What’s special about Wessex Saddlebacks?

The Wessex Saddleback is critically endangered – there are less than 30 new registrations of sows each year. They’re extinct in England, and purebreds exist only in Australia and New Zealand.

There’s a bit of argument about where they came from, but most people say the New Forest area in England. The reason the numbers dropped in the UK was because intensive pig farming became trendy in the mid 1900s, and the Wessex Saddlebacks were more suited to being free-range. They’re a hardy lot who are into rooting – the ground, that is.

When the numbers got dangerously low in England the Wessex Saddlebacks were crossed with the Essex breed – which look a bit the same, but are different genetically. The result was the British Saddleback.

Fortunately before this “blending” 17 Wessex Saddlebacks were brought to Australia between 1931 and 1953.

The Wessex Saddleback is one of the most un-altered breeds around, and is probably the closest to the Landrace pigs that foraged for centuries in the woods of England.

We’ve got a particularly rare line on our farm, called the Mary line.

We find the Wessex Saddlebacks have got beautiful temperaments…they’d be no good for the rumoured destroying of evidence, they seem to have more of a taste for green grass and the chocolate in their feed mix.

And there’s a particular spot on their back that they love having rubbed. Our boar Domino will almost knock you over when he gets excited having his back scratched.