Spring Hill Farms
Tamworth - The Breed for Today's Sustainable Grass Farmer
King 'Workin'
The Tamworth has been the main breed of hog we have used since early 2004. Some of our foundation stock is still from our original purchase. We have worked to improve our pigs ability to thrive on grass and feed the minimum amount of grain yet still finish our pigs within 180 days. This is slower than conventional methods. Our hogs never have access to feed 24 hrs a day, which is the norm for most pigs raised in the United States.
All pigs are not created equal! Any pig (even Tamworth) raised on full feed with little or no access to pasture will not do well if placed on grass and limited grain. Any pig will eat some grass if it's available but there is a big difference between eating some grass and actually thriving on it and gaining weight. Through careful selection of breeding stock our pigs thrive on grass! Any pig that doesn't do well on grass doesn't stay on our farm.
Some thoughts on the origin of Tamworth pigs
The body type, coloring, and general temperament of the Tamworth suggest that it is more a direct descendant of the old English hog than any of the other breeds of English origin. Concerning the very early Tamworth, E. Day wrote:
It is of ancient and uncertain origin, and there seems to be no well authenticated account of where it came from. As first known, it was an extremely leggy, narrow type of hog, but it has been greatly improved during the past thirty years. Whether this improvement was wrought wholly by selection, or whether cross-breeding was resorted to is uncertain.
Most authorities seem to agree that there probably was some cross breeding to improve the original Tamworth, although there are no actual existing records of this infusion of outside blood. It has been suggested that the blood of Bershire the and the blood of Yorkshire the may have found their way into the breed at an early time. There has never been any radical change in the type of the Tamworth, so whatever influence any outside blood may have had has not been extremely marked. It can be said to the credit of the Tamworth breeders that improvement in the breed was made through gradual selection for the kind of hog that would make the most desirable bacon-type carcass. Click Here for more information from the Oklahoma State University.
A Word From the Tamworth Breeders Club
If you are a student of matters porcine, then you will discover all sorts of theories as to the origin of Britain’s only red coloured breed of pig, mostly concerning imports from exotic climes such as Barbados. But the truth is perhaps a little dull but much more worthy – the Tamworth is almost certainly the truest indigenous breed of these islands. All native breeds are descended from the European wild boar, Sus Scrofa, and throughout all but the last 200 or 300 years, it was the domesticated version of this fine swine that provided pork and bacon to the British people. But the domesticated wild boar of 300 years ago left something to be desired as the industrial revolution meant that more efficient farming was necessary. And thus oriental pigs carried on merchant vessels to supply the crew with fresh meat were traded at some British ports and crossed with the slower maturing, less prolific native pigs of the day. The result was a rapid improvement.
The level of infusion of Chinese and other genes is reckoned to be quantifiable in the degree of how short and squashed the snout is. Using this simple if crude device, we can see that the Middle White is most influenced, (its antecedent the Small White even more so), and the Tamworth thus being the closest to the old British forest pig.
The ‘need’ for exotic theories was to account for the red coloured hair, unique among British breeds. Yet the wild boar has a good deal of red in its colouration and the red gene can be found to dominate in a number of out crosses so it is not so unusual.
The European DNA study of the inter-relationship between breeds found the Tamworth out on a limb compared to other breeds tested in the UK. This could indeed be seen to argue in favour of exotic predecessors but equally backs the belief that the Tamworth is the purest British breed.
Richard Lutwyche
www.tamworthbreedersclub.co.uk
Copyright 2010 Spring Hill Farms
Farmers Click Here
All pigs are not created equal! Any pig (even Tamworth) raised on full feed with little or no access to pasture will not do well if placed on grass and limited grain. Any pig will eat some grass if it's available but there is a big difference between eating some grass and actually thriving on it and gaining weight. Through careful selection of breeding stock our pigs thrive on grass! Any pig that doesn't do well on grass doesn't stay on our farm.
Some thoughts on the origin of Tamworth pigs
The body type, coloring, and general temperament of the Tamworth suggest that it is more a direct descendant of the old English hog than any of the other breeds of English origin. Concerning the very early Tamworth, E. Day wrote:
It is of ancient and uncertain origin, and there seems to be no well authenticated account of where it came from. As first known, it was an extremely leggy, narrow type of hog, but it has been greatly improved during the past thirty years. Whether this improvement was wrought wholly by selection, or whether cross-breeding was resorted to is uncertain.
Most authorities seem to agree that there probably was some cross breeding to improve the original Tamworth, although there are no actual existing records of this infusion of outside blood. It has been suggested that the blood of Bershire the and the blood of Yorkshire the may have found their way into the breed at an early time. There has never been any radical change in the type of the Tamworth, so whatever influence any outside blood may have had has not been extremely marked. It can be said to the credit of the Tamworth breeders that improvement in the breed was made through gradual selection for the kind of hog that would make the most desirable bacon-type carcass. Click Here for more information from the Oklahoma State University.
A Word From the Tamworth Breeders Club
If you are a student of matters porcine, then you will discover all sorts of theories as to the origin of Britain’s only red coloured breed of pig, mostly concerning imports from exotic climes such as Barbados. But the truth is perhaps a little dull but much more worthy – the Tamworth is almost certainly the truest indigenous breed of these islands. All native breeds are descended from the European wild boar, Sus Scrofa, and throughout all but the last 200 or 300 years, it was the domesticated version of this fine swine that provided pork and bacon to the British people. But the domesticated wild boar of 300 years ago left something to be desired as the industrial revolution meant that more efficient farming was necessary. And thus oriental pigs carried on merchant vessels to supply the crew with fresh meat were traded at some British ports and crossed with the slower maturing, less prolific native pigs of the day. The result was a rapid improvement.
The level of infusion of Chinese and other genes is reckoned to be quantifiable in the degree of how short and squashed the snout is. Using this simple if crude device, we can see that the Middle White is most influenced, (its antecedent the Small White even more so), and the Tamworth thus being the closest to the old British forest pig.
The ‘need’ for exotic theories was to account for the red coloured hair, unique among British breeds. Yet the wild boar has a good deal of red in its colouration and the red gene can be found to dominate in a number of out crosses so it is not so unusual.
The European DNA study of the inter-relationship between breeds found the Tamworth out on a limb compared to other breeds tested in the UK. This could indeed be seen to argue in favour of exotic predecessors but equally backs the belief that the Tamworth is the purest British breed.
Richard Lutwyche
www.tamworthbreedersclub.co.uk
Copyright 2010 Spring Hill Farms
Farmers Click Here