British Landrace Pig

Facts about British Landrace Pigs. The British Landrace Pig is one of several landrace pigs native to northern and central Europe. The British Landrace pig is descended from the Danish Landrace pig breeds created by hybridization of the Large White pig and other Danish breeds.

Characteristics of the British Landrace Pig

The British Landrace Pigs are a medium-sized pig. Landrace pigs are white, sometimes with small black spots. The best specimens have no spots. The British Landrace Pig has heavy drooping ears that cover a large part of the face. The British Landrace Pig can be considered lop-eared. The British Landrace Pig have long middles and light forequarters.
The British Landrace Pig have a high lean meat content. The British Landrace Pig can be used for bacon or fresh pork. The British Landrace Pig are primarily raised for bacon, because they have a little more fat than Large White pigs. The British Landrace Pigs are noted for their early, rapid growth.

The British Landrace Pig have the third best growth rate. British landrace swine are at their leanest at the last rib. They have a long carcass length.
The British landrace pig can be raised in indoor factory farms or allowed to graze in external farmlands.

The British Landrace Pig have excellent maternal performance and they produce the large litters and a large number of piglets born alive. However, they don’t breed as prolifically as the Large White pig. They have the biggest piglets when they have completed weaning.

The saliva of British Landrace Pigs contains pheromones-( A chemical substance used to attract a mate) similar to that of other pig breeds that communicate their sexual wants. The male British Landrace Pigs discharge this steroid and female pigs will go to vast lengths to acquire a smell of the sent.

The Landrace pig is sometimes called the "universal breed". The British Landrace is routinely crossbred with Scandinavian pigs and crossed with other breeds to improve them. The British Landrace Pig breed is used for around 90% of all hybrids in Europe and North America.

The British Landrace pig can be distinguished from the Large White by the Large White’s erect ears, dished face and deep sides. Large whites are larger than Landrace pigs but are hardier. British Landrace Pigs are omnivores like humans, an omnivores, (definition-they eat both other animals and plants).

History of the British Landrace Pigs

The British Landrace pigs were one of three breeds selected for mass production and development after World War 2 to improve the strength of the British pork industry.
The British Landrace Pig Society was formed in 1950, shortly after a dozen landrace pigs were imported from Scandinavia. In the same year, an American Landrace Association was also formed. (Denmark refused to export the pigs before that time in an effort to protect its bacon export market, and it lifted its export restrictions on the landrace pigs in that year.) The British Landrace Pig grew in popularity when the government decided focusing on that breed, the Welsh and Large White pig was to the benefit of the pork industry.

The British Landrace pig is raised throughout the UK today, but they are raised in greatest numbers in Yorkshire and Ireland. The British Landrace Pig was sent to Australia in 1958. It is the fifth most commonly registered swine in the United States, far behind the popularity of the American Yorkshire pig.

The British Landrace Pig Society combined with the National Pig Breeder’s Association; that group is now the British Pig Association. This group continues to track breeding of the British Landrace pig. The British Landrace Pig are being bred today for smaller ears and strong legs. There is still significant within breed variations on growth rates, backfat amounts and meat quality being targeted for standardization in the breed. Backfat amounts are slowly being bred to be less.
The British Landrace Pig are also being bred to eliminate porcine stress syndrome (PSS); the original breed had leg weakness and splay legs but that has been mostly eliminated.

Swine: is any variety of omnivorous, even-toed ungulates of the family Suidae, this includes hogs, boars and pigs having a short neck, thick skin a movable snout and a stout body.

British Landrace Pigs do not sweat a lot, that's why they cover themselves in the mud to keep their bodies cool. The expression "sweating like a pig" comes from a reference to pig iron, which comes form iron smelting.

British Landrace Pigs are very intelligent, not like people think, that pigs are dumb animals. A British Landrace Pig can drink 14 gallons of water in a day. The British Landrace Pig snout is its most important tool for finding food. The British Landrace Pigs snout is used for their excellent sense of smell.

Pigs are raised for there meat such as ham, sausage, bacon and pork chops. Pigs can make great pets. A wild male pig is called a (boar)- meaning uncastrated male pig, that lives in the wild and can be hunted. Feral pigs (means wild) can be a very big danger where humans habitat. Pigs can carry a variety of diseases and can pass them to humans. British Landrace Pigs have small lungs compared to their body size.

British Landrace Pigs unlike is said, happen to be very clean animals. British Landrace Pigs make sure their bathroom area is far away from where they eat, lie down and rest, even piglets (baby pigs) will find a place to go to the bathroom, far away from their nest. A British Landrace Pig averages 6 to 10 baby piglets in a litter and will have two to three litters per year

British Landrace Pigs have 44 teeth when full grown, when they are baby pigs (piglets) the have 28 teeth which will fall out when they are 12 months old. Just like human teeth, the British Landrace Pig has an enamel coating that makes the pigs teeth stronger and helps it curb disease. British Landrace Pigs chew their food because pigs have a digestive system similar to a human digestive system and cannot digest food that is not chewed.

British Landrace Pigs Feet

The four feet and four toes of the pig are called "trotters" that humans eat as a delicacy called pigs feet or pigs knuckles. A British Landrace Pigs foot has four toes that are pointed downwards when the pig walks, it walks on the tips of its toes, rather than its whole foot and only uses two of the toes in the middle and the outside toes for balance. The British Landrace Pig has tougher feet at the ends that are hooves. The two toes in the middle of the foot are slightly webbed, this helps the pigs balance for walking.

The average weight of the male at slaughteded British Landrace Pig is 350 to 375 pounds (160 to 170 kg). The British Landrace Pig breed full grown has an average to big-sized body. The British Landrace Pig average mature weight of the female (Sows) 450 to 600 pounds (204 to 272 kg) and the average weight of the male (Boars) is 500 to 700 pounds (226 to 318 kg).
The scientific name for Pig (Sus scrofa), the wild swine (Boar) from the old world with a arrow body and prominent tusks is from where most domestic swine come from and introduced in the United States and bred to what we have as today's pig. The "fear of pigs Swinophobia".