Happy Pigs Taste Better: A Complete Guide to Organic and Humane Pasture-Based Pork Production

By Alice Percy

What does it take to raise a happy pig? Armed with experience from running the largest organic hog operation in Maine, author Alice Percy is well equipped to answer this question.

Pigs are much closer to their cousin, the wild boar, than other domesticated animals. Ethically managing pigs requires an understanding of their natural mannerisms, including factors such as social grouping, mating, territory, housing, and, of course, their love of wallowing in the mud.

In Happy Pigs Taste Better Percy offers a comprehensive look at raising organic, pasture-fed, gourmet meat. She advises readers on pasturing and feeding hogs organically, as well as managing the breeding herd and administering effective natural healthcare. In addition, she provides an overview of marketing and distribution for those looking to turn their hog farming operation into a lucrative business.

This book is the first of its kind to offer an in-depth approach to organic, high-welfare commercial production, including information on:

- Designing a hog business from the ground up

- Housing pigs, including benefits and drawbacks of various housing systems

- Evaluating the nutritional content of common organic feedstuffs

- Butchering humanely and economically

- Recordkeeping, with templates for financial tracking

Whether you’re looking to convert a conventional operation to organic, grow your backyard hog operation into a viable business, or start from scratch, this comprehensive book has got you covered, nose to tail.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
• Release date: Jun 18, 2019
• ISBN: 9781603587921

Alice Percy

For ten years Alice Percy operated a commercial hog operation on her farm in Whitefield, Maine, becoming the largest certified hog producer in the state. Percy has mentored hog farming startups through the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA), and helped to develop the association’s Raising Organic Pigs fact sheet. She has presented workshops on organic hog husbandry at MOFGA events and the annual NOFA Summer Conference. She served on the MOFGA board from 2011 to 2018, including two years as board chair. Percy currently works as the manager of the Organic Growers Supply division at Fedco Seeds.

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INTRODUCTION

Why Happy Pigs?

Pigs and humans have been together for a long time—well over ten thousand years! The history of the two species likely first joined in southwestern Turkey, though new evidence based on DNA sequencing suggests that wild boars may have been domesticated independently in thirteen other regions, ranging from central Europe to the Indian subcontinent to central China and Oceania.¹ In the millennia that followed, domesticated swine spread to practically every corner of the globe. Christopher Columbus brought pigs to Cuba, while Hernando de Soto brought them to the North American mainland. They arrived in Australia with the First Fleet in 1788 and in New Zealand with whalers in the early nineteenth century. All around the world, pigs’ hardiness, versatility, and tastiness have made them desirable companions for humans.

In North America the pig quickly naturalized in southern regions and was brought west by European colonists traveling from the eastern seaboard. For pioneers on the move or living in crude conditions, pigs were easier to care for than sheep or cattle and provided a valuable source of cooking fat. Their appeal to settlers was further enhanced by the fact that their meat could be easily preserved by salting or brining before the invention of refrigeration.

In the early days of pig production, swineherds moving pigs to urban markets only expected to travel 10 miles (16 km) per day, so operations were generally small and local, with each farm keeping a small number of swine for consumption by the family and neighbors.² The advent of rail travel facilitated the movement of grain to pigs and pigs to market, allowing the size of operations to increase. With the invention of modern grain harvesting machinery, traditional methods of feeding hogs by ranging them on wild land or in cornfields lost popularity, and by the 1950s the development of modern intensive swine production was well under way. The physiology of the pig changed in tandem with production methods: With easy access to cheap vegetable oil and widespread adoption of refrigeration, demand for lard and salt pork fell while demand for lean meat rose. Early American settlers would scarcely recognize a post–World War II hog farm. Instead of a handful of short-coupled fat hogs rooting in the woods for grubs, they would see hundreds or thousands of long, lean animals packed into indoor facilities and eating grain.

Efficiency became the name of the game. Farmers and researchers made enormous strides in swine productivity in the second half of the twentieth century by breeding for reproductive capacity (the average litter size increased from 7.5 pigs to 11 pigs, and the average number of pigs weaned per sow per year nearly doubled), feed efficiency (the average feed-to-gain ratio shrank by more than 20 percent), and phenotypes that increased marketable yield (average lean yields increased by 30 percent).³ Improved knowledge of swine nutrition, the ability to accurately measure the nutritional content of feedstuffs, and the development of certain feed additives contributed to the improvements in feed efficiency and reduced the excretion of nitrogen and phosphorus in swine effluent. In and of themselves, these developments had the capacity to improve farm profits, benefit consumers with lower grocery prices, and ease the strain on the natural environment by reducing the land base required to produce the US pork crop and reducing the threat to water quality.

Unfortunately, things did not work out that way. The new efficiencies required scale and heavy capital investments to fully realize, which impeded entry to the market by smaller producers. Today, just four large meatpacking operations process nearly two-thirds of the hogs produced in the United States.⁴ These operations have extensive control over market pricing and, understandably, prefer to work with larger producers who can provide high volumes of meat and afford to run on slimmer margins. While per capita annual pork consumption has fluctuated between 45 and 60 pounds (20.4 and 27.2 kg) for half a century, the American population has more than doubled since 1950, resulting in an increase in overall pork consumption that significantly outpaces the gains we have made in feed efficiency.⁵ And despite small farmers’ complaints about the modern consumer’s expectations for cheap food, even the consumer hasn’t benefited: The inflation-adjusted price for bacon at the grocery store rose by 6 percent between 1950 and 2016.⁶ The biggest beneficiaries of modern pork production techniques are wealthy middlemen, not farmers, eaters, or the earth.

Meanwhile, the biggest losers are the hogs themselves. The modern pig lives a very different life from that of its ancestors a century ago. Instead of roaming the woods, foraging, or living in a sty with an outdoor yard and eating scraps, it lives indoors from birth to death and eats a scientifically balanced but very homogeneous diet. A well-run confinement grower facility is not necessarily injurious to hog comfort—the best facilities are climate controlled, well lit, well ventilated, and impeccably clean—but producers in the single-minded pursuit of efficiency cut corners in these departments all too often. It is not difficult to find the sort of operation featured in exposés by animal rights organizations: crowded, dirty, damp, dark, stinky, and staffed by overworked and undertrained handlers. Even in the better facilities, the incentive is always there to produce more animals in less space and less time. By the late 1960s most sows were confined to farrowing crates for birthing and lactation—cages so small that the animals could not turn around, let alone move freely. Later, crating was extended to gestating sows as well.

Meanwhile, the average age of weaning dropped by about half, which required the development of highly refined, protein-rich diets based on animal products such as dried blood plasma. Growing hogs stressed by overcrowding resorted to cannibalism, leading producers, in turn, to begin the practice of routinely docking tails. Farms chasing ever greater feed efficiency use synthetic feed additives such as ractopamine, which is certainly effective but increases stress response to aggressive handling and increases the number of nonambulatory pigs.⁷ Selecting for ultralean, heavily muscled body types has encouraged the proliferation of the halothane gene, which can cause sudden death in stressed animals. As long as reducing production costs is the only way for the producer to succeed, the animals will continue to be the losers.

Fortunately for the pigs, many consumers care about them. Few Americans have a direct connection to how their food is produced anymore, or think much about where their BLT came from, but most are sentimental to some degree about animals and want them to be treated well. Most also want their great-grandchildren to have water to drink, food to eat, and air to breathe. When confronted with the negative impact of the modern livestock industry on the environment and animal welfare, some consumers will absolutely go into ostrich mode rather than change their buying habits, and some will decide to avoid meat entirely. Others, though, learn about alternative ways of getting meat to the table and decide either to raise their own meat or to support producers who are dedicated to environmental protection and animal welfare—and they understand that those principles come at additional financial cost. This demand creates a genuine opportunity to start creating a better system.

Alternative methods of hog production (including certified organic, pasture-based, and other extensive methods) on homesteads and family-scale farms benefit the farmer, the hog, the environment, and the consumer. High-welfare hog production benefits the farmer because the product distinguishes itself on the market. Competing in the mainstream markets as a small producer is most likely a nonstarting proposition, and definitely a losing game, especially if you are committed to maximizing animal welfare (the margins in mainstream production are too slim to allow this commitment). As a niche producer, however, you can exercise some control over your scale, your markets, and your profitability. The pig obviously benefits because it is allowed to be a pig (and a happy pig, at that!) instead of just a production unit. Like its ancestors, it gets to experience sunshine and free movement and exercise its natural instincts. The environment benefits because small-scale farms are well adapted to composting manure instead of handling it as liquid effluent, turning farm waste into a resource rather than a contaminant. If you grow or purchase organic feed, the environment benefits doubly because your farm supports crop production practices that conserve soil quality and avoid toxic synthetic materials. Consumers benefit from the satisfaction of a connection with the source of their food, the comfort of knowing that their bacon habit doesn’t come at the expense of animal welfare, and above all an improved dining experience—happy pigs really do taste better!

Fully realizing all these benefits at a sustainable price requires informed decision-making by both farmer and eater—and that is where you and this book come into play.

A Bit about Me

I was born and raised on a small dairy goat farm in Whitefield, Maine. Every summer my father raised a couple of pigs in the backyard in a ramshackle little pen that we moved daily so that the pigs could enjoy fresh grass. My parents wouldn’t buy me a horse, so I spent a lot of time playing in the pigpen—one of the first things I learned about pigs is that they won’t cooperate with a rider!

My childhood on the farm led to an abiding interest in crops and animals alike. My high school advisor urged against pursuing an agricultural degree because I was a good student, so I enrolled at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, in their environmental studies program.

At the time I was a strict vegetarian. My eating habits were the result of concerns about the living conditions of livestock on large confinement farms—having grown up eating happy animals, I couldn’t bring myself to buy grocery store meat. However, I met my husband-to-be during the summer before college, and he was adamantly against such rabbitlike tomfoolery. So we compromised: I would add meat to our shared diet if we raised it ourselves in a way that we could feel good about. I commuted an hour each way between the world of academics and the world of agriculture. At school I made every attempt to turn my environmental studies major into a degree in sustainable agriculture by focusing all my projects and papers on farm-related subjects. At home we bought our first three pigs, and I fed them each morning before driving to my first lecture at 8:00 a.m. In 2005, within a matter of a few months, I graduated from Colby, married, and started a fledgling farm operation with a litter of purchased piglets. Our farm grew and diversified rapidly; it seems as though we experimented with nearly every species of livestock and crop over the years, but hogs were a constant.

Over the span of a decade, we tried a number of approaches to raising and marketing hogs, including most of the techniques described in this book. With every change we learned something new about how to manage hogs for maximum animal welfare, productivity, and profit. By 2009 we were running the largest certified organic hog operation in Maine, and by 2011 the farm was our family’s primary source of income. We built our business on the slogan and principle that Happy Pigs Taste Better, producing meat of gourmet quality with unimpeachable ethics: certified organic, pasture raised, fed locally grown feed, and humanely handled and slaughtered. When we started out on this venture, we had little to go on beyond my father-in-law’s experience running a conventional confinement hog operation and my childhood memories of raising a couple of pigs each summer in the backyard. We made all the mistakes you can possibly imagine, but as it turns out, perseverance, energy, and flexibility can earn you a degree in organic hog husbandry at the school of hard knocks (which remains the only university to offer such a degree).

In 2015 our family decided to take a hiatus from farming for an undetermined period of time, for personal reasons and off-farm opportunities. While I miss having pigs around, this finally gave me the opportunity to write the book about organic hog farming that I wish I’d had on my shelf when I purchased my first litter of piglets.

About This Book

This book offers a comprehensive guide to high-welfare hog production, from conception to pork chop, as well as a more cursory overview of the marketing and financial management skills required to successfully operate a small business and an introduction to the agronomy of crops commonly raised to feed or pasture pigs. If you are serious about raising pigs on pasture commercially, I recommend reading the book in its entirety. Of course, there is more to hog farming than any one book can cover: If you wish to grow your own feed, you may need to seek additional information, and anyone attempting to start a business should make a deeper study of marketing, financial management, and legal regulations.

Homesteaders may skip the sections about marketing, but I would still advise them to study the sections on financial management. Drylot producers (who do not intend to pasture their animals) may skip most of chapter 4. The book should prove useful to producers on any scale common in the world of niche pork production, though the largest producers can take advantage of automated systems that are not within the scope of this volume.

CHAPTER ONE

Designing from the Ground Up

As a new hog producer, you will face dozens of decisions before you even get the first animal to the farm. Will you operate seasonally or year-round? What age classes of pigs are you going to keep? What breeds or crosses should you consider? Are you selling live pigs or meat? What is your market? This chapter helps the beginning producer navigate these preliminary choices, which will affect many future decisions about scale, housing, and marketing.

Seasonal versus Year-Round Operation

One advantage of raising pigs, compared to raising many other species of livestock, is that you can run a perfectly viable operation for only part of the year. This is thanks to their rapid growth rate: For most breeds it only takes a few months to raise a weaned piglet to slaughter size. In my region many homesteaders and diversified farms purchase feeder pigs in the spring, raise them through the summer, and slaughter them in the fall. This approach minimizes shelter and bedding costs, because the animals require only the simplest shelter to protect them from rain and provide shade. In some circumstances and regions, the natural environment may provide adequate shelter for a seasonal operation, but in most cases it is wise to provide a simple roofed structure and to have some bedding available in the event of persistently wet weather. Raising pigs only in the summertime allows farmers to take a well-deserved break in the winter and to avoid the hassle of dealing with drinking water and chore time in the snow and freezing temperatures.

On the other hand, you can buy feeder pigs in the fall, raise them through the winter, and slaughter in the spring. This approach allows you to take advantage of the low fall feeder pig prices (fall pigs may sell for as little as half the price of spring pigs, because of lower demand). It evens out the workload and possibly the cash flow through the calendar year and may give you an opportunity to use space in your barn or hoop house that would otherwise stand idle through the winter. You can also avoid the inevitable fall crush at the slaughterhouse: Between peak hunting season and the popularity of raising pigs and broiler chickens in the summertime, slaughterhouses are often booked solid in the fall and standing idle in the spring.

Seasonal production generally limits you to feeding out weanlings; it would be more difficult to run a breeding operation on a seasonal basis. However, one possibility is to purchase pregnant gilts or sows, sell the piglets, and then slaughter or sell the sow. The success of such an enterprise would hinge on the dependable availability of pregnant females at a good price, a strong market for the piglets, and a market for the culled sow that allows you to recoup a reasonable portion of your investment in her. Most producers would prefer to keep the profit potential of a pregnant female in their own pocket and would only sell such an animal at a viable price if their facilities were overstocked. If you purchase a conventional sow just before she enters her final trimester of gestation, you can still sell certified organic piglets and profit off the difference in pricing between the two markets while investing a minimal amount of money in feeding the sow organic grain (the culled sow, however, would have to be sold on the conventional market). This approach is potentially a sound business model and is permissible under the national organic standard, but many people would feel that it violates organic principles because it relies on the regular influx of conventional stock.

Breeding or Feeding?

There are three basic types of hog operation: finishing operations (which keep no breed stock, but buy piglets and produce slaughter-size animals), feeder pig operations (which keep breed stock and produce weaned piglets), and farrow-to-finish operations (which keep breed stock and produce slaughter-size animals). Some operations are hybrids; for example, a farm could keep breed stock and sell some piglets while feeding out others, either on a seasonal basis or to even out the size of their grower groups. There are some larger producers that specialize in growing out a particular age class of pigs, such as raising weaned piglets to 100 pounds (45 kg) and then selling them to a finishing operation, but this is uncommon for small operations.

Keeping breeding animals gives you the most control over your genetics and the early management of your weanlings. It also allows you to keep a closed herd (with no live animals arriving from off the farm), reducing your biosecurity risk. Many farmers choose to run a feeder pig operation because they prefer working with calm, well-socialized sows to dealing with pushy, excitable slaughter-size animals (finishing hogs are basically teenagers and can be equally obnoxious!). If you manage your breeding herd well on a farrow-to-finish operation, it can help you control costs on your slaughter-size animals because your expenses won’t include a separate profit margin for the producer of the feeder pigs.

It’s important to note, however, that the margin of error in a breeding operation is slim. Managing a breeding herd introduces a level of complexity and risk that is far greater than simply feeding out weanlings. As I previously mentioned, keeping breed stock usually obliges you to keep pigs year-round. Because of their greater size, breed stock require sturdier shelters than growers; farrowing sows also require more bedding and shelters that provide thorough protection against wind and rain. Breedings must be correctly planned and executed, or you will be pouring feed (otherwise known as money) into unproductive animals. There are dozens of reasons, from nutrition to disease, that sows can fail to conceive or to carry their litters to term. While pigs in general are hardy and healthy, nursing pigs can easily die from exposure, starvation, poor maternal behavior, and disease. Although breeding animals are generally calmer and easier to handle than growers, they are also much larger and may become aggressive if they decide that a human is competing for a mate or is a threat to their young. This safety factor is greatest if you decide to keep a live stud boar instead of using artificial insemination. For these reasons, I do not recommend that novices start out with a breeding herd—raise out a few rounds of feeder pigs first to get the basics down before you try playing on the varsity team!

Raising feeders keeps things simple and generally reduces the overall risk to your operation, but it leaves you at the mercy of suppliers when it comes to the genetics and health of your piglets, and it increases your biosecurity risk because you will constantly be bringing new animals onto your farm. The cost of purchasing piglets from a feeder pig operation will also eat into your bottom line. While organic piglet prices tend to fluctuate less than conventional piglet prices, a period of high demand can push prices so high that they are commercially unsustainable. A finishing operation’s best tactic is to develop an ongoing relationship with a single producer who has good biosecurity practices and can reliably produce the volume and quality of pigs you need, and whom you can trust not to price gouge when the market spikes.

Choosing a Pig Breed

The first thing to decide about pig breeds is whether you are going to stick to a single breed or raise mixed-breed hogs. Raising purebred hogs makes sense if you have a lucrative market that demands a particular breed of hog (some chefs are extremely, I would even say unjustifiably, attached to specific heritage breeds), or if your business plan involves selling registered purebred stock. For most farms, though, I recommend mixed-breed hogs. Using multiple breeds gives you more flexibility when purchasing stock; allows you to combine useful attributes from different populations to create hogs that are suitable for your climate, management style, and market; and produces animals with hybrid vigor (increased genetic diversity can contribute to improved production statistics and disease resistance). On the less practical side, crossbred herds are often more fun to look at; when pigs of different colors and patterns are crossed, it can result in a rainbow of colors, spots, and stripes! If you do choose mixed-breed hogs, though, it is helpful to understand the genetics that are going into your crosses.

Some breeds have been particularly favored by the modern pork industry, and most populations of these breeds have been selected for good performance in a conventional management system. Other breeds have been largely ignored by the modern pork industry, and their populations have been maintained by small farmers and homesteaders with an interest in preserving the species’ genetic heritage. Many keepers of the heritage breeds tend to disparage the improved breeds, but both categories of breeds have their advantages and can be useful in a pasture-based farm’s breeding program. An incredible amount of money, research, and effort has been invested into refining the genetic base of improved breeds to yield stellar growth rates and reproductive rates. Any producer without a good trust fund, regardless of their agricultural philosophy, cannot afford to ignore the profit potential of those genetics. On the other hand, heritage breeds have retained traits that are important to the pasture-based producer but useless to confinement operations, including: hardiness in variable weather; resistance to, or tolerance of, internal parasites; strong foraging instincts; and good maternal ability. My preference when crossbreeding hogs is to work with animals of both kinds.

In my opinion, there is an overemphasis on pig breeds in the world of niche pork. Yes, there are differences among breeds in terms of productivity, foraging ability, temperament, and pork quality, but there is also plenty of variation on these metrics within breeds. When it comes to pork quality, especially, I put much more emphasis on the farm’s feeding program and cleanliness, on good handling at slaughter time, and on the quality of the butcher’s work than on breed. A large part of the reason that heritage breed pork tastes better on the whole than modern pork is that producers who favor pasture-based systems, varied diet, and humane handling also tend to gravitate toward heritage breeds. In a blind tasting I would put my money on pork from a Yorkshire raised on clean pasture and fed high-quality grain and vegetables over pork from a Berkshire fed on garbage and kept in a crate. When purchasing your breeding stock or feeder pigs, keep an open mind and consider health, conformation, and specific traits that will benefit your operation over the breed name.

These breed descriptions include the ideal appearance for each breed, as described by the standards set by their breed associations. These standards typically include parameters for characteristics such as face shape, ear position, and coloration that have no direct impact on productivity or meat quality. Such factors may be of greatest interest to producers of show stock, but they can also be useful indicators of an animal’s genetic purity for a meat producer who is shelling out extra money for purebred breed stock or piglets.

American Guinea Hog

Guinea Hogs are descendants of the old-fashioned landrace homestead hogs of the Civil War–era rural Southeast.¹ There is some confusion as to whether those hogs are related to larger reddish-brown pigs also called Guinea Hogs that were imported from West Africa in conjunction with the slave trade earlier in the nineteenth century, but it seems unlikely that the two populations are related.

Coloration. Most Guinea Hogs are solid black, though they can occasionally be found with a reddish hue, red stripes in a pattern like a wild boar’s (especially in young piglets), or even solid red coats. Breeders hold differing opinions as to whether these variations are undesirable or reflect the original genetic heritage of the breed, as described above. A few Guinea Hogs have small white spots, but excessive whiteness is not considered desirable.

Conformation. Guinea Hogs are among the smallest of hog breeds, generally weighing in at less than 300 pounds (136 kg) at full maturity. They are short coupled and tend to carry large amounts of fat, especially if grain fed. Their snouts are short, their faces dished, and their ears short and upright. Their hair coat tends to be on the long side.

Other characteristics. Given their small stature, American Guinea Hogs should be slaughtered at 100 to 150 pounds (45–68 kg) live weight, rather than the typical 250 to 280 pounds (113–127 kg). Even using these lower weight standards, though, it may take them longer than other breeds to reach slaughter size. Guinea Hogs do thrive better than most breeds on high-fiber diets and may fatten excessively if fed a grain-heavy diet (even healthy Guinea Hogs have a thick layer of fatback and heavy marbling). Litter sizes tend to run small, averaging about six pigs per litter. Guinea Hogs have a markedly calm and friendly temperament that, combined with their small size, makes them a great candidate for small or timid handlers, or to be kept at school farms or petting zoos. Guinea Hogs have little genetic susceptibility to boar taint (see Castration in chapter 7, page 174).

American Landrace

In 1934 the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) imported two dozen of Denmark’s jealously held Landrace pigs to use in breeding experiments. The agreement with Denmark prohibited the USDA from disseminating purebred stock into the commercial market, so the Danish swine were crossed with various American breeds, particularly the Poland China, and later—after the commercial restrictions were lifted in 1949—with Swedish and Norwegian Landrace pigs. American Landrace pigs are popular in modern commercial swine production.²

Coloration. American Landrace pigs should be pure white. A few black speckles are permitted, but black hairs or spots are undesirable.

Conformation. American Landrace are exceptionally long pigs, with large loin eyes and heavy hams. This build maximizes high-value cuts, such as loin chops and bacon, and overall lean yield. Their topline is flat relative to other breeds. Their faces are long, and they have drooping ears.

Other characteristics. American Landrace sows are especially prolific, with large litter sizes, good maternal ability, and high milk production. Their all-white coloration means that they require ample protection from the sun when pastured.

Berkshire

The Berkshire breed was first identified as a unique population by Oliver Cromwell’s army in the seventeenth century: Reports from winter barracks in the town of Redding spoke of exceptionally large and productive hogs in the area.³ This original population was sandy-brown colored, but when the British aristocracy took interest in the breed in the 1820s, they crossed it with black pigs from China, and a darker coloration thus became dominant. Berkshires were first exported to the United States in 1823, and the American breed association was founded in 1875. The breed fell somewhat out of favor for commercial producers as the demand for extremely lean pork grew in the mid-twentieth century, but it retained enough popularity to maintain a healthy-size population.

Coloration. Berkshires should be black with a white snout, white tail tip, and white socks. They should not have white belts, white faces, or white spots on the body. Some white is permitted on the ears, and some sandy coloration in the white areas or in the borders between white and black areas is also permitted.

Conformation. Berkshires are midsize pigs, with the average adult weighing about 600 pounds (272 kg). They have a middle-of-the-road body type, shorter coupled than a Landrace or a Yorkshire but longer and leaner than traditional lard breeds. Their faces and legs are short, and their ears should be small, upright, and rigidly erect.

Other characteristics. All other factors being equal, Berkshire pork tends to be especially well marbled without excessive overall fat, making it a favorite of restaurant chefs. Producers of high-end Japanese Kurobuta pork use Berkshire pigs.

Chester White

The Chester White was developed in Pennsylvania in the early nineteenth century using local stock and a Woburn boar imported from England.⁴ The first breed association was established in 1884, but multiple breed associations cropped up in subsequent years to represent the various strains of the breed until they were all consolidated in 1930. The breed remains an important part of crossbreeding programs for modern hog operations.

Coloration. The Chester White is all white; only very limited colored markings are acceptable.

Conformation. Chester Whites are smaller than the other common white breeds, the Yorkshire and the Landrace. They are long and lean, and their ears are lopped.

Other characteristics. Chester White sows have good maternal instinct. The breed is also known for excellent feed efficiency. Their all-white coloration means that they require ample protection from the sun when pastured.

Duroc

The Duroc breed originated with a small herd of red pigs from Saratoga County, New York, in the 1830s.⁵ It is likely that these pigs were descendants of the early red strains of Guinea Hogs or Berkshires (Tamworths were not imported to the United States until fifty years later, so it is very unlikely that they contributed to the Duroc’s heritage). The first breed registry for Durocs was established in 1883, and the breed rapidly gained a level of popularity that it continues to enjoy to this day. Duroc boars are frequently crossed with Yorkshire, Landrace, or Yorkshire × Landrace sows for commercial terminal stock.

Coloration. The Duroc is solid red, but the shade of red may vary from a light strawberry blonde to a deep auburn. They may have no white or black hairs, no belting, and not more than a few black spots on the skin (which must be covered with red, not black, hair).

Conformation. Durocs are large, lean, and strong boned, with heavy shoulders and hams. Their faces should be slightly dished, and their ears should droop.

Other characteristics. Duroc sows have a reputation for poor maternal ability.

Gloucestershire Old Spot

The Gloucestershire Old Spot breed originated in nineteenth-century Gloucestershire, England, as a homestead pig ranging in orchards, eating dropped apples and dairy waste (British folklore claims that the breed’s characteristic spots are the marks of falling apples hitting the browsing pigs!).⁶ The breed was imported to the United States in the early twentieth century but has since become quite rare on both sides of the Atlantic—indeed, practically extinct in America until the now defunct Kelmscott Farm Foundation in Lincolnville, Maine, reimported the breed from Britain in 1995. Since then, the population of Gloucestershire Old Spots has strengthened considerably, though breeding animals in the United States still only number in the hundreds.

Coloration. Gloucestershire Old Spots have an off-white base color with distinctive large black spots.

Conformation. Gloucestershire Old Spots are large and tend toward the lard type, with deep sides and heavy jowls. Their bodies are of medium length and their hams heavy. Their faces are slightly dished, with wide-set drooping ears.

Other characteristics. Gloucestershire Old Spots are enthusiastic foragers. The sows tend to be excellent mothers that bear large litters and have high milk production. Their temperament is calm and friendly.

Hampshire

The Hampshire breed originated with Old English breed hogs that were imported from Hampshire County, England, to the United States in 1825.⁷ In its early years the breed was especially popular in Kentucky, and for a time Smithfield hams were produced exclusively with Hampshire pork. The first American breed registry was established in 1893. The Hampshire continues to be a popular breed for commercial producers.

Coloration. Hampshires are black with a white belt, which is sometimes partial but usually encompasses both front legs and completely encircles the body. A few Hampshires are entirely white behind the head. Any red coloration is forbidden, and white coloration on the head is restricted.

Conformation. Hampshires have a long frame and heavy bones, with middling length. Their ears are erect and pointed. They are very lean, with a more delicate skin than other breeds (in the nineteenth century the breed was nicknamed the Thin Rind).

Other characteristics. Despite their leanness, Hampshires are hardy compared to many other breeds popular in the confinement hog industry.

Hereford

The Hereford was developed in the United States around the turn of the twentieth century using Duroc, Chester White, and Polish China bloodlines.⁸ The breed association was established in 1934. It was popular for commercial production until the 1960s, when other breeds became favored for crossbreeding.

Coloration. The Hereford pig shows the same coloration as the Hereford cow: red with a white face and white legs. The underbelly is typically, but not necessarily, white. Limited white markings are permitted on the back and shoulders. Any shade of red is acceptable, but a deep red is preferred. Black spots are strongly discouraged.

Conformation. Herefords are medium size, large boned, and lean. Their ears are small and semidrooping (they should be pointed forward, not erect).

Other characteristics. Herefords are known for their calm temperaments, hardiness, and good mothering ability.

Large Black

The Large Black is an old breed from southwestern England, likely descended from Asian stock.⁹ Large Blacks were popular throughout the nineteenth century, and the first breed registry was established in 1898. They lost traction in the twentieth century as confinement rearing became common and other breeds proved themselves better suited to such systems.

Coloration. Large Black pigs should be 100 percent black, with no white markings.

Conformation. In addition to being all black, Large Black pigs are also (you guessed it!) large. Grown boars commonly exceed 800 pounds (363 kg). They are a lean bacon-type hog, with long, broad loins and heavy hams. Their ears are very large and drooping, covering the eyes.

Other characteristics. Large Blacks are among the more efficient of the heritage breeds. They are exceptionally sweet tempered and make good mothers (some people say the reason they are so calm is that their long ears prevent them from seeing where they’re going!).

Mangalitsa

The Mangalitsa is a primitive breed native to Hungary and neighboring countries.¹⁰ The breed was almost extinct in the 1990s, but enthusiasts imported a few animals to Britain in 2006 and to the United States in 2007, and numbers have since begun to recover.

Coloration. There are three strains of Mangalitsa: swallow-bellied (black with a white underbelly), blonde, and red. At one time you could find solid black Mangalitsa pigs, but that population has died out.

Conformation. Mangalitsas are consummate lard hogs, practically the shape of bowling balls with an extremely thick layer of back fat and heavy marbling. The face is short, and the ears are short but pointed forward and semidrooping. Mangalitsas are generally quite small, about the same size as American Guinea Hogs.

Other characteristics. The distinguishing characteristic of the Mangalitsa is its long, curly coat, which resembles sheep’s wool. I once scoffed at a city friend who claimed she had seen an animal at a fair and couldn’t tell whether it was a sheep or a pig—only later did I figure out that it must have been a Mangalitsa! This woolly coat makes Mangalitsas very hardy in cold climates but also increases their susceptibility to skin problems in wet or muddy conditions. Litter sizes tend to be small.

Mulefoot

The Mulefoot originated in the southern United States, descending from hogs that Spanish explorers brought to Florida in the 1500s.¹¹ They were kept as a homestead hogs in the Southeast and spread across the United States after becoming a standardized breed around 1900. As with many other homestead breed hogs, the Mulefoot population declined in the second half of the twentieth century, dwindling to a single herd kept by the Holliday family in Missouri. Since it attracted the attention of the Livestock Conservancy and the Slow Food Ark of Taste the population has again begun to spread and grow, but it remains critically rare.

Coloration. Mulefoots are black, with a few white markings permitted.

Conformation. Mulefoots are medium size and well muscled. They have full jowls and heavy hams and shoulders. Their ears are semidrooping.

Other characteristics. The distinguishing mark of a Mulefoot hog is its lack of cloven hooves. Contrary to urban legend, this does not qualify its pork as kosher (mammals must chew their cud and have cloven hooves to be kosher, making the Mulefoot doubly unkosher!). This genetic mutation does occasionally crop up in other breeds, but it is found universally throughout the Mulefoot population. Mulefoots are hardy and do well in range systems.

Poland China

Poland China hogs were bred by Shakers in early-nineteenth-century Ohio by mixing