Spotted

The spots go back to the Big China pigs brought into Ohio in the early 1880s and before, white animals with black spots. Three Indiana breeders in Putnam and Hendricks Counties crossed Ohio stock with their local animals and kept selecting for large, well-defined black and white spots, and imported Gloucestershire Old Spots blood was added along the way.

The record was organized at Bainbridge, Indiana and incorporated in 1914 as the National Spotted Poland China Record. In 1960 the members voted to drop the Poland China name and become the National Spotted Swine Record; the offices moved to Peoria, Illinois in 1992, where the registry now operates within Certified Pedigreed Swine.

A large pig with drooping ears and a slightly dished profile, black and white, ideally in roughly equal proportions, in well-defined spots or patches. The standard has teeth: red or brown tinted spots disqualify, so does a solid black head from the ears forward, and the ears cannot be erect. Wikipedia puts sows at about 350 kg and boars over 400, about 770 and 880 pounds.

Oklahoma State University's breed reference passes on commercial producers' testimony that Spotted breeding adds gentleness to a sow herd, along with productivity and durability.

The registry watches the stress gene. Certified Pedigreed Swine requires every Spotted sire to have its stress status identified, and animals exhibited at a national show must be stress negative or carriers; stress-positive animals may not be shown or sold there. Ask for the status on any breeding animal.

Otherwise, handle them as you would any pig. The Pork Information Gateway treats every breeding pig as dangerous and says boars can be the most aggressive, University of Minnesota Extension recommends a solid sorting panel for moving boars, and a sow may defend newborn piglets.

What they are kept for is feed efficiency and growth rate. Spotted hogs gain well and convert feed efficiently, and they are used as terminal sires in crossbreeding programs. Sows are reasonable mothers, better than the Poland China's reputation suggests.

Spotted hogs have a long record as easy feeders. Oklahoma State's history records Indiana farmers who had moved away sending back for the rugged, easy-feeding spotted hog, and the registry describes the modern breed as fast-gaining and feed efficient.

Outdoors, the white in the coat needs shade. Penn State Extension notes that shade limits sunburn in breeds with white hair and skin as well as giving relief from heat, and Oregon State University Extension adds unlimited cool water and a shaded wallow, because pigs do not sweat. Treat pasture as a supplement to a balanced ration, not the whole diet.

Papers come from the National Spotted Swine Record line, administered by Certified Pedigreed Swine, and the color standard is enforced, so a spotted pig with red-tinted spots or a solid black head will not register. The breed was America's fourth most numerous as recently as 1990, with about 64,000 registrations that year; the 2024 US population is just under 20,000 head, with Argentina holding almost 40,000.

The trade is commercial relevance. Like the other heritage American breeds, they have been displaced from large-scale production by proprietary hybrids, so numbers are small and the market for purebreds is mostly show programs and small producers selling direct.

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