Landrace Pig

A name for a group of standardized domestic pig breeds descended from the original Danish Landrace, itself developed from local, non-pedigreed swine native to Denmark; other national Landrace varieties were later bred from that Danish foundation through selective breeding and crossbreeding. Despite the name, modern Landrace pigs are not true landraces in the strict sense, since a true landrace arises from natural selection rather than a deliberate breeding program; the Danish breed became so prominent in the mid twentieth century that it carried the word landrace into English, though the term had already existed in Danish, German, Dutch and other Germanic languages. This general "Landrace pig" subject is itself a naming article rather than a breed specification, so this description stays short rather than borrowing detail that belongs to the individual national Landrace breeds, such as the Danish Landrace, named here as a gap for a future, more specific mint.