Demand For Pasture Pork Brings Back "Large Black" Pigs

Demand For Pasture Pork Brings Back "Large Black" Pigs 30-5-8 The unique taste of Large Blacks is bringing back an English breed of forage hogs that had just about disappeared. The flavor of the meat of the pigs, named for their large droopy ears and black hair, has captured the interest of some world famous chefs. That interest has in turn begun capturing the interest of swine breeders looking for a new market. At $350 for an 8-week old pig, the supply is sold out nearly a year in advance. "Right now I'm booked through next spring with all females sold and about a third of the males," reports Ted Smith, Laurel, Miss. "Some breeders are crossing them with leaner breeds." Smith is one of the last breeders of Large Blacks and maintains the national registry. When he started with the breed in 1963, there were 53 breeders of registered herds in the U.S. Like most of them, he got out of the breed. Years later while visiting Great Britain, he saw the breed again and learned there were only 300 left in the world. Upon his return home, he started looking for breeders and only found one. Working with British breeders before the foot and mouth disease struck, Smith brought breeding stock through quarantine to supplement what the last U.S. breeder had. Today, Smith has 20 sows and 8 boars, and breed numbers are growing with 155 registered animals in North America. "In Great Britain, there are five boar lines, and I have four of them and all five sow lines," says Smith. "I keep four sows of each sow line and a boar and one backup for each boar line or I would only need four." While their color and ear size gave them their name, their selection as a forage hog made them unique. It probably also led to their near demise as the swine industry moved nearly entirely to feedlot production. Smith reports the meat as being very fine textured and intermarbled in the ham and loin. "The sows milk wonderfully and are quiet and very attentive," he says. "I've had first year gilts farrow 11 piglets and had an imported sow produce 15 when she was 10 years old. I usually expect 8-13 pigs per litter. Boars are easy to handle, too. They have to be if I can keep 8 boars with only 20 sows." Smith tries to farrow each sow twice a year, getting a third litter every two years. In the summer, he grazes them on pasture grass behind cattle and supplements with millet. In the winter, he grazes them on a mixture of turnips (both rooted and forage), oats and rye grass. Smith estimates that during gestation sows get about 65 percent of their intake from forage. "I like to put sows with litters on fresh pasture," he says. "I get them out of the barn as soon as I can. They like to wallow in the creek." He feeds the baby pigs a 22 to 23 percent pellet and switches to 16 to 18 percent pelleted feed after 8 weeks on anything he keeps. Boars are kept on pasture, too. He uses netting on all pastures with an electric wire a foot out from the fence. Smith reports no problems with rooting, and even if one does get out, it's not a problem. "If one gets out, it will just follow you around to the ends of the earth," he says. Smith hopes the breed will expand now that it has been rediscovered. Until now, most people bought a couple of gilts and a boar for raising their own meat. He hopes that changes. "I have a good breeder in Maine and a couple in Indiana and have sold 10 head to Canada," says Smith. "Rare Breeds Canada bought them and dispersed them. I also sold five boars to an artificial breeding stud in Iowa." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, North American Large Black Pig Registry, Attn: Ted Smith, Still Meadow Farm, 740 Lower Myrick Rd., Laurel, Miss. 39443 (ph 601 426-2264; fax 601 428-2274; stillmeadow@cgate.net).

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