J.J. and Lincoln explore the outside.

The Old Spotted Gloucestershire

(pronounced glost-er-sheer)

is a protected heritage breed of pig that originally was bred in Gloucestershire, England for orchard production.   The swine have some wonderful selected features that make this breed ideal for organic farms.

• Ability to survive in pasture situations eating fallen fruits, nuts and other foraged sustenance
• Docile behavior
• Sows make excellent independent mothers in pasture situations
• High level of intelligence
• Lean, high quality meat produced from the breed

I am learning that the Gloucestershire Old Spots probably do not see very well.   It took several days for Rocky to go outside, I think the contrast of light and dark scared her a little.   The new environment probably startled her too.   She finally made it to pasture, though.

Meanwhile, Lincoln has made himself at home as he finds some hickory nuts in the pasture!

The hogs that we got last week from the Carney family are full grown, and HUGE!!!!    I would say that Lincoln, the male is well over 500 pounds, and JJ and Rocky, the females are more than 450 lbs each.

We will take great care of them, the Carney family donated the hogs to Goodness Grows because they know we have a wonderful place here for pigs to live.

 

Breed Came Near Extinction

Both breeds through which we came to the Goulcestershire Old Spot are extinct, and the GOS nearly became extinct by the 1990’s.   In 1995, Kelmscott Farm Foundation of Lincolnville, Maine imported 20 piglets to reestablish the breed in the United States.   As of 2009, there were about 200 breeding Old Spots, and now Goodness Grows is the proud owner of three!

Special thanks to Chris, Amanda, Caleb and Chris Carney (Yes, that’s 2 Chris Carneys) for bringing 3 beautiful Old Spotted Gloucestershire breeders to Goodness Grows!