Berkshire pigsare an excellent choice for farmers who want to raiseheritage livestockwith a taste consumers appreciate . Not so very long ago , almost every farm had a few pig , which were often dubbed “ the mortgage lifter ” thanks to their wanton net profit potential .
But in late decades , pig moved from the farmstead to the factory farm , as belittled - scurf farmers could n’t possibly vie with incarnate operations with 1,000 or more creature raised under one roof .
Small - scale farmers are once again finding that there are potential profits — and lots of splendid meat in keeping pigs : The trick is to keep niche breeds that produce high - quality gist and to commercialise at once to consumer ( and chefs ) who are interested in taste , humanistic handling of beast and better stewardship of the environment .
One of the pig breeds that Farmer are finding to work well for these consumers is the Berkshire . This pig is hardy , has in effect mothering capabilities and perform very well outdoors , particularly when crease on pasture . This copper multiply ’s meat is darker than commercial pork barrel and far more flavoursome than the porc found in your grocery - store freezer .
Berkshire Pig Breed Characteristics
Color:
smuggled with clean point ( legs , look and shadow ) and pinkish skin . Dark - gloss skin trim erythema solare .
Body type:
Very deeply - sided with a hard , consistent archway of back and hefty , firm build . poor neck and short , blocky peg with strong substructure .
Head:
comparatively little honker . find out from the side , the face has a slight dish - shape with a large jowl and an upturned olfactory organ . ear are average - sized and upright .
Size:
average to large animals , around 600 pounds at maturity date .
Temperament:
Excellent disposition . Friendly and curious .
Production traits:
Good mothering ability with in high spirits milk production . Hardy , performs well in out-of-door operations . WFIU Public Radio / Flickr
History of Berkshire Pigs
Berkshire slob are one of the oldest identifiable breeds . These inglorious grunter , with white “ points ” ( white areas on their pes , honker and tail ) were document in the English “ shire horse of Berks ” more than 350 old age ago and made their way to the United States in the early 1800s . In 1875 , breeder formed the American Berkshire Association , make it the first breeder grouping and swine registry in the world .
Pigs number in two essential types — the lard character and the bacon type . As the name suggests , lard squealer bring about higher concentrations of fatness , which traditionally was return for cookery and the production of lubricants . These pig are compact , with slurred muscling , short legs and deep bodies .
Through the end of World War II , the market for lard ( a fundamental factor in products graze from cosmetic to explosive to pharmaceutic ) was potent , but after the war , cheaper vegetable - based fats found their way into American diets and petrochemicals mostly replace lard for commercial and industrial uses . The decline food market for lard caused demand for lard pigs to collapse and breeders begin selecting for leaner hogs .
WFIU Public Radio/Flickr
Initially the Berkshire pig breed thrived , thanks largely to its exceptionally tasty meat , but as the pork industry consolidate under the control of just a handful of large corporations in the eighties and nineties and efficiency of production became the name of the game , the Berkshire population plummet . The “ pork manufacture ” simply was n’t interested in Berkshires because they were slower development , did n’t produce as much lean meat ( which the diligence trust was the only thing consumers would buy ) and did n’t perform as well in confinement as the Duroc , Hampshire and Yorkshire pig strain .
Despite these black eye , some independent sodbuster who were member of the ABA kept breeding registered hogs .
“ Berkshire producers did n’t open their books [ to non - Berkshire bloodline ] , they never changed and the breed is intact , ” enunciate Mike Telford , Marketing Director for the ABA ’s Berkshire Meat Products program . “ The breed has fantastic kernel quality and today ’s consumers , both nationwide and internationally , are really seeking out high - quality inwardness product . ”
WFIU Public Radio/Flickr
Thanks to this consumer - drive demand for good meat , Berkshire number are again climb and there is chance for lowly - shell producers to profit from these squealer .
Responding to the Consumer
locate in the exuberant hills of the south - central Missouri Ozarks , Greenwood Farms is a family social function that ’s finding its niche raising “ organic , naturally raised animate being . ”
Although Steve Atkinson is a dental practitioner , he and wife , Holly , set up their nestling , Julie and David , on a farm in the 1980s . Steve Atkinson ’s practice was the family ’s master income reference , but the farm was still a serious endeavor : Holly Atkinson milk a herd of 26 Jersey oxen and sold the Milk River commercially .
When the Kyd grew up and went off to college , the Atkinson ’s sold the farm to take some long time off for travel , but in 2000 they began thinking of buying another farm to enjoy a rural retreat . Then , Julie , David and David ’s wife Kindra , obtain that collective life did n’t suit them , so the family banded together to create a small commercial-grade farm .
“ Our whole philosophy has been to occupy in traditional kinsperson husbandry , but to find new niches , ” Holly Atkinson aver . “ We have always been interested in heritage breeds and the older stock of livestock . We do n’t experience like heavy is of necessity better , or that ‘ newfangled and improved ’ breed are inevitably better . ”
With a good moment of research to back up their decision , they selected Berkshire Hills as the Sus scrofa for Greenwood Farms . ( They also lift and direct - marketplace rarified breeds of cattle , horses , sheep and domestic fowl . ) Steve Atkinson loves to do enquiry and he quickly discovered that the Berkshire is the top choice for pork in Japan .
“ The Nipponese are quite the gourmand when it comes to pork , so we took that as a good sign . ”
Mike Telford also speak about the Japanese interest in Berkshire pork : “ In Japan , you do n’t have to educate consumer about Berkshires — just walk up and down the grocery store gangway you could see that they really understand what the intersection is and what the meat ’s quality are . Kurobuta , which is 100 - percentage Berkshire inwardness , is much prize by the Japanese ; that orientation go back 300 years or more . Part of the penchant is cultural ; the Japanese have always preferred dark meat from black pigs because it is seen as tidy and healing [ you would n’t go there and promote ‘ the other white meat ’ ] . ”
It’s All About Taste
What do the Nipponese consumers already know about Berkshire quality that American consumer are just rediscover ? In a word , gustatory perception . Berkshires marble well so the meat is naturally gamey and flavorful with exceptional texture .
In fact , according to Telford , in examination for sensory qualities ( or eating characteristic ) performed by the National Pork Producers Association , Berkshire Hills are the hands - down winners , coming in first overall and place above all the other breeds in 19 of the 24 trial NPPA performs in its assessment .
chef are becoming major promoters of Berkshire Hills in the U.S. Tom Boyce , Chef de Cuisine at Wolfgang Puck ’s flagship Beverly Hills eating place , Spago , is one of the Berkshire ’s fans .
“ I love the magnificence of the Berkshire pork — and the fact that most farmers rear them are handle them well and doing a better job for the environment than the trade good - pork producers . They are raising them in an artisanal fashion .
“ It is the only kind of pig we use here at Spago , ” Boyce says . “ And we have it on the menu at least a couple of clip per month . The reaction is always excellent ; everyone absolutely loves the smack . ”
For farmers , like the Atkinsons , who lineal - marketplace their products , the flavor really does aid sell the meat to more than just five - star chefs .
“ There are broadly two kinds of porc on the market , ” Holly Atkinson state . “ One has no flavor and is washy , and the other has really stocky fat on the exterior , but no marbling in the middle , so it ’s dry and row . With the Berkshires you get a courteous edge of lightsome fat and a petty marbling , so it has good , juicy flavor throughout . ”
The Atkinsons mainly sell their heart and soul via the net . They have an e-mail list of more 400 people and customers who come from near and far to purchase their tasty pork . One of their regular live on in San Francisco and pays nearly as much for shipping as he does for the meat , but he need the calibre and is willing to pay off .
“ We get a good price from people who are seek naturally arouse products . We are doing spanking sales of our grassfed kick and lamb , but our pork market place — which is still a small endeavor — is growing faster than our other enterprises . ”
Small-Scale Swine
Interestingly enough , the Atkinsons truly started out on a belittled scale and go on with a slow and stiff gait . They buy six Berkshire feeder pigs ( just - wean shoat ) at a time from a certified - Berkshire producer . They are maturate their cognitive process step by step as the market for their ware grow . Sold by the pound , they have jumped through basket to have their meat swear out and label in a USDA - audit usance boxing plant .
Peggy Miller and her sister , Sally Grimes , are another syndicate engaged in a small - scale swine operation .
“ I actually got my first weaner pig as my 15th birthday present — just what every girl wants , ” Miller says with a chuckle . She kept pigs through high schooling , mostly Spots and Yorkshires . As a young adult , Peggy got out of keep pigs while she went to college , but after she graduate , her female parent talked her into getting some again . That was 1987 ; she bought a bred - Berkshire gilt ( a young distaff pig that has not yet had piglets ) at the Oregon State Fair and has stuck with Berks ever since .
Today Miller and Grimes raise Berkshires ( and Karakul sheep ) twelvemonth - round on a small plot of kingdom right in Salem , Ore. , the state ’s Capitol Building with a metro - country population of almost 300,000 . Unlike the Atkinsons , they sell all their piglets as feeder hog .
“ I do n’t grow my own feed , and I do n’t have bulk reposition , so I have to compensate top - one dollar bill for it , ” Miller explains . “ For the most part that make it more profitable for me to deal pigs off the sow , rather than try on to raise them for meat . I sell to individuals who need to tip them out for syndicate meat output and for 4 - H projects . ”
Berkshires really do make ideal animals for little - scale output .
“ They are rugged and reliable animals , ” Holly Atkinson pronounce . “ They take well to pasture spirit , getting a lot of their own provender from graze and digging for acorns . ”
The Atkinsons also feed some local , naturally raised corn whiskey and milk from three Jersey cows milked for family use and for prepare tall mallow .
Berkshire Breeding
Not only are they stout and active forager , Berkshire sow are also excellent female parent . With ten of breeding sow and farrowing out litter , Miller quickly evidence to their mothering power : “ In all the years I have forge with them , I have only had one uncollectible mother . Sometimes a gilding will be a short nervous the first time , but other than that they just lay down and have their babies . They are really unagitated . sow are great milkers , so the shoat farm rapidly . ”
Berkshire litters run to be a little little than some of the commercial crossbreds , but Miller says she averages eight to 10 piglets per bedding , though she has had some sows farrow as many as 16 .
“ Personally , I do n’t like huge litters , ” she says . “ I would rather have eight to 10 pigs that are braggart , uniform and sizeable than 14 pigs with some runty one that need nurse - maiding . ”
Miller also explains that the Berkshire Hills have a slimly longer gestation period , which she palpate is a benefit .
“ The Berkshire Hills go about 116 days , whereas the Yorkshires normally go 112 days . I think they come out more vigorous thanks to the special metre they spent in the womb . ”
Thanks to their fateful coat , Berkshires propose another advantage : They do n’t incline to get sunburn like unaccented - slanted pigs .
All in all , if you are look for a good Sus scrofa for a small - farm enterprise or you just require to exhaust your own pork like Grandpa used to evoke , then the Berkshire might be the breed for you .
This article first appear in the September / October 2006 event ofHobby Farmsmagazine .
