 Berkshire boar at the 2005Royal Adelaide Show | |
| Conservation status | |
|---|---|
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Distribution | world-wide |
| Use | meat |
| Traits | |
| Weight | |
| Skin colour | black |
| Hair | black |
| |
TheBerkshire is a Britishbreed ofpig. It originated in the Englishcounty ofBerkshire, for which it is named. It is normally black, with some white on the snout, on the lower legs, and on the tip of the tail.
It is arare breed in the United Kingdom. It has been exported to a number of countries including Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the United States, and is numerous in some of them.
The Berkshire is a traditional breed of thecounty of the same name. Until the eighteenth century it was a large tawny-coloured pig with lop ears, often with darker patches.[5]: 551 [6] In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries it was substantially modified bycross-breeding with small black pigs imported from Asia.[5]: 558
Herds are still maintained in England by theRare Breeds Survival Trust atAldenham Country Park, Hertfordshire, and by theSouth of England Rare Breeds Centre in Kent. The Berkshire was listed as vulnerable in 2008; fewer than 300 breeding sows were known to exist at that time, but with the revived popularity of the breed through its connection to the Japanese marketing of a "wagyu for pork" connection, the numbers have increased.[7]
The Berkshire has been exported to many countries, and has become numerous in some of them; it is reported to theDAD-IS database of theFood and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations by twenty-three countries, in the Americas, Asia, continental Europe and Oceania.[8]
Exports to the United States began in the early nineteenth century. The American Berkshire Association, established in 1875, was the firstbreed society for a pig breed;[5]: 551 the first pig registered was a boar named Ace of Spades, reportedly bred byQueen Victoria.[9]
The pigs were exported to Japan in the 1860s, and became numerous there: in 2007 there were over330000.[10] The JapaneseKagoshima Berkshire, which apparently derives from two British Berkshire pigs imported to Japan in the 1930s, is considered a separate breed;[5]: 629 the meat may be marketed as Kurobuta pork, and can command a premium price.[5]: 551
The Berkshire is of medium size: adult boars weigh about 280 kg (600 lb), sows some 220 kg (500 lb).[4] It is black with six white markings: four white socks, a white splash on the snout, and a white tip to the tail.[11] It is prick-eared.[11]
The Berkshire is reared forpork. Although the meat has a relatively lowpH, and high pH is normally correlated with consumer satisfaction, Berkshire pork was highly rated in taste tests in the United States.[12]
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