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The History of the BPA:
The arrival of the Landrace
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The first Landrace to
appear in the NPBA Gazette |
But the continued pressure for improvement inevitably led longing
glances across the North Sea where the Danish Landraces had gained a
big reputation for bacon production. The British pig was not, said
some, meeting the requirements of the bacon trade and fresh blood
was needed. A small group of producers decided they would import the
Danish Landrace and establish the breed in Britain and a formal
application was made to the Ministry of Agriculture for an official
importation. A limited number of Landrace had already found their
way into this country but a bigger shipment was needed to establish
the breed.
The Ministry refused to allow the importation unless the whole
affair was administered by a broad-based organisation with the
experience to set and enforce breed standards. The NPBA was the
obvious choice. So the Ministry asked the association to arrange the
importation and distribution of the pigs. Stock was eventually
brought in from Sweden as the Danes had spoilt their record by
sending pigs to Canada, which did not perform well in Canadian
testing schemes. For some years the recipients of the imported stock
maintained their own herd book but in 1978 the Landrace Breed
Society merged with the NPBA. |
