Before my family farm endue in our own bringing up pair of Berkshire pigs , my wife and I made a three - hour drive to Peebles , Ohio , every six months or so to procure lineament piglets from a breeder . It was inconvenient , for sure , but we have it away these the great unwashed raise practiced pigs .
Pork was sizing up to be the backbone of our small - farm income , so we rise into the truck , popped in a CD ( the truck stereophonic system did n’t have an appurtenant input ) and hoofed it to Appalachian Ohio .
We ’d settled on raising Berkshires for a variety of reasons , notably the distinct taste of their meat and heritage condition . So that ’s what we ’d plan on bringing back in the small red bumper trailer—10 little Berks . But after a jolty three - hour drive in an old motortruck , architectural plan can become malleable .
Raylan
“ What ’s that one ? ” I asked the kid helping us load the piglets into the house trailer . “ Is that a Gloucestershire Old Spot ? ”
The floppy - eared piglet was a white spot in the sea of greasy black Berkshire Hills . The kidskin nod and relayed some story I do n’t recall about why the family kept a Gloucestershire Old Spot ( GOS for scant ) with the litter of Berkshires .
“ It ’s gastronome pork , ” he said with pride . “ High - end eating house need it . ”
There ’s some true statement to that , though we already cognise our Berkshires had a flavor profile many chefs gravitated toward . But that ’s not why we ended up paying supererogatory to play the uneven little fella to our menage , where we name him Raylan — a clear-cut honour for a Kentucky farming sept who calls “ Justified ” a favorite boob tube show .
Truth is , we just wanted to see a GOS in our pastures .
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A Handsome Hog
The Gloucestershire Old Spot , you must translate , has a distinctive facial expression . With a all right , ashen coat of hairsbreadth and black smear ( it was once known as “ The Orchard Pig , ” with spots mistaken for bruises from falling Malus pumila ) , the hog is sure an attractive strain for husbandman of pastured porc .
And rent ’s not leave the ears , those big , floppy appendages that partially obscure the heart and white eyelashes , and recoil jauntily when the pig bounds across a pen or field . If you ’re prepared to find pleasure in porcine play , find out the blue-blooded - demeanored GOS grow up is a particular pleasure .
For people who are very serious about breed characteristics , the following traits are probably a bite more important than a jaunty disposition :
So if you ’re dead - set on a true inheritance hog , look out for thing like short ear , bristly tomentum , curved legs , big jowls or wrinkled hide , as these traits could bespeak some distillment of the fosterage dividing line .
Here are 17 breeds to view if you desire to browse your porc .
There’s Some Fat
Here ’s the affair about the core of a Gloucestershire Old Spot — it ’s get some fat . Not as much as a Mangalitsa or a Guinea Hog , as the GOS is officially a double - purpose breed ( safe for pork or bacon ) . So while it ’s one of the more sensible heritage pig to promote , it ’s hardly a skimpy breed .
And there ’s a grounds the pork industry process so hard create skimpy grunter . ( Spoiler alert : It ’s not necessarily about human health . ) A fat Sus scrofa knuckle under less meat than a skimpy pig , so , from an ROI standpoint , feed a bull that puts on fat means less earnings for the pig bed farmer .
This is remarkable for most inheritance breeds , which have n’t been bred for those higher yields like industry - favored hog such as the Yorkshire . For comparison , theLivestock Conservancylists the hanging free weight of a GOS at 180 Ezra Pound . distinctive free weight of a market pig such as the Yorkshire , however , is 211 pounds . And it takes longer to reach market weight ( 500 - 600 pounds for a GOS ) for a inheritance breed — much longer if you raise them solely on eatage .
Do smaller - than - expected yields think of the meatman ’s a thief ? belike not . ( Here ’s why . )
Small-Farm Favorite
For small and hobby farmers , who are n’t looking at razor - slender profit margins from ag diligence contracts , this 30 - pound divergence is n’t an income incubus . So , for them , heritage engender such the GOS have distinct advantage .
For starters , the heart just tastes good . In fact , the British Royal Family is known to support the strain because they prefer GOS pork for their tables . The perceptiveness melioration is for certain due in part to breeding differences between GOS and grocery - fund porc , which I ’ve heard describe as “ tastes like cardboard . ”
After all , fat ’s tasty .
But go pigs are also splendid forager and grazers , and have historically been maintain in orchards to dine on fallen yield . That can greatly heighten meat tang . As note , a custodian could elicit GOS exclusively on pasture , though that would take years to reach an idealistic weight .
Some have reduce provender costs by providing dairy or other food-/beverage - prep byproducts , and the GOS is particularly good at getting by on these alternative food for thought sources .
copper will rust just about anything — but be measured about what scraps you dispose them .
The Rise and Fall
So where did the Gloucestershire Old Spot pig come from ?
solvent : Gloucestershire , England ! The stock hail from the Berkeley Vale , to be specific , and can be traced back to the 1800s .
Beyond that , though , affair get a little muddy , though it ’s consider that the GOS is a result of breeding two pigs that no longer survive : a self-aggrandizing , white pig with waddle and no spots called the Gloucestershire , and the unimproved Berkshire ( no wonder we loved watching Raylan in our Berk pastures ) . GOS pigs were ship to the U.S. in the 1900s , though their numbers did n’t take off .
In 1913 , the Gloucestershire Old Spots Breed Society forge in Berkeley Vale to protect the pig ’s parentage against British pig developing plan . Good thing , too , because go popularity only grew thereafter , reaching a prime in the 1920s-30s , when the stock was favored for its lean meat .
That thin meat characteristic is ironic , though , when look at what materialize next . As intensive Sus scrofa farming carry off and development programs reach for ever - leaner pork , GOS popularity took a nosedive . Between the mid-40s to the 1960s , the GOS strain grew rare and rarer , finally reaching a critically queer status .
In 2009 , there were fewer than 1,000 GOS slovenly person in England and few than 200 facts of life brace in the U.S.
A Happy Ending
Happily , thing have change for the Gloucestershire Old Spot .
In part , this is due to a conjunct effort to contribute the strain back . In 1995 , a farm in Maine spell 20 piglets to re - establish the GOS in America . interested individuals constitute a breed club , and , slowly , the breed set out to make a retort .
But most farmer have to have an incentive to bring up an animal , and a rediscovery of flavorful pork by tell apart feeder render a good one . think back the stock breeder ’s son ’s claim to sake from gourmet chef ? Our marketplace customers took notice , too , telling us numerous times that our porc ( we raised Berkshire , but also Large Blacks and , of class , Raylan ) reminded them of “ what pork barrel used to taste like . ”
So as the market place for inheritance pork became established , GOS numbers pool lift . In 2015 , the strain was formally moved off the critically endangered list . It ’s still officially menace , but there seems to be a future for Gloucestershire Old Spots .
Will Gloucestershire Old Spots ever become the pig of choice for the pork barrel industry ? That ’s very improbable , but for hobby farmers , the well-disposed , floppy - eared hog could be the perfect sloven .
