Large Black pig

The Large Black pig is a British breed of domestic pig. It is the only British pig that is entirely black. It was created in the last years of the nineteenth century by merging the black pig populations of Devon and Cornwall in the south-west with those of Essex, Suffolk and Kent in the south-east. It is hardy, docile and prolific; it forages well and is suitable for extensive farming, but not well suited to intensive management.

It was a successful breed in the early twentieth century and was exported to many areas of the world. Population numbers declined after the Second World War, when the Howitt Report discouraged rearing of all but three pig breeds suitable for intensive pig farming. By the 1960s the breed was almost extinct. Although numbers have since risen, it is still an endangered breed.