Pigs 2019: we start again.

It's that time of year again when a young man's fancy may very well turn to love but an older man's fancy turns to pigs! It's our fifth year operating as the Pigs' 'Ere Cooperative and our biggest change this time around is our new breed of pig. For various reasons, we've decided to move away from the British Lop and try something different. We are going with the Oxford Sandy and Black breed, also sometimes referred to as the “Plum Pudding" or "Oxford Forest Pig”.

It is yet another Rare Breed (there are fewer of them than the British Lop) and is one of the oldest British pig breeds. It has been around for 200 - 300 years and is a traditional farmers' and cottagers' pig, from the middle part of the country, especially around Oxfordshire. It seems to be closely linked to the old Berkshire and Tamworth breeds. Did it diverge from them? Or was it the result of crossbreeding between them? Or, perhaps, crossbreeding with an entirely different breed. No-one is entirely sure and, no doubt, there will be some DNA profiling done soon - if it hasn't already.

Why this particular breed? It seems a good fit to our style of husbandry. They have an excellent temperament and are particularly suited to outdoor systems as they are good foragers. As they are a coloured pig with a good coat, they are far less prone to sunburn, which can be a problem for white breeds such as the British Lop. Yes, we did slather them with barrier cream once in a while. Another useful point is that, although they are coloured, the rind of the derived pork is the traditional white. And, to be semantically correct, they are not spotted, they are blotched. Apparently the meat is an excellent flavour and, as they don't go to fat as readily as the Lops, we are expecting the weights at finish will be lighter than what we've had in the past. However, that may mean that we'll end up with relatively more meat and less fat.  We've got a whole litter of twelve, boars (castrated, of course) and gilts. They are cute little animals and it will be interesting to see  how we get on with them. It promises to be fun - again.