We have Berkshire and Red Wattle. I’ve read a bit about Kunekune, the maturity time seems to be longer and the yield smaller. What is the attraction to the breed? What do they do well, and better than the others?
Discussion
Slow growing and small. It's a lard breed so expect a good bit of fat. Very gentle, easy keepers (health and inputs) and they don't root too much. I grew up keeping Duroc so this is a much easier pig to handle. If I were 20 years younger I'd have gone with Large Blacks.
Thank for this, we like the fat in our pork, I think the breeds that have been optimized for lean pork (Yorkshire) have reduced demand for pork over all because most lean pork eats like shoe leather. Berkshire hogs are well marbled, particularly sows that have reached the end of their production run. I think they’d make some awesome prosciutto.
You're making me hungry! I love pork and could eat bacon at every meal! I have folks inquire about lard all the time...people are still cooking with it and there is a big interest with those who bake.
Yep. I butcher my own hogs and the leaf lard is key to confections of all kinds. I don’t bake, meat and veggies is my thing but it’s consistency is beautiful and I picture flakey croissants every time I pull some out. 😁
Also, I wouldn't say they do anything better. It's all personal preference. However, one of the problems with Kunes these days is people are mixing them with everything and selling them as pure bred. I have no issues with folks mixing up the breeds but don't deceive the buyers...a lot of which are unknowledgeable.
I agree. We had a litter of wild hog/Berkshire cross when a wild boar got in with a standing heat sow. There was amazing demand for those piglets, marketed as exactly what they were. I’ve recently come to understand that fish and game has some problem with the sale of wild hog piglets, though for the life of me I cannot understand why the offspring of an invasive species would be regulated by fish and game, however I digress, and believe that truth in advertising is important.