Home of the Northeast's First Guinea Hog Breeding Farm
So, exactly what is a guinea hog?
The American Guinea Hog is a breed of pig that is unique to the southeastern United States and, according the American Livestock Breed Conservancy, is a genetically distinct hog population. Their history is a bit vague due to the many names given them over time such as the Guinea Forest Hog, Acorn Eater and Yard Pig but they were documented by Thomas Jefferson and others as early as 1804. For all intents and purposes, they dissappreared as a breed in the late 19th century.
In the early 20th century the name appears again and, although the description varies greatly from the earlier one, it now describes what we know as the guinea hog of today - a smaller black hog living outside the back door on many local homesteads. They guarded the yard against snakes and rodents, foraged for their rations and got along with their keepers. These traits still exist today, as the guinea hog is a friendly, easy-going hog that thrives on rough forage and a variety of mast and available feeds.
Since the guinea hog has a "storied" past for the most part, much of it oral, researchers can only compile the available information into a theory of how they became the guinea hog of today. They are a true landrace (see below), not to be confused with the white (pink) American Landrace breed of hog in use today in confinement production or factory farming.
What does "landrace" mean? We have compiled information from many resources to explain the term "landrace" as it applies to the guinea hog population and to all landrace species, for that matter. The emphasized areas were highlighted or underlined by us, the areas in parentheses added by us.
Landrace refers to domesticated animals that have adapted to the natural environment in which they live(d) or originated. They often developed naturally with minimal assistance from humans using traditional breeding methods. Landraces differ somewhat from what is commonly termed a breed and usually possess more diverse phenotypes and genotypes. Landrace groups are often highly variable in appearance, but they each have a certain genetic integrity.
Farmers would give landrace animals local names as noted in the first paragraph making their exact history often difficult to piece together. The thing all landrace groups have are common characteristics. All components of the population are adapted to local climatic conditions (the southeast in the case of guinea hogs), cultural practices, and disease and pests. 'But most important, they are genetically diverse unlike manmade breeds of today. They are balanced populations – variable, in equilibrium with both environment and pathogens and are genetically dynamic’.
Animal landraces occur in many species of domestic animals. Again, a landrace does not imply so much a breed as a type of animal. When people select animals to create a highly consistent purebred breed, they most often select for a consistent appearance or physical trait rather than behavior or adaptability to a given environment. When this happens, defining characteristics of the landrace may be lost.
(We think it is the responsibility of all breeders to think hard about the animals chosen for their breeding program. In our climate, longer hair might be a "desired" outcome of a breeding of guinea hogs but is this goal of focusing on one characteristic compromising another? We need to assess everything about an animal when making these decisions. Color should be the least important consideration when assessing breeding stock. Sure, it is exciting to see a historic color come out and these features should not be lost but, in our opinion, one should never breed for color alone. Ours is a closed registry and if the parents of colored animal are in the registry, it is a guinea hog regardless of its color.)
The landrace concept is important as a general pattern for many important breeds. Most landraces have had long-term development in their local environments. Isolation and selection combine to determine the overall type and function of landraces. Isolation for most landraces is due to geographic factors. As their natural environment decreases, so does the isolation that protected these genetic resources. The uniqueness of many landraces is being lost rapidly, hence the importance of preserving the guinea hog in our humble opinion..
Beyond the obvious DNA, there are certain characteristics that all breeding guinea hogs should possess. They come in a variety of sizes and shapes, although all should have upright or pricked ears, a curly tail and a relatively level topline although some are a bit rounded, others slightly taller at the hip. Adults can range anywhere from 175lbs to 300lbs for mature boars and about 125lbs to 200lbs or so for large sows. These weights are for breeding animals in good condition. Small sows can produce robust, larger piglets and mothering skills should be more important than body size when considering on breeding stock.
Guinea hogs have a friendly disposition, are good mothers on their own, are hardy and able to thrive on a variety of environments and foods available.
We'd like to clarify these characteristics from our perspective having had these hogs for several seasons now:
A friendly disposition - To us this means that they easy to work around and not aggressive in any way - ever. An aggressive animal should be culled from any breeding program. Should an owner choose to really TAME their guinea hogs, they are more than receptive to quickly learning to love a good scratch and many will flop over for a good belly rub. The friendly dispositon does not mean that they are born wanting to run to you as a puppy does although one can certainly train them to do that. Handling your guinea hogs frequently as young piglets will result in extremely friendly adult hogs. If you are raising guinea hog feeders, you might not want to befriend them that way but you should always be able to walk among them safely and easily.
Guinea hog mothering skills - Our sows require no assistance from us while farrowing. We provide them with the choice of a bedded shelter (with heat lamps if it is colder, which they will always choose) or the outdoors. We do not bother the sow at all during labor although we peek at regular intervals to see if the sow has settled down with her piglets. Our sows do not lay on or crush their live piglets. If a weaker one dies for any reason, either at birth or in nesting as sometimes happens (nature makes this decision and we let her), the sow concentrates on her nursing piglets and won't hestitate to lay on the one that didn't make it if everyone else is comfortable. Some folks will say that their sow has crushed piglets but we've never found this to be the case. Given enough room and never confined to any sort of a crate, our sows do very well. There is never any intervention by us unless we've somehow made a human error. Hardiness and their adaptibility to their environment - We have a lot to say about the guinea hog's hardiness that might conflict with other breeders. Again, this is OUR opinion based on the time we've spent with them, our climate, our trials and tribulations and the everlasting learning curve. A general description of hardy livestock is that they are easy to care for, thrive in adverse conditions and are not sickly and this is true with heritage breeds. The conflict arises from our "sympathy" for these hogs that were plucked from their native geographical location where it is warmer and wetter into temperatures that can feel frigid to us (and we're used to it). Who knows how these hogs feel about it? They can chill easily in our cold climate. They have had three centuries or more to phyically adapt to the climate they thrived in in the southeast and are expected by some to brave the cold, below zero with wind chill, with no more than a bed of straw in a three sided shelter. Five or six generations for these prolific animals over the course of a few years isn't going to make them able to withstand that kind of cold on their own.
On the flip side, it can get very hot and humid here in the summertime. Guinea hogs love the heat and seem to tolerate mosquitoes and other pests very well (a necessary southeastern adaptation, for sure) and enjoy basking in the sun. This only works well for them when they have access to MUD. See our page on Caring for Guinea Hogs.
Available foods - This is where guinea hogs are so highly adaptable. Whatever your local feeds or produce excesses are, they will utililize them well. Keep in mind that they are omnivores and thrive on a variety of food as we do.
Image:
Contact us by email (preferred as easier to track!) or call us at 603-487-2137 - leave a message. We welcome visitors by appointment, please. Thank you!
Entire site protected under copyright, 1998 - 2009 Sullbar Farm, LLC. All rights reserved.
