Berkshire

The Rare Breeds Survival Trust says the Berkshire originated in the Thames Valley around 1790 and was refined in the early 1800s with Chinese blood into the modern black, white-marked, prick-eared pig. It had aristocratic patrons in the nineteenth century and was exported to the United States. Numbers fell in the twentieth century almost to extinction, and the breed recovered through bloodlines brought back from abroad. The RBST calls it the oldest recorded pedigree pig breed in Britain.

Berkshire pork is prized in Japan, where black pork (kurobuta) sells at a premium. The RBST still lists the breed as a Priority breed, with 236 breeding females and an effective population size of 88 in 2024.