British Landrace
Traits

Conservation status	Rare breed
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Pig Sus domesticus

The British Landrace is a British domestic breed of pig and one of the most popular in the United Kingdom.^[1] It is pink with heavy drooping ears that cover most of the face and is bred for pork and bacon.^[2] The breed originated in the 1949 importation of 12 landrace pigs from Scandinavia^[A] — four boars and eight gilts (immature females).^[1] In 1950, the British Landrace Pig Society was formed and it opened a herd book for the first offspring born from the imported 12. They created the first pig testing scheme with a testing station at the village of Stockton-on-the-Forest in North Yorkshire.^[1]

The breed's popularity may have contributed to a decline in rare breeds in the United Kingdom. The 1955 Howitt report by the Advisory Committee on the Development of Pig Production advised farmers to increase profitability by focusing on just three breeds of pigs — the British Landrace, the Large White and the Welsh. Many farmers acted on the report and as a result many rarer pig breeds have declined.^[3] In a 1999 book, Jules Pretty said that seven pig breeds had been lost in Britain in the 20th century, and that the industry was now dominated by the British Landrace and the Large White.^[4]

In 1978, the British Landrace Pig Society joined the National Pig Breeders' Association (now the British Pig Association). In the 1980s the breed was developed and its genetic base was expanded by the importation of new bloodlines from Norway and Finland.^[1] These developments have made the British Landrace unique among other Landrace breeds.^[1] The British Landrace is also used to improve other breeds.^[1] These pigs are found all over the United Kingdom, particularly in the East and in Yorkshire.^[2]

Notes

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g "The British Landrace: Breed History". BritishPigs.org.uk. Trumpington, Cambridgeshire: British Pig Association. 2014. Archived from the original on 20 November 2014. Retrieved 30 September 2014.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Breeds of Livestock — British Landrace Swine". Oklahoma State University. 1996. Archived from the original on 14 April 2010. Retrieved 27 February 2010.
^ Hartley, Emma (2 July 2005), "Wodehouse Fans Say Tuck in and Save Rarest Bacon", The Times, retrieved 27 February 2010
^ Pretty, Jules (1999). The living Land: Agriculture, Food and Community Regeneration in Rural Europe. Earthscan. p. 68. ISBN 1-85383-517-X.

Livestock breeds of the British Isles

Cattle

Beef cattle	Aberdeen Angus Beef Shorthorn Belted Galloway Blue Grey Devon Dexter English Longhorn Galloway Hereford Highland Lincoln Red Luing Shorthorn South Devon Sussex Welsh Black
Dairy cattle	Ayrshire Dairy Shorthorn Guernsey Jersey Kerry
Dual purpose	Albion British White Droimeann Irish Moiled Glamorgan Old Gloucester Pembroke Red Poll Shetland Whitebred Shorthorn
Primitive	Chillingham Wild Cattle Tory Island Vaynol White Park
Extinct	Alderney Blue Albion

Sheep

Extant	Badger Face Welsh Mountain Balwen Welsh Mountain Beulah Speckled Face Black Welsh Mountain Bluefaced Leicester Border Cheviot Border Leicester Brecknock Hill Cheviot British Milksheep Cambridge Cheviot Clun Forest Cotswold Dalesbred Derbyshire Gritstone Devon Closewool Devon and Cornwall Longwool Dorset Down Dorset Horn Easycare Exmoor Horn Galway Greyface Dartmoor Hampshire Down Herdwick Hill Radnor Kerry Hill Leicester Longwool Lincoln Llanwenog Lleyn Lonk Masham Norfolk Horn North Country Cheviot Oxford Down Portland Romney Rough Fell Ryeland Scottish Blackface Shetland Shropshire Southdown Suffolk Swaledale Teeswater Welsh Mountain Wensleydale Whiteface Dartmoor Whitefaced Woodland Wiltshire Horn
Primitive	Boreray Castlemilk Moorit Hebridean Jacob Manx Loaghtan North Ronaldsay Soay
Extinct	Devon Longwool Scottish Dunface South Devon

Pigs

Extant	Berkshire British Landrace British Lop British Saddleback Essex Gloucestershire Old Spots Large Black Large White Middle White Oxford Sandy and Black Tamworth Welsh Wessex Saddleback
Extinct	Cumberland Dorset Gold Tip Grice Irish Greyhound Pig Large White Ulster Lincolnshire Curly Coat Small Black Small White Yorkshire Blue and White

Goats

Poultry

Chickens	Croad Langshan Derbyshire Redcap Dorking Ixworth Indian Game Legbar Modern Game Modern Langshan Nankin Bantam Norfolk Grey Old English Game Old English Pheasant Fowl Orpington Rosecomb Scots Dumpy Scots Grey Sebright Sussex
Ducks	Abacot Ranger Aylesbury Orpington Khaki Campbell Magpie Shetland Silver Appleyard Welsh Harlequin
Geese	Brecon Buff Shetland

v t e Landrace-named breeds of swine
American Belgian Bulgarian British Canadian Danish Dutch (Netherlands) Finnish French German Italian Norwegian Polish South African Swedish Swiss
These are standardized breeds with Landrace in their names. They are not themselves landraces, but were usually derived from them by selective breeding. Exceptions are the American, Belgian, Canadian and South African, which are crossbreeds.

See also

Notes

References