Heritage Livestock

[Prairieview]

I have been working through all 5,000 some posts of the Heritage Large Fowl thread and that has got me thinking what about other “heritage” breeds of livestock?

In each of the species what breeds do you see as heritage? What would your definition be?

For myself I think of animals with a long history in the United States that have been bred up. My cattle breed of choice is the Limousine, a French heritage breed but not an American one. I don’t consider most landraces heritage breeds, but like in everything there are some exceptions like the Mammoth Jack.

In horses some breeds are quite old but don’t have a long history in the United States, and there are a lot of old breeds we hardly see any of anymore like the Hackney.

Part of my “bred up” qualification is that for me heritage also harkens back to the 1880 through 1940 era where purebred livestock was a booming business, and produced a lot of usability for the small farmer. The Florida Cracker cow might be old but it doesn’t have the usability traits for the average small farmer like another heritage breed the Shorthorn does.

This is an important discussion with the new interest in small and sustainable farms. Sometimes I think new people get sucked into fad rare breeds instead of what I would call good heritage breeds. For example there was a local person who started a sheep farm and stocked it with Jacobs, Icelandics and Shetlands. The stock cost him a lot and didn’t give much return. I said “well you might do better stocking your pastures with some thickset Southdowns,” at the time I was weaning a lot of 100lb wether lambs. He added a few down breeds for a lot cheaper and suddenly started doing better for himself selling in the specialty meat trade to restaurants and local butcher shops. Some of these purebred breeds need help and some can really help the small farmer.

So what are some of what you consider heritage breeds? Here are a few of mine, not an exhaustive list by any means.
Horses: Morgan, Hackney, Standardbred, Clydesdale, Percheron
Cattle: Shorthorn, Hereford, Guernsey, Brown Swiss
Sheep: Southdown, Oxford, Columbia, Montadale, Border Leicester
Swine: Berkshire, Tamworth, Yorkshire, Duroc

 

[ImperialAcres]

I've got mini horses, but we're looking at adding some heritage breed species to our farm, once we relocate to a suitable facility. We are wanting to add some chickens, and some swine. I'm still trying to decide on chicken breeds (but have narrowed it down to about 5 now), but we have chosen two swine breeds that are heritage. I'm currently locating breeders to purchase stock from when we are ready.

We are looking at the American Guinea Hog, a small hog breed that is American. They are small pasture hogs, that fulfill my temperment requirements. The other breed is the Large Black Hog. The Large Blacks are also pasture hogs, and are also well known for being sweet and friendly. That was my first and foremost concern, as I have a bad knee, and being able to handle stock alone is important. It's why we aren't considering cattle (I'm pretty sure I'd not be able to handle a cow by myself in an emergency). Both these breeds are known for being good moms, and not requiring the commercial raising of the piglets (meaning the moms raise their own piglets in the psature, from farrowing to weaning). I don't like the idea of raising any animal locked up, and I don't care for how some of the commercial swine breeds are kept. Both these breeds meet all my (somewhat odd) requirements, and are also known for producing really good pork. I don't know which one we'll settle on, as I found the Guinea Hogs, and then my S.O. decided he wants a big one to raise for meat every year, and I figure we might as well just get a small herd of one or the other. I was thinking two sows, and either purchase a boar outright, or co-own one with another local breeder. Besides, who can resist baby piggies? They are so adorable.