Piggy trivia
- A 40,000-year-old picture of a pig can be found among the cave paintings at Altamira in Spain. Pigs were first domesticated about 7000 BC.
- For a very long time pigs were an important source of lard for cooking purposes. Indeed, it is relatively recent that lean pigs are preferred over fat ones.
- The modern lean breeds of pig farmed in Britain such as the Large White are also farmed widely elsewhere in the world. In fact Britain has a high proportion of the leading pig breeders in the world and a thriving export trade in breeding stock. In parts of the world, such as the US, the Large White is called the Yorkshire because that is where it originated.
- There are about 400,000 sows farmed in Britain. Each sow has just over 2 litters per year and will rear about 22 piglets per year. About 40% of these sows will be kept outdoors in paddocks – a much higher proportion than elsewhere in Europe, although the vast majority of pigs are finished indoors.
- These pigs will be reared to slaughter at about 100Kg in weight and take about six months to grow to that weight. In that time they will eat about 220 Kg of food, mainly cereals and protein sources such as soya.
- A pig carcass is just over 60% lean meat the rest being made up of bone, rind, and fat. The fat content of modern pig breeds is much lower than seen in the past. For example pigs were only about 47% lean meat some 30 or 40 years ago. This change has been brought about by breeders selecting the leanest animals to be the parents of the next generation.
- Did you know the word barbecue is derived from French-speaking pirates, who called a Caribbean pork feast "de barbe et queue," which translates "from beard to tail." In other words, the pig roast reflected the fact that the pig could be consumed from head to toe.
- In addition to providing food pigs also produce many medical and industrial products, for example heart valves for transplantation or bone for bone china (Porc-elain).
