Hereford Hog

Hereford Hog
a stocky pig, deep red-brown with pink face, belly and legs
A champion boar
Conservation status
Other names
  • Hereford
  • White-faced[4]: 611 
Country of originUnited States
Traits
Weight
  • Male:
    average 360 kg (800 lb)
  • Female:
    average 270 kg (600 lb)
  • Pig
  • Sus domesticus

The Hereford Hog or Hereford is an American breed of domestic pig. It is named for its color and pattern, which is similar to that of the Hereford breed of cattle: red with a white face.[5]: 195 

It is of medium size, with a curly tail and lop ears.

History

The first person to breed for the Hereford color pattern in pigs – and the first to describe it – was R.U. Weber of LaPlata, Missouri.[4]: 611  From about 1902 until 1925 a number of farmers in Nebraska and Iowa, among them John Schulte of Norway, Iowa, collaborated in the selection of pigs with this coloration.[4]: 611 [6]: 394  The principal breeds used were the Duroc and the Poland China; there may also have been some Chester White or Hampshire influence.[6]: 394  They bred not only for color, but also conformation and performance. In 1934 a selection of the hundred best animals from five herds was made, and became the foundation stock for the breed.[4]: 611  A breed society, the National Hereford Hog Registry Association, was formed in that year under the sponsorship of the Polled Hereford Cattle Registry Association,[4]: 611 [6]: 394  and a herd-book was opened.[7]: 198 

The breed grew in numbers into the mid-twentieth century,[7]: 198  particularly in Iowa, Illinois and Indiana, but from the 1960s, with the move of commercial pork operations to the modern system of three-way cross-breeding using American Yorkshire, Duroc and Hampshire, population numbers fell sharply.[4]: 611 

In 2013 the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy (now the Livestock Conservancy) estimated that fewer than 2000 breeding animals remained, and listed the conservation status of the breed as 'watch';[8] in 2022 its estimate of breed numbers was unchanged, but the conservation status of the breed had changed to 'recovering'.[3] The population reported to DAD-IS for 1970 is 317, while that for 2011, the most recent year listed, is 2045; in 2022 the conservation status of the breed was shown as 'unknown'.[2]

Characteristics

It is a pig of medium size: mature sows weigh about 270 kg (600 lb) and boars about 360 kg (800 lb).[4]: 611  The only allowable coat coloration is a deep red-brown covering at least two thirds of the body, with a pale face, ears, underbelly, and socks. The ears hang forwards over the face.[6]: 394 [7]: 197 

It is hardy and docile, prolific and maternal, and suitable to either extensive or intensive management.[5]

Use

Hogs for market reach a slaughter weight of about 100 kg (220 lb) in five or six months.[7]: 197 

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hereford pig.
  1. ^ Barbara Rischkowsky, Dafydd Pilling (editors) (2007). List of breeds documented in the Global Databank for Animal Genetic Resources, annex to The State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Rome: Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. ISBN 9789251057629. Archived 23 June 2020.
  2. ^ a b Breed data sheet: Hereford / United States of America (Pig). Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed September 2022.
  3. ^ a b Hereford. The Livestock Conservancy. Archived 26 January 2022.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Valerie Porter, Lawrence Alderson, Stephen J.G. Hall, D. Phillip Sponenberg (2016). Mason's World Encyclopedia of Livestock Breeds and Breeding (sixth edition). Wallingford: CABI. ISBN 9781780647944.
  5. ^ a b Carol Ekarius (2008). Storey's Illustrated Breed Guide to Sheep, Goats, Cattle and Pigs. North Adams, Massachusetts: Storey Publishing. ISBN 9781603420365.
  6. ^ a b c d James R. Gillespie, Frank B. Flanders (2010). Modern Livestock and Poultry Production, eighth edition. Delmar Cengage Learning, Australia. ISBN 9781428318083.
  7. ^ a b c d Janet Vorwald Dohner (2001). The Encyclopedia of Historic and Endangered Livestock and Poultry Breeds. New Haven, Connecticut; London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300088809.
  8. ^ Hereford Hog. American Livestock Breeds Conservancy. Archived 5 October 2013.