OSLH Course extract page 1

7.1 Introduction

Before embarking on the first of your specialist modules, we need first to make a very important statement:

"Do not even contemplate keeping pigs unless you like them: really like them".

These much-misunderstood mammals are friendly, intelligent and sensitive animals with whom one can develop a pleasant and rewarding relationship. They are also strong-minded and can be stubborn in the extreme.

I really like pigs but, as with all farm animals, there is no place whatever for sentimentality when keeping them and whilst we do, of course, take every care with their health and welfare and enjoy keeping them, we need to remember that they are farm animals and, in the context of this course module at least, meat-producing machines: albeit nice, friendly ones.

All the many different aspects of pig keeping are important and it is difficult to know quite where to start: housing is as important as feeding which is as important as health. However, in this study book we are concerned primarily with free-range pork production and so, odd as it may seem, we will begin by looking at marketing. Although this subject is often dealt with last, one aspect of the subject needs to be considered before any other, breed selection for your market, facilities and (!) temperament.

We will then look at feeding before moving on to housing and management systems, health, breeding and farrowing, herd improvement and some other aspects of marketing.

7.2 Breed selection for your market

It is, of course, quite obvious that the main reason for establishing a pork production enterprise is to produce pork ~ meat for sale ~ but, as organic smallholders, we have quite different aims and facilities when compared to the more conventional, these days usually large-scale, pig farmer: we also have a number of distinct advantages, one of the most important being the freedom to choose a breed that will best suit our market.

There are basically two choices available to us when deciding which breed (or breeds) of pig to keep: one of the so-called rare breeds or a modern hybrid; not really breeds in the true sense of the word. Although there is a third choice in what used to be the main stream commercial breeds, Large White, Landrace and to a lesser extent the Welsh, they cannot really be considered appropriate for our purpose.

Given that our main aim is to produce pork for sale (and the table) we should perhaps define this a little more clearly: what is pork? Firstly there is the pork that is to be found on the counter at the local supermarket and less enlightened butcher's shop: pale pink, flabby, anaemic looking, lean flesh with no apparent texture, marbling or covering of fat and a lamentably thin, usually wet and rubbery skin.

You can produce pork like this; easily and cheaply, but you will certainly not be able to sell it, or at least not profitably and, since you would surely not want to eat it, what is the point

The there is ‘pork’, real pork, with character and flavour; proper pork. This is a quite different proposition: real pork has colour, texture, is succulent with marbling (fat deposited between muscles and muscle fibres) and a good layer of fat; firm, creamy-white fat beneath a firm, supple skin and, above all, flavour. You can produce pork like this (not easily or cheaply though) that will sell itself to those in the know who will be always prepared to pay premium prices for a such a superb product. Best of all, you can eat it!

So, how do we do it? The first and most important consideration is that of breed. Although all pigs produce pork, there are breeds better suited to our purpose than others - horses for courses.

Before discussing these in detail we had, perhaps, better consider briefly the hybrids. Literally a hybrid is a cross between two or more distinct species, although in the context with which we are concerned breeds can be substituted for species. Examples include the Hampden (which was bred specifically for outdoor production systems), Camborough, and the various different types bred by the major pig breeding giants. The vast majority of pigs (some 7-8 million) in the UK are hybrids.

Pig breeding is a major industry in the UK, Europe and the USA. Foundation stock are selected from a range of hybrids bred for rapid growth, high lean meat content and other economically desirable traits with the resulting hybrid generations having being 'designed' for very specific purposes. These hybrids are then (literally) mass produced on what are known as multiplier units: farms producing large numbers of hybrid breeding stock for sale to farmers that then produce the final, slaughter generation. The UK leads the world in this field with companies such as Newsham, Cotswold, JSR and the National Pig Development Company (NPD).

Fairly recently, a 'new' hybrid has been developed which provides a breeding sow that has extra teats and produces much larger than average litters. This involved crossing a traditional British breed (they won't say which one but it is either the Large White or Landrace - the latter is hardly a 'traditional' British breed - or, more likely, both) with the Chinese Meishan pig. Meishan sows have up to 18 teats and average 16 piglets/litter compared with 14 teats and 11 piglets for British breeds.

They are very fat pigs though and are therefore not at all suited to the requirements of the UK meat industry. Cross breeding, however, has produced the hybrid, called the Manor Meishan, with all the aforementioned advantages of the Meishan but with a high lean meat content. The breeders are predicting that the sows will produce at least 30-40 piglets/year for 3-4 years (see below). They call this progress!