Chester White

The foundation was the large white pigs common to the Northeast, crossed with a white boar of the Woburn breed from John Russell, Duke of Bedford, brought over by Captain Jefferies of Liverpool. The registry history is a tangle of mergers: the first Chester White Record Association dates from 1884, a National association followed in 1893 in West Chester, and the competing bodies consolidated into the Chester White Swine Record Association in the 1910s. The record moved to Peoria, Illinois in 1986, and since 1997 has been administered within Certified Pedigreed Swine.

Entirely white with drooping, medium-sized ears and a medium-length body, and the standard is strict about it: no colored hair, no skin spot larger than a silver dollar, and no more than five spots of any kind. They grow: a Chester White can gain as much as 1.36 pounds a day, at about a pound of gain for every three pounds of grain.

What they are known for is mothering. Chester White sows have large litters, milk well, and are notably good mothers, and the breed is used as a maternal line in crossbreeding for exactly that. They are also durable, with sound feet and legs, and they hold up in outdoor and pasture systems; packers like the white skin and the muscle quality.

Shade. The pale skin leaves Chester Whites prone to sunburn, so outdoor herds need shade and wallows. Beyond that they are an easy-keeping farm pig, sound enough for pasture systems.

Papers come through Certified Pedigreed Swine, and the color standard means an off-color animal cannot be registered, so check before you assume. The breed's case is the sow rather than the market hog: the carcass is not as lean or as fast growing as a modern commercial hybrid, so buy a Chester White for her litters, her milk and her durability.

Recent sale prices on HoofnHorn, where there are any, are further down this page.