|
The British Saddleback pig has striking markings, with lop ears, a black coat and a distinctive white band across the shoulders. It may also have white hind feet and tail tip. The Saddleback breed was formed
in 1967 through the amalgamation of the Essex breed (mainly found in East Anglia) and the Wessex (originating from the New Forest).
The Wessex Saddleback dates back to 1918 when its first herd book was published. The Essex Saddleback began the same year. It was said that when the two breeds existed side by side that the Essex was the gent’s pig and the Wessex the Farmer’s choice. In other words the Essex was considered more of a fancy breed. The Wessex pig was known originally as the Old English Forest pig and was derived from a cross between the Hampshire and Sussex breeds. It is said to have originated in the Isle of Purbeck area of Dorset and then to have spread north, east and west until it was kept extensively in the Southern Counties from Hampshire to Devon. The Essex pig of about 1830 was apparently ‘a
partly-coloured animal; black, with white shoulders, nose and legs – in fact a sort of ‘sheeted’ pig, large, upright and coarse in bone’. This old sheeted pig was later crossed with both Berkshire and Large White, with the
In the 1940’s the two breeds were stated to be of ‘similar type and colour, being black with a white saddle over the shoulders and white fore legs’. The Essex breed standard called for white hind feet and a white tip to the tail, whereas in the Wessex the hind feet and the tail were both black. The ears of the Wessex were larger and carried further forward, and the Wessex was the larger of the two breeds.
One of the most important characteristics of the British Saddleback today is its hybrid
vigor which is possessed by no other British breed. Not all herds combine the two strains and there is therefore a permanent reservoir of blood of the two original breeds from which crossing lines can be continuously invigorated. The breed is noted for its hardiness, the milking ability of the sows, low food consumption and the speed of growth. The pigs are docile and the sows are noted for their excellent mothering skills.
|
