Mulefoot

Where it came from is not settled. The likeliest answer is the Spanish hogs landed in the Americas from the 1500s, the same stock behind the Choctaw hog, loosely managed for three centuries before anyone standardized it around 1900.

You found them across the Corn Belt and up and down the Mississippi Valley, and often on river islands. The Livestock Conservancy's Jeannette Beranger describes the system: the hogs foraged the islands all summer, and at butchering time in the fall people went out and took what they needed.

There were two breed associations and more than 200 registering herds in the early 1900s. Then the breed collapsed with the lard market, and the registries closed in 1976. R. M. Holliday of Louisiana, Missouri kept the last purebred herd from 1964, and nearly every Mulefoot alive traces to it. Work to re-establish a registry began in 1993, and the current body, the American Mulefoot Breeders Association, was founded in 2014.

A solid black hog, with white markings rare, weighing 400 to 600 pounds in both sexes. The snout is long, and the solid, non-cloven hoof is the defining trait. Sows produce litters that average 5 to 6 piglets, sometimes up to 12.

The Conservancy lists it as docile and active and rates it for beginners. Sows are excellent, calm mothers.

It was bred to fatten easily and to make meat, lard and above all hams. The Conservancy lists it for charcuterie, sausage, roasts and ham, and chefs value the meat for its tenderness.

A foraging system. The breed made its living on rough ground and river islands, fattens easily, and suits outdoor management better than a grain-fed pen.

The Mulefoot is Critical on the Conservation Priority List. In 2006 fewer than 200 purebred animals existed, and because most herds trace to the single Holliday herd, the breed needs new stewards as much as it needs numbers.

Ask for the registration. The American Mulefoot Breeders Association keeps the herd book and runs a DNA and diversity program, which matters in a breed this narrow. The solid hoof by itself proves nothing: the trait appears as a mutation in other breeds, and the Choctaw carries it too. Papers and pedigree are what make a Mulefoot.

Know that this is a lard-type hog, not a lean commercial carcass. The buyers who pay for it are the ones who want the hams and the fat.

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