January is pig month with Heritage Livestock Canada. Which I’m pretty pumped about, considering pigs is our passion! This organization is one reason we have been able to learn so much about the endangered breeds of Canada and get us all the more excited to work to save them. Donations and memberships support them. As part of our conservation efforts, Hogs and Horns Homestead will donate 1% of all our meat sales to Heritage Livestock Canada.
Our Large Black Boar – Raven – He Was Rather Excited About The Selfie
Why Have Cross-breed Pigs?
Some may wonder why Hogs & Horns Homestead has crossed breeds in our pig herds if we are so set on conservation and keeping bloodline tracking, and that’s fair. We started our herds with crosses because it was challenging to find and expensive to get purebreds. For our pure Large Black pigs, specifically, we ended up having to ship them across the country. There is simply a minimal number of them left in Canada. For this reason, we began with crosses. So why did we continue? We continue to have some crosses in our herd as they offer characteristics of our heritage breeds’ meat profiles. In contrast, we continue to work to increase our bloodlines and herds of these magnificent endangered breeds.
Our Crosses
What crosses do we have? Our main cross all started with Ginger, our lead sow, the girl that started it all. A 3-year old Kunekune x Large Black this girl is 600 lbs. Of awesomeness. An amazing mother to her piglets and offspring with an impressive grow out. We are excited to recreate this cross this year as we work to find another available bloodline of Large Black’s to breed back to our girls.
Ginger lead Kunekune x Large Black Sow
What Is A Kunekune?
Kunekunes are a lard pig that originates from New Zealand and was near extinction. There have been significant efforts since the 1970’s to restore their numbers through bloodline tracking and registration. They are incredibly friendly and have a smaller stature than most meat breeds, with a short snout that decreases routing. These guys do well on pasture and eat an increased amount of alfalfa hay compared to their other heritage swine cousins. Kunekune pigs offer marbled, succulent pork.
Our Breeding Boar Odin
What Is A Large Black?
Large Black’s however, are large with an average weight of 600 to 800 lbs. These large swine are just as their name depicts large in stature and all black. With large ears, we call them the hippos of the farm. A longer snout lends them well to root. Their big floppy ears help to protect their eyes while they root. They are also very friendly and love nothing more than belly scratches. They can have up to 50% of their diet on high-quality pasture. The other 50% contains high-quality grains.
Our Large Black Sow Koko, Cuddled Up Loving All the Belly Rubs
Our Large Cross-breed Pigs?
They weigh in at 500-600 lbs and look like an oversized kunekune. This cross has a slightly longer snout than a kunekune and large upright ears. Lazy at rooting but thrive on pasture, with up to 50% of their diet being pasture-based combined with 50% high-quality grains.
Large Black x Kunekune boys
Building A Purebred Herd
Building herds of purebreds takes time, mainly when the numbers and bloodlines available are limited to start. We are working hard to grow our purebred herds, to expand the numbers of endangered breeds. In conclusion, saving breeds takes time; it takes farms working together; it takes you. If you are a farmer, it takes you to decide to continue biodiversity over capital gain. If you are not a farmer, it takes you to decide to support biodiversity to live sustainably.
We are so excited to offer heritage meat this season and look forward to building more relationships with clients and fellow farmers alike.
