By Dr. Tony M. Monda
When selecting stock, farmers should pay close attention to the breed of pigs, its qualities and characteristics and the economic objective in question.
The Berkshire breed is one of the oldest pig breeds with an established breed society dating back to 1880.
The breed is known for its loin and ham qualities and early maturity. Berkshire boars are mostly used for crossing purposes. Because of the breeds’ early maturity, the Middle White sow is a favourite cross where young pork is the economic objective.
Berkshire sows are not as prolific as other breeds.
However, they are recorded doing well in South Africa, Australia and Zimbabwe when crossed with Middle White boars.
The Cumberland pig is of good size; proportionally wider and more thickly fleshed than the Large Yorkshire.
The breed is both hardy and prolific with distinct features that single out its gene type. Cumberland pork is known for its marbling and ample rashers of bacon.
Native to Northern Ireland, the Large White Ulster resembles the large British Yorkshire pig breed in most respects. It is a favourite British breed for the brine-cured rolled bacon trade.
The Long White Lop Eared breed is a prolific and hardy breed of pig. It is regarded as a useful type of commercial pig that yields good quality bacon.
The Essex and Wessex Saddleback breed society was established in 1918. The Essex and Wessex Saddleback pig breeds are considered as pure, original representations of the old English pig with little or no admixture of oriental origin.
The Essex is an exceptional, robust and healthy English breed that can withstand the warm temperatures of Australia and southern Africa where it is also known to thrive. The sows produce large litters and make good mothers. The piglets grow rapidly and mature early.
Originally confined to the southern parts of England, the Large Black pig breed of Southern England’s foundation stock had been kept pure for several decades prior to the mid-1890s.
The breed was principally established by the formation of the large black breed society in 1899. It is slightly inferior to the Large White breed and is favoured for its long thick ham.
British breeds of livestock were exported to all parts of the world during Imperial colonisation.
Hence, it is relevant for former colonies like Zimbabwe to know and understand the livestock we have inherited and the names and terms given to pigs according to age, sex and fertility.
The most common names for an unweaned piglet are bussen or broken pig, sucking or sucker.
A Cad pig or ratling is the smallest piglet in a litter and is generally the last born. It is also known as a rutland or ritling, timothy, dilling, rit or crit.
A gunner, gummer or runner is a weaned pig. A store pig is a pig at the age between the time of weaning and being fattened;
A hog denotes a male pig after being castrated; and a bran or boar is an uncastrated male pig.
A seg, stag and/or steg is a male pig castrated late in life. A female pig intended for breeding purposes and up to the time she has her first litter is referred to as a gilt or yelt,
An open gilt is a female pig before the operation of the removal of the ovaries’; A closed gilt is a female pig after an ovariotomy has been performed.
A sow is a breeding female pig after its first litter.
According to Professor William C. Millar of the Royal Veterinary Collage of London, there were
twelve recognised pig breeds in Britain by 1953, each with their own society and herd book.
They are as follows:
Seven white breeds that comprise: the Large White, Middle White, Yorkshire, Cumberland, the Lincolnshire Curly Coated, the Large White Ulster and the Welsh Long White Lop Eared Five pure black and black and white British breeds are registered as: the Large Black, the Berkshire, the Essex, the Gloucester Old Spots and Wessex Saddle Back.
Distinctly red in colour, the Tamworth, known for its unexcelled quality of bacon is the purest modern representative of the native British pig.
Following colonisation the main commercial pig breeds bred in Zimbabwe were the Large White breed and the Lardrace that have been bred and adapted in this country specifically for the local pork and bacon export trade.
The Gloucester Old Spots is known to have been widely bred in Mutare and the Berkshire and Tamworth are now rarely reared locally.
Although British pure breeds are now uncommon in Zimbabwe, several unofficial hybrids of British pigs exist in the cooler regions of the Midlands and in Mashonaland West and Central.
In the late 1980s, the Zimbabwean Pig industry began to move away from the specialised porker and baconer production towards the production of the Heavy Hog breed, or what is commonly known as the general purpose pig.
This breed requires less specialised dietary needs and weighs a profitable 72.5-100kg dead mass under normal feeding regimes, thereby reducing the costs of breeding, maintenance and veterinary supplements.
This quality in turn lowers the cost of an average market kilogram of pork to meet consumer affordability and lower the cost of pork production for the pig farmers.
Dr. Tony M. Monda is a Veterinary epidemiologist, land management expert and agro- economic writer for Gemnation. Contact him on 0773 805 700 or email on tonym.MONDA@gmail.com or tonymichelmonda93@gmail.com
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