch Water Farm in Lugoff, SC so her full name is Branch Water MS Sharon. I’ll break that down a little better: Branch Water is the breeding farm’s herd prefix. MS like the piggy? Nope. MS like the state. Because she is from a specific line of these pigs that came out of Laurel, MS, a common way to designate this is to include MS in the name. The line is known as the Sumrall line because the Gary Sumrall and his family were the origin of the line. Sharon? That is dual purpose. My mom’s name was Sharon and the community that the Sumrall family line was in is also called Sharon.

In part two I’ll go into some details about my boar that is currently in Griffin, GA.

If you want to learn more about American Guinea Hogs, including the Sumrall line, I highly recommend picking up a copy of the book Saving the Guinea Hogs: The Recovery of an American Homestead Breed by Cathy R. Payne, EdD. https://guineahogbooks.com/store/