Guinea Hog

The Conservancy also records the name Pineywoods Guinea, and the breed's whole history is the homestead: a yard pig that earned its keep. It even has a research footnote, as feral Guinea Hogs from Alabama were used from 1949 at the Hormel Institute to develop the Minnesota Miniature pig.

It nearly disappeared along with the homesteads it worked on. By 2009 there were fewer than 400 left in the country. A breed association formed in 1991, was renamed the American Guinea Hog Association in 2005, and adopted American Guinea Hog as the official name in 2006.

Small: the Conservancy puts boars at 175 to 200 pounds and sows at 85 to 150, standing 15 to 20 inches. The coat is hairy, black or blue-black, sometimes with white points on the snout and lower legs; the ears are upright, the eyes amber to brown, the tail curled. Two sub-types exist, small-boned and large-boned, the latter with longer legs.

Docile, and rated for beginners. Both sexes can breed as early as three months, so separate them by then.

Homestead meat and lard: suckling barbecue, charcuterie, sausage. The other half of the job is the yard work the breed was named for, foraging, clearing beds and killing rodents.

Forage, not a feed trough. They fatten easily on grain, and an overfed sow loses fertility, so most of the feeding is pasture, woods and scraps. This is not a commercial carcass hog; it suits a small farm, a wooded lot, or anyone short on freezer space.

The breed is Threatened on the Conservation Priority List. From fewer than 400 animals in 2009, numbers have climbed since.

Ask for the registration; the American Guinea Hog Association keeps the herd book. Well managed sows raise litters of six to ten and can keep producing viable litters to age 14, so a proven sow is worth more than her size suggests.

Buy for the homestead job, not the scale. The animal's economics are forage, fat and a small carcass.

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