Yorkshire

The Large White came out of the old Large Yorkshire of northern England. A pair of the type were shown at the Royal Agricultural Show at Windsor in 1851, the breed was recognized in 1868, and the English herd book opened in 1884. Nineteenth-century crosses with Chinese pigs shaped its relatives, but of the three white Yorkshire types the Large White shows the least of that influence.

Americans imported Yorkshires from about 1830 to the mid-1900s. The American Yorkshire Club was organized in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1893, with its first office in St. Paul; its first registry volume, in 1901, listed 1,264 animals, and by 1906 registrations spanned thirty-nine states. The club was reorganized in 1948, and since 1994 the breed's records have been part of the National Swine Registry.

A big white pig with erect ears, a long body and a slightly dished face. The registry standard is plain: white, erect ears, and no colored spot larger than a US quarter.

The National Swine Registry sells the Yorkshire on the sow. It calls the breed the Mother Breed and lists what she excels in: litter size, birth and weaning weight, rebreeding interval, durability and longevity. That makes the farrowing sow the animal to respect. Sows can be stressed around farrowing and protective of newborn piglets, so keep a solid sorting panel between you and her when you handle the litter, and do not reach between the bars of a farrowing crate.

Boars need the caution any boar does; the Pork Information Gateway treats every breeding pig as dangerous and says boars can be the most aggressive.

The stress gene is less of a concern here than in some breeds. The Merck Veterinary Manual rates Yorkshire and Large White pigs much less susceptible to porcine stress syndrome than the Pietrain, Poland China and Landrace.

What made them dominant is the sow: large litters, plenty of milk, good mothering, and the ability to repeat it over many parities. Nearly every commercial hybrid sow carries Yorkshire on one side. They also grow well and yield a long, lean carcass with a high proportion of loin, and the breed is the most numerous in the United States.

The trade is that decades of selection for production have made them a system animal. They perform in a managed environment with good feed and shelter, and they are less suited to a rough outdoor system than the heritage breeds, where the white skin also burns.

Papers come from the National Swine Registry, which requires at least a 6-6 underline for an animal to be recorded. Be clear which side of the cross you are buying for: the Yorkshire's product is the sow, and her value is litters and milk, not the market hog's carcass.

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