 Sow, photograph from 1909 | |
| Conservation status | |
|---|---|
| Other names |
|
| Country of origin | Denmark |
| Traits | |
| Weight | |
| Height |
|
| |
The Danish Landrace, Danish : Hvid Dansk Landrace, is a Danish breed of pig. It is of medium to large size, white in colour with a long body, fine hair, a long snout, and heavy drooping ears. There are two distinct varieties, the white (hvid) and the piebald (sortbroget).
During the second half of the nineteenth century, Denmark became a major supplier of bacon to the United Kingdom: exports grew from 1000 tons per year in 1850 to 50000 in 1900; they grew still further in the twentieth century, reaching 384000 in 1932. [3] : 586 From about 1865, and particularly between 1879 and 1896, breeding stock of the British Large White or Yorkshire breed was imported and cross-bred with local animals to supply the bacon trade. The cross of a Large White boar with a sow of the traditional Jutland breed was found to be particularly successful. [3] : 587
In 1896 the Danish government drew up a national plan for pig production, under which the Large White x Jutland hybrid would become a new breed, the Danish Landrace. [3] : 587 A herd-book published in 1906 listed 126 boars born from 1893 to 1904; [3] : 587 some 60% of them were from Jutland, 21% from Fyn and 10% from Zealand. Performance testing was started in 1899. [4] : 121 Herds of purebred local and Large White pigs were separately reared; farmers could buy stock to produce the first-generation hybrid, which soon became the predominant pig of Denmark. From about 1925 the use of Large White boars was reduced, and the new breed selectively bred for characteristics including more length in the body and less fat on the back. [3] : 587
After the end of the Second World War, limits were placed on exports of breeding stock; the Danish Landrace had already been exported to many countries of the world, and had given rise to numerous regional breeds, among them the American, Dutch Landrace, Norwegian, South African and Swedish Landrace. [3] : 587 [5] : 404
In the 1960s it was essentially the only pig breed in the country, but in the 1970s it came to be considered insufficiently productive for intensive farming. [3] : 587 A comparison with imported Large White in 1977 found it to grow more slowly while consuming more feed. [6] From about this time it was cross-bred with newly-imported Large White boars to create the Dan-Hybrid sow line, on which a variety of Duroc, Hampshire and Large White boars were used. [3] : 587 By 1983 approximately 3500 of the original breed remained. [3] : 587
The Danish Landrace is a medium-to-large, long, lean, pig. It is white, and is scantily clad with short hairs. The snout is long, and the large ears droop forwards. It has deep flanks and lacks the wrinkles and excess fat found in some other breeds. [7]
Breeding back is a form of artificial selection by the deliberate selective breeding of domestic animals, in an attempt to achieve an animal breed with a phenotype that resembles a wild type ancestor, usually one that has gone extinct. Breeding back is not to be confused with dedomestication.
The Brahman is an American breed of zebuine-taurine hybrid beef cattle. It was bred in the United States from 1885 using cattle originating in India, imported at various times from the United Kingdom, India, and Brazil. These were mainly Gir, Guzerá and Nelore stock, with some Indu-Brasil, Krishna Valley and Ongole. The Brahman has a high tolerance of heat, sunlight and humidity, and good resistance to parasites. It has been exported to many countries, particularly in the tropics; in Australia it is the most numerous breed of cattle. It has been used in the creation of numerous taurine-indicine hybrids, some of which – such as the Brangus and Brahmousin – are established as separate breeds.
The American Landrace is an American breed of domestic pig. It is white in color, with a long body, fine hair, a long snout and heavy, drooping ears. Like all landrace pigs, it derives from the Danish Landrace.
The Essex is a breed of domestic pig originating in the United Kingdom.
The Berkshire is a British breed of pig. It originated in the English county of Berkshire, for which it is named. It is normally black, with some white on the snout, on the lower legs, and on the tip of the tail.
The Semirechensk is a Kazakh breed of domestic pig. It was purpose-bred in the twentieth century in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic of the Soviet Union. The breeding stock was principally Large White, with some admixture of Siberian Kemerovo and a small proportion of wild boar.
The Aksai Black Pied is a distinctively black and white spotted pig breed from Kazakhstan.
The Poland China is an American breed of domestic pig. It was first bred in Warren County in Ohio, in the American Midwest. Its origins lie in a small number of pigs of Chinese type bought in 1816, which were cross-bred with a variety of breeds of European origin including the Berkshire. It was bred as a lard pig, and is among the largest of all pig breeds.
The Large Black is a British breed of domestic pig. It is the only British pig that is entirely black. It was created in the last years of the nineteenth century by merging the black pig populations of Devon and Cornwall in the south-west with those of Essex, Suffolk and Kent in the south-east. It is hardy, docile and prolific; it forages well and is suitable for extensive farming, but not well suited to intensive management.
The British Saddleback is a modern British breed of domestic pig. It was created in 1967 by merging the surviving populations of two traditional saddleback breeds, the Essex and Wessex Saddleback. It is an endangered breed, listed on the watchlist of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust as at risk, the second-highest level of concern.
The Middle White is a British breed of domestic pig. It originated in Yorkshire, and derived from the Large White and the now-extinct Small White. It was recognised in 1852, and the first herd-book was published in 1884. It is a porker, reared for fresh pork, and is characterised by a short and sharply-upturned snout. After the Second World War it came close to extinction; although numbers have recovered somewhat, it is listed by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust as "priority" – the highest level of risk.
The Welsh is a breed of domestic pig native to Wales. It is a large white breed known for its hardiness in outdoor (extensive) farming, its long, pear-shaped body and its lop-ears. The breed was first mentioned in the 1870s, and after the Howitt committee report in 1955, became the third most common sire in the United Kingdom after the Large White pig and British Landrace pig. The Welsh pig experienced a decline in numbers in the late twentieth century because consumer demands had changed and the carcase was considered too fatty. In 2005 the breed was considered endangered and later came under the auspices of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust. Since then numbers have expanded somewhat, and by 2012, the registered breeding herd had increased to over 1000 animals.
The Italian Landrace is an Italian breed of domestic pig. It derives from the Danish Landrace breed developed in Denmark at the end of the nineteenth century. Stock was imported into Italy after the Second World War. The breed has been selected principally for suitability for the production of prosciutto crudo. It is, after the Large White Italiana, the second-most numerous pig breed in Italy. The breed standard is issued by the Ministero delle Politiche Agricole Alimentari e Forestali, the Italian ministry of agriculture and forestry; the herdbook is kept by the Associazione Nazionale Allevatori Suini, the national pig-breeders' association.
The Swedish Landrace is the leading breed of pig in Sweden. They have heavy drooping ears and a white coat. The Swedish strain of the Landrace pig originated from importations from neighboring countries, particularly Denmark. The Swedish Landrace have attracted attention in the United States and other nations in recent years.
The Cumberland was a breed of domestic pig that originated in the North of England; it was used to produce local delicacies like the Cumberland sausage and Cumberland ham. The breed became extinct in 1960, after changes in farming methods and a demand for less fatty meat led to it falling out of favour.
The British Landrace is a British domestic breed of pig and one of the most popular in the United Kingdom. It is pink with heavy drooping ears that cover most of the face and is bred for pork and bacon. The breed originated in the 1949 importation of 12 landrace pigs from Scandinavia — four boars and eight gilts. In 1950, the British Landrace Pig Society was formed and it opened a herd book for the first offspring born from the imported 12. They created the first pig testing scheme with a testing station at the village of Stockton-on-the-Forest in North Yorkshire.
The Lacombe is a breed of domestic pig native to Canada. Named for the Lacombe Research and Development Centre in Lacombe, Alberta, the breed was the first strain of livestock developed in the country.
The Husum Red Pied or Rotbunte Husumer is a rare Danish breed of domestic pig. It is a red pig with a white belt or saddle which includes the forelegs, so the head, neck, rump and hind parts are red; it is considered a colour variant of the Angeln Saddleback. The name derives from that of the town of Husum on the coast of Nordfriesland in northern Schleswig-Holstein, where pigs of this kind are documented from the late nineteenth century.
The Belgian Landrace, also known as the Improved Belgian, Belgian Improved Landrace, and the Belgian Lop-eared, is a breed of domestic pig from northern Belgium. It was created from importing English breeds and improving them until they were "graded up" to the German Improved Landrace from 1930 to 1945 and then breeding them with the Dutch Landrace in 1945. Other breeds were also incorporated into the bloodline to strengthen it, such as with ones from Luxembourg in 1955, Germany in 1971, and the Czech Republic in 1974. Used in many different countries, the Belgian Landrace is also one of the "four major commercial breeds" in France.
The Dutch Landrace pig is a standardized breed of domestic pig originating in the Netherlands. The breed was developed from the native landrace of pigs of the area, crossbred with strains from neighboring counties. The Dutch Landrace is considered "a meaty and efficient breed". The breed is unusually responsive to the halothane test, which can be used to weed out individuals with low projected survivability and meat production.
