The Welsh pig creates bacon and pork. It is strain commercially, and it provides a carcass with killing out percentage. The benefits of this Welsh pig comprise a good feed into meat conversion ratio. The sows and the piglets have mothering skills that are quite good and relatively a high success rate, respectively. The sows can be used in a breeding program using Landrace boars or Big White for producing progeny.
The Welsh pig is a breed of pig that’s native to Wales. It is a big breed that has been increased since time immemorial in Wales. The breed is well known for its hardiness in extensive or outdoor pig farming systems. The Welsh breed comes from various Welsh towns, particularly from Montgomery, Mid Wales, Cardigan and from Carmarthen and Pembroke.
Welsh Pig Characteristics
The Welsh pig is long sized animals and contains a pear-shaped body. Its skin is thin and unwrinkled, and also the coat is fine and straight. It is white in color, but occasionally has a couple of black spots. It’s a moderately wide head with a straight nose and lopped ears (although the ears do not really extend so far as the snout).
The Welsh pigs have a moderately deep throat and their shoulders are flat on top, supporting a long, strong and flat back. Their forelegs are set apart and the rib cage is profound.
The Welsh pig is extremely hardy and it is well known because it’s hardiness in the extensive farming system. Along with a broad system, the breed also can thrive well indoors. It is very good for producing pork and bacon.
The strain keeps sufficient fat cover for producing succulent, well-flavored meat but isn’t excessively fat. Their meat grades well when grown to heavier weights.
Both male and female Welsh pigs normally have at least twelve teats. This Welsh pig’s tail is smooth and thick and the underline of it is straight. The hindquarters of it aren’t flabby but are strong, with nicely rounded hams that are thick and firm.
The loin of these Welsh pigs is well-muscled and belly and the flank are all tick. The boars on weighing about 250 kg. And the average live body weight of the sows ranges from about 150 to 200 kg.
The Welsh boars can also be used on other rare breed sows for producing leaner and faster-growing young with enhanced conformation.
The strain was in the threat of extinction. It experienced a decline in numbers in the late 20th century. Nevertheless, the Rare Breeds Survival Trust was set up in 1973 for trying to avoid the extinction of many of the British conventional pig strains.
Nowadays the Welsh pig breed is not widely stored as a pure strain, but it is used in crossbreeding programs. An overall number of registered breeding animals had dwindled by 2005, along with the breed that has been declared’endangered’, and later reclassified as a rare breed. There were 373 enrolled females in 2008, and 108 men from 24 bloodlines.
Their total numbers had grown by 2012, and amounts of the men that were enrolled were 238 and 837 females. The Welsh Pig Society became a member of the National Pig Breeders Association in 1952 (which is currently known as the British Pig Association).
Welsh Pig Breed Information
| Breed Name | Welsh |
| Other Name | None |
| Special Notes | Well adapted to almost all climates, very hardy, fertile, excellent maternal abilities, thrive well in both indoors and outdoors, very high quality bacon and pork, grow relatively faster |
| Breed Size | Medium |
| Weight Boars | Around 250 kg |
| Sows | Vary from 150 to 200 kg |
| Climate Tolerance | All climates |
| Coat Color | Usually white, sometimes with a few black spots |
| Rarity | Common |
| Country/Place of Origin | Wales |
