Know Your Pigs E-Book

Jack Byard

• Herausgeber: Old Pond Books
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Seitenzahl: 29

Beschreibung

Did you know that pigs are smarter than your average 3-year-old? In this pocket-sized guide, you'll discover loads of interesting facts about 29 popular breeds of pigs, including their appearance, history and breeding, and details of its personality. From the American Guinea Hog who loves a good belly rub, to the hardy Yorkshire who is happiest foraging outdoors, this fully revised and updated edition is a fascinating and fun guide that will turn both young and old into a pig enthusiast.

Leseprobe

Know Your Pigs

Old Pond Publishing is an imprint of Fox Chapel Publishers International Ltd.

Edited by D&N Publishing, Wiltshire, UK

Copyright © 2020 by Jack Byard and Fox Chapel Publishers International Ltd.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Fox Chapel Publishers, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in an acknowledged review.

ISBN 978-1-912158-54-6(paperback)

978-1-913618-05-6(ebook)

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Fox Chapel Publishing, 903 Square Street, Mount Joy, PA 17552, U.S.A.

Fox Chapel Publishers International Ltd., 7 Danefield Road, Selsey (Chichester), West Sussex PO20 9DA, U.K.

www.oldpond.com

Cover photo: A young Duroc sow

Contents

Foreword

1 American Guinea Hog

2 Bentheim Black Pied

3 Berkshire

4 Black Iberian

5 British Landrace

6 British Lop

7 British Saddleback

8 Choctaw Hog

9 Duroc

10 Gloucestershire Old Spot

11 Hampshire

12 Hereford

13 Hybrid

14 Iron Age

15 Kunekune

16 Large Black

17 Large White (Yorkshire)

18 Mangalitza

19 Meidam

20 Meishan

21 Ossabaw Island Hog

22 Oxford Sandy and Black

23 Pietrain

24 Poland China

25 Tamworth

26 Vietnamese Pot-bellied

27 Welsh

28 Wild Boar

Acknowledgements

Photo Credits

Wild boar.

Foreword

Pigs, hogs, or swine—whatever you like to call them—have been around for 11,000 years. Over the many centuries, they have provided humankind with food and, in earlier times, with bones for tools and weapons, skin for shields, and bristles for brushes. This book describes and illustrates those breeds that you have the most chance of seeing.

Pigs are considered to have intelligence beyond that of a three-year-old child. In the last few years, numbers of this bright-eyed animal have declined dramatically and several breeds have become extinct.

Whose fault is it? To my mind, national governments, loss of habitat, the EU, and food fads must all take some of the blame, along with rules and regulations created by people who know or care little about the industry. We should not discard breeds because they are unfashionable or do not fit in with our current ways of living. Organizations such as the UK’s Rare Breeds Survival Trust (RBST) and The Livestock Conservancy in the United States do what they can to protect endangered breeds, but we must all help preserve the rare and endangered animals on this fragile planet. As the T-shirt slogan tells us, extinction is forever.

Jack Byard, Bradford, 2020

1 American Guinea Hog

Characteristics

Weight: Male/female 150–300 lb (68–136 kg).

Colour: Usually solid black; occasionally white points at the feet and tip of nose (due to a recessive gene).

Upright ears and a curly tail.

Unique to the United States, the American guinea hog is a critically endangered breed. It was originally imported from the Canary Islands and West Africa in the 17th century. Having been crossed with breeds that are now extinct, it is impossible to create an accurate picture of this animal’s true history. One possible ancestor is the small, black Essex pig, known to have lived in the southeastern United States where most American guinea hogs are found today.