Hampshire Pig

Facts about Hampshire Pigs. The Hampshire is a domestic breed of pig that hails from the Hampshire County of the England. The Hampshire Pig arrived in the 1800s in the United States.
The Hampshire Pig are distinguished by vertical ears and a black body with a white color band completely encircling the body, as well as both front legs and feet. The Hampshire Pig breed is the fourth most recorded pig breed in the United States, and most likely the oldest American variety of hogs. The Hampshire Pig is supposed to be the pig breed that is the derivative of the Old English Breed, found in Scotland and northern England. Importations of this domestic breed to the United States were thought to have been prepared from Hampshire in England in 1827-1839. Inhabitants of Hampshire habitually call this breed as Hampshire Hogs colloquially.

Features of Hampshire Pig

Hampshire Pig breeds are renowned for being well-muscled and fast growers, and for showing good body quality when employed as meat animals. When used as reproduction stock, the females of the Hampshire Pig breed have been admired for their ability as mothers, having additional endurance. Hampshire Pig breeds are good tempered, and they do not grow as quickly as several other crossbreeds, but the Hampshire Pig grows faster than Yorkshire pig breeds. Nowadays, the Hampshire pig breed is used widely as the sire of crossbred swine for pork, and is considered the leanest of the North American pig breeds. The average weight is bet

Appearance of Hampshire Pig

Hampshire breeds are the medium sized pigs with the black color body with a white belt or band that wraps the front legs and across their shoulders. The body is well built with long legs and noses, making the Hampshire Pig breed popular for the meat business. Other popular attributes of this breed comprise the power of endurance, energy, foraging and mothering capabilities, and being of high-quality breeding stock. The average weight of the Hampshire Pig male is 660 pounds (300 kg) and female is 550pounds (250 kg).

Grooming a Hampshire Pig

Hampshire Pig breeds are one among the easiest domestic pigs to groom. They only need a good cleaning with a gentle shampoo to eliminate dirt from the feet and the body. For show pigs, surplus hair is clipped from the ears and the tail. A hairbrush is used to neat up the Hampshire Pig hair and to eliminate any sawdust or dust particles that may be adhering to the coat of the pig.

Diet of Hampshire Pig

Unlike goats and cattle, the Hampshire Pig breed contain only one stomach. For fast growth and healthy, these pigs are fed with the high-energy diet made of grain, such as oats, corn, barley and wheat. In addition, the Hampshire Pig are fed with vitamin and protein supplements. Most commercially accessible feeds for the Hampshire Pigs combine different farm grains and the essential supplements to ensure quick and resourceful growth. The Hampshire Pigs are capable of consuming as much as they would like during the day to allow them to grow as quickly as they normally can. There are no particular breed-specific health issues in the Hampshire Pig breed. The average lifespan of the Hampshire pig breed is 12 years.

More Facts of Hampshire Pigs

In the world there is about 2 billion pigs in the world. Hampshire Pigs are very intelligent, not like everybody thinks, that they are dumb animals. Hampshire Pigs are omnivores like humans, an omnivores, (definition-they eat both other animals and plants). The pig’s snout is its most important tool for finding food. The Hampshire Pigs snout is used for their excellent sense of smell.

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

Swine: is any variety of omnivorous, even-toed ungulates of the family Suidae, this includes hogs, boars and Hampshire Pigs having a short neck, thick skin a movable snout and a stout body. Hampshire Pigs unlike is said, happen to be very clean animals. Pigs make sure their bathroom area is far away from where they eat Lie down, rest even piglets (baby pigs) will find a place to go to the bathroom, far away from their nest.

The four feet of the Hampshire Pig are called "trotters" that humans eat as a delicacy called pigs feet or pigs knuckles. A Hampshire 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 and the outside toes for balance. The Hampshire Pig has tougher feet at the ends are hooves. The two toes in the middle of the foot are slightly webbed helps the pigs balance for walking.

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

A pig is the last of the 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac. The pig is represents, happiness, honesty, fortune and virility in China. The number of baby's that a pig has is 6 to 12 and they are called (piglets). A female adult pig is called a (sow) and the male adult pig is called a (boar).

A Pig can drink 14 gallons of water in a day. The Mini Maialino is the smallest breed of pig. Truffle Mushroom hunters in France and Italy use pigs to hunt Truffle Mushrooms because of there keen sense of smell, the problem is that, sometimes if the hunter doesn't grab the mushrooms in time, the pig will eat it. Sometimes certain dogs are used instead of pigs.
The scientific name for Pig (Sus scrofa), the wild swine (Boar) from the old world with a narrow body and prominent tusks is from where most domestic swine come from and introduced in United States and bred to what we have as today's pig. The "fear of pigs Swinophobia".