Dorset Black Pig

Australian status:  EXTINCT  by the 1920's.
International status: EXTINCT by the 1920's

Introduced to Australia: 1850's or earlier. In 1858 Dorset pigs were advertised in the Argus at an auction in Victoria. Over the years several more mentions at auctions and shows.

In the 1850's Arundel farm in Victoria imported some Dorset pigs from England,  from Prince Albert's farm. His Royal Highness the Prince Consort Albert, bred several breeds of pig, his favorite being the small white nicknamed "Prince Albert's", now extinct, however all were top quality, his Dorset Blacks winning prizes.

By 1926 the Dorset Black was reported as being extinct in Australia, due to being an old fashioned type.

Picture: The Australian Town & Country Journal, 3rd February 1877.

Background: A medium size pig, short deep body - slightly bigger than the Small Blacks of the time. An old breed of Dorset in south west England, it's origins seem to be the Small Black type of Sussex and Dorset put to Chinese, Neopolitan and Turkish infused pigs in the early 1800's - as documented in some old pig books, referred to in below list of news articles. It's probable the local pigs had a little wild pig of the sanglier type - a small hardy black forest pig. The Chinese pigs introduced to England were the Meishan type according to several scholarly articles (a link below). The Turkish pigs are interesting, as Turkey then had a signifigant Christian population so pigs were cultivated and eaten, whereas these days it's primarily Muslim so pig meat is forbidden and few if any pigs kept. The pig of Turkey of the era late 1700's - early 1800's probably had a tiny drop of the local wild pig - a typical sanglier type - and probably looked like a Mangalista and/or Turopoljie, that is, being a medium heavy type with short legs and a very deep short body that easily runs to fat, being highly efficient at converting feed. So this breed had some fascinating old genetics. 

Certainly the Dorset Black established in Australia in the early1850's and probably long before. Once popular, both for small and large property owners as easy keepers, and taken to shows both here and in their homeland. Once the Large White gained its ascendancy, like many others the Dorset fell out of favour and was extinct here by the 1920's, and in its homelands about the same time. In 1913 in the Queenslander it was reported as falling out of favour, despite all its good points, due to having a high percentage of fat to lean, in a time people sought leaner pigs.

This old breed was very popular in Dorset, and in the early and mid 1800's was improved by John Coate by crossing two sows of a Turkish strain to a boar of the Chinese breed then in England. The offspring he put to Neopolitan pigs - a breed which radicalised much pig breeding in the UK when introduced. These were then bred with the local black pigs thus improving the Dorset Black, and at the Baker Street pig show - the pinnacle of pig shows - they won all the major prizes including gold medals with  and became much sought after. 

At the same time Coate was improving the Dorset Black so was Mr J.A. Smith, who in 1845 crossed a good local black boar with a sow that had Chinese in her genes and selected for his ideal, crossing them back to the best local Dorset Blacks he could find. He too began winning prizes and his lines were keenly sought after. 
As they became popular and began winning prizes, some disparaged them by calling them a crossbred and that they had wild boar in their background and Fisher Hobbs pigs (improved Essex).They may have started as crossbreds but had become a breed; however by 1902 the Improved Dorset had indeed been bred to the Improved Essex which to add some body length, by some people, thus getting a slightly leaner body in an effort to keep up with the times.

Traits: Hardy. Medium size. Black skin and hair. Compact body, deep through, thin skin. Small head, plump cheek. Short neck. Short legs. Great foragers - good grazing pigs. Fatten easily; high proportiion of fat to lean meat. A little hair. Small pointed ears. Grow quickly - record weight for age often recorded. Thrived on poor quality feed. Produced huge weights for age but too much rich food caused a lot of fat so were usually raised on foraging and basic feed. Notably good mothers. Good litters (can't find an average figure).

Notes: Another Dorset breed called the Dorset Gold Tip is also extinct. This breed had Tamworth in its ancestry, was a gold-red colour with a few dark spots, and in sunlight it's hair tips glistened gold. Can't find any coming to Australia.

Australian Archives list of Dorset Black references. - to access this list as a non-member, simply go to Trove - link following. Click on Advanced Search. Select Lists. Type in Dorset pig..... Trove - away you go!

Article about domestic pigs with mention/DNA testing of the Meishan pig The Origin of the Domestic Pig
More interesting DNA research Phylogenetic relationships of Asian and European pig breeds determined by mitochondrial DNA D-loop sequence polymorphism

Page by Janet Lane 2023.