British Saddleback

British Saddleback is a pig breed formed in England in 1967 by merging two older regional breeds, the Essex and the Wessex Saddleback, which shared the same distinctive marking of a white band or saddle crossing the shoulders and front legs of an otherwise black pig. The breed is known for hardiness outdoors, good mothering ability and large litter sizes, qualities that made it well suited to the outdoor and free-range pig farming systems common in parts of England. It was historically important to bacon and pork production and is still used in outdoor breeding herds and in crossbreeding programs, where saddleback sows are often crossed with other breeds to combine their mothering ability with a terminal sire's growth traits. The breed is classified as a rare or minority breed in the United Kingdom today, conserved by breed societies alongside other traditional British pig breeds.