Thursday 15 July 2010



A picture of some blonde Manglicas having fun in the snow,which I foundon I really informative Hungarian website containing loads of historyan interesting links



On their is the Hungarian breed standard for red Maglicas:

Hungarian Mangalica is a fat-type hog of medium body size with fine, but very strong skeleton.

The fur is dense and long, curling like chips in winter, more tender, shorter and more straight in summer. Curling is a breed character, however the ringed, strongly curling fur and the coarse straight bristles on the back or flanks are not desired.

The tail-base is typically thick, white tail tassel, but its interior is always black.
The minimum number of tits is 5-5 on both sides.
The back-line is straight, or slightly curved; groin is short or medium long. The skeleton is fine but very firm.
Undesirable defects of the breed character:
- light or pink skin on the belly
- pigment-less opening of the body
- black bristle or hair tips
- ears scattered with brown or black hairs
- too fine, or too coarse hair
- too small upright, or too large lop-ears
Non-allowable defects of the breed character :
- white, distinct flecks on the skin
- light or dark flecks on the fur
- yellow or striped yellow nails
- pink tits
completely red or white tail tassel
light brown eyes

Wednesday 14 July 2010

Husbandry

Here at Blackberry farm in Lancashire we see ourselves as micro-producers producing only small qualities of the very finest produce up to the highest possible quality.

Luckily we're not short of space so we decided to adopt a rearing method similar to what had been traditional in Hungary and Austria. Rather than keeping a car pigs in pens are Mangalitsa pigs and Mangalitsa Iberico X are free to roam and grazing up to a family groups over large areas (about20 acres). Because of the low stock to acre ratio means that most of the day are pigs on the round grazing their diet is supplemented with apples ,fruit, grain and acorns which were lucky to be able to collect in large numbers locally.

We believe in this way of slow growing healthy happy pigs with a natural diet that is not reliant on manufactured feed as most outdoor reared pigs are is the way to produce the absolute finest product.

The best part is in the evening when we call the pigs and they come running!!! They blending so well with the undergrowth sometimes you can't see them... then suddenly it's like aMangalitsa x piggy race. I'm always surprised how fast a big pig can run!!

Clarissa with her summer coat in full steam. I will try to put a video up soon

Look a curly coated pig

The 3 colours red, blonde and swallow ballet pictured here with Carol at pig Paradise
At Blackberry farm in the north-west of England we breed the finest red Mangalitsa or(mangalitza, mangalica) you can see our website here at: http://www.mangalitzapigs.co.uk/



here is a link to a Hungarian site explaining the history and shows off some porky producehttp://www.kyodo-inc.co.jp/english/food/pick/about.html