Pig Breeds

Pure Breeds

Predominant breeds of pigs in the early years of the industry were the Berkshire, the Tamworth and the Large Black.

Berkshire
The Berkshire was a black pig, described as being an excellent "porker". Early animals of the breed were known to be rather fatty. However, importations in the late 1920s of Canadian strains of Berkshires improved the New Zealand strain and made them very suitable for bacon.

Tamworth
The Tamworth was a red pig and, considered to be leaner than the Berkshire, came into prominence as a bacon pig. The Tamworth was considered very valuable as a breed for cross breeding to improve vigour, size and prolificacy.

Large Black
The Large Black was essentially a bacon pig, not being sufficiently developed at pork weight to get a good porker carcass.

Large White
The Large White was introduced into New Zealand in the late 1920s and was considered to be the world's best bacon pig. However, early experience in New Zealand showed that it was not particularly good outdoors and it came into disrepute for many years. They appeared to perform better if kept indoors. The breed was largely ignored by New Zealand pig producers, particularly when the Canadian Berkshire was introduced.

The Lincoln Red
In the early 1940s, Mr P G Stevens at Lincoln College developed this breed by crossing the Large White and the Tamworth. It was popular for a time in Canterbury, but disappeared when the nucleus breeding herd died.

The Landrace
In 1959, the first Landrace pigs were imported from Australia. They were a white pig with "floppy" ears rather than the "prick" earred breeds which had been predominant in New Zealand until that date.