Tamworth

Part of its ancestry is documented: the now-extinct Irish Grazer. In 1812 Sir Robert Peel, later twice Prime Minister, imported Irish Grazers to his farm at Tamworth in Staffordshire, which is where the name comes from, and crossed them with local pigs out of Stafford, Warwick, Leicester and Northampton. Before 1815 grizzled dark red pigs were mostly a Midlands animal, foraging the oak and beech woods there through autumn and winter.

It was standardized through the 1800s by selection and management, and it appears unlikely that other breeds contributed much. The Royal Show first entered it as a recognized breed in 1865, the herd book opened in 1885, and the English breed society formed in 1906.

North America took to it early. Thomas Bennett of Rossville, Illinois brought the first US imports in 1882, the American Tamworth Swine Record Association was established at Ames, Iowa in 1887, and Canada admitted the breed to its Dominion herd book in 1893; by the mid-1900s Tamworths were about 10 percent of the Canadian pig population.

A medium-sized pig, fine-boned, long and narrow in the body, with a long straight snout, a slightly concave profile and prick ears. The coat is long, fine and straight, red-gold over flesh-colored skin, and the ginger-red color gives real sun protection. The Conservancy puts both sexes at 500 to 600 pounds; Wikipedia's figures run heavier, 320 kg for boars and 260 kg for sows, about 705 and 573 pounds.

Docile and active, rated for beginners. The legs are long and strong and the animal covers ground, so fencing matters more than it does for a heavier, slower breed. Sows have good maternal instincts.

Bacon, principally, and lean pork: loin, chops, roasts and ham. The fine bone gives an exceptional carcass yield, up to 70 percent.

The one thing to be sure of before you buy: Tamworths do not do well in confinement. This is a pig that needs ground to work, the same foraging life that shaped it.

Recovering on the Conservation Priority List, the last stop before graduating. In Britain the picture is worse: the Rare Breeds Survival Trust lists the Tamworth at its highest level of concern.

Ask for the registration; the Tamworth Swine Association carries the American line of a record that goes back to 1887. Then look at your fences and your acreage, because an active, long-legged forager will find the gaps in both.

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