Saving Endangered Hog Breeds

The popularity of pastured rare breed pork is quickly gaining popularity with chefs and consumers but the animals differ greatly in conformation from commodity pigs and there is no data available to construct enterprise budgets or assist in marketing efforts for producers. This preliminary research seeks to establish a Pork Carcass Percentage Data Sheet similar to the commodity pig carcass data sheet at http://tiny.cc/FuDyG for each of the eight rare pork breeds listed by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy: Gloucester Old Spot, Guinea Hog, Large Black, Mulefoot, Ossabaw, Red Wattle, Tamworth, and Hereford. Carcass data on each breed will be collected and used to create a carcass percentage data sheet and the primal and retail cuts professionally photographed. Each data sheet will list the primal cuts by weight that can be expected for each breed based on an average of five pigs of each breed. This data can be used by producers to formulate enterprise budgets using templates such as the “Pork Carcass Yield and Pricing Guide for Direct Marketing” found at http://tinyurl.com/r26wk6. The data sheets and photographs of the meat will also help producers to market to chefs and consumers. Meat from the project will be used for local sustainable agriculture functions and for “Cultivating Cuisine”, monthly farm to fork dinners on the UK campus that educate students about where their food comes from and at Berea College will for similar student farm to fork events. Informal tasting panels will also be conducted with area chefs although this is not in the scope of this grant.