A new breed of pig, better suited to the outdoor life to which animals reared on intensive factory farms have grown unaccustomed, is to be offered to farmers later this week in the hope of encouraging more to turn to free-range production of pork and bacon.
Previous attempts to design a strain more suited to natural conditions have had only limited success.
Since the Second World War, pigs have increasingly been reared in large numbers in huge sheds where conditions are precisely controlled. This has boosted production until Britain is just about self-sufficient in pig meat.
But there are drawbacks. "The buildings cost ú1,200 to ú1,500 per sow on average, and to achieve the necessary economies of scale you need units for up to 300 sows", Mr John Bolt, an agricultural consultant, said yesterday.
Smaller farmers found some years ago that they could make more money by keeping pigs outside, using simple, straw-lined shelters, even though the output of piglets per sow was lower than under intensive conditions.
The challenge was to find a strain that could comfortably cope with the return to a more natural existence.
About ten years ago, in an attempt to solve the problem, the Large White Landrace, the main hybrid used in factory farming, was crossed with the British Saddleback, a traditional breed.
The resulting hybrid, the Camborough Blue, did not prove ideal. Among other things, it did not contain enough lean meat for the requirements of the pork and bacon trade.
Now its creators, the Oxfordshire Pig Improvement Company, a subsidiary of the Dalgety Group and the biggest commercial pig breeding company in the world, has come up with a cross between the Large White Landrace and the American Duroc which it claims has cracked the problem.
If it lives up to expectations, it will be an attractive option for farmers who would like to diversify into pigs.
A return to more traditional pig farming methods would also please animal welfare groups and have other benefits at a time of growing public concern about artificial methods of boosting food production.
