I hadn't spotted that, Karen. In a way that might make Landrace x black-and-white an even better option, in that back in the 70s when I worked on a large and quite scientifically-run pig farm, the breeding programme involved Large White, Landrace, Welsh and Hampshire. I wish I could remember in which order they were used! There were Large White, Landrace, Welsh and Cotswold boars, we also used AI on the Hampshire females but I don't remember what breed.
I think 'Cotswold' was an F1 hybrid Large White x Landrace.
It was all about 2.2 litters per year, weaning at 21 days, gilts with at least 16 teats, farrowing crates and a dry sow house where the pigs were tied by belly straps for 80% of their lives. Put me off eating pork for a good long while, and sowed the seeds for my passion to treat farm animals humanely and to try to eat only 'happy meat'.
Sorry, rambling!
One thing I do remember, though, was that the pork produced by the intensively-farmed pigs was utterly tasteless.
I had one runty thing as a 'pet' (don't judge me, he had a house outside and some ground to run around on - and never got on the sofa, though he did used to sneak into the kitchen and steal veg out the veg rack; my dog and he were best buds, I used to take them for walks together.) He grew and grew, of course, and when I moved to a place where he couldn't be (bye-laws, cemetery... not worth the risk!), I found him a home at a pub where they also had a goat. Eventually his propensity to beg for ham sandwiches put enough customers off, so he had to go. I couldn't have any myself, but everyone who did said it was the most delicious pork they'd ever eaten. So it was definitely about feeding / lifestyle, and not breeding that had made the intensively-reared stuff so grey and tasteless.
Topic: Which pig for bacon!? (Read 4320 times)
