Our Mulefoots enjoying time in the pasture foraging and doing what pigs should do. This freedom will be reflected well in the pork.
http://youtu.be/281v5auHwZ8 video done by a fellow breeder about Mulefoot Hogs it is nicely done and very good info!!!!!
We are asked constantly about mulefoots the Mulefoot association put together a very nice brochure and here is the link below.
http://mulefootpigs.tripod.com/mulefootbrochureUSE.pdf
Mulefoot meat is considered a gourmet meat I doubt many young people really know what a pork chop is supposed to taste like modern hogs have tried to compete with chicken and in the process the true taste and character of pork is lost. Only when one tries Heritage Pork can you truely appreciate what pok is supposed to be. But dont take my word for it follow the link below!!!!
http://www.grit.com/daily-commute/Mulefoot-Pork-Wins-Blind-Taste-Test.aspx
The chicago reader did a very well done story on Mulefoot Hogs and followed two hogs from pigglett to slaughter to a large gathering of invited guests who were able to sample Mulefoot Hog. They called it the whole hog project and Ive linked to the video.
http://www.seriouseats.com/2008/11/in-videos-chicago-readers-whole-hog-project-mulefoot-pigs.html
http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/food-issue-2008-the-whole-hog-project/Content?oid=1232969
Today, the Mulefoot is the rarest of American swine breeds.The most distinctive feature of the American Mulefoot hog is the solid hoof which resembles that of a mule. The Mulefoot is a large docile, black hog with sows weighing 250-400 pounds, boars 350-600 pounds. The American Mulefoot has a documented population with a breed standard and a long history of agricultural use. This breed is unique to the United States and is critically rare. Recent events, however, have led to more optimism regarding its survival.
Animals favored by modern agribusiness aren’t those happy creatures featured in children’s books. They’re bred to emphasize marketable features: cows that deliver rivers of milk, for example, and pigs that produce uniformly large, low-fat pork chops. Other characteristics, such as resistance to disease or tolerance for heat, have been downplayed, because farmers can compensate with advanced care techniques and medicine. "Through better animal health, through better medicine and better control of the environment, we in a way obviated the need to breed these animals for hardiness in resisting negative environmental influences, including disease,". "We have created a very delicate animal."
The Mulefoot Pig and other heritage breeds thrive and are a hardy breed. Unlike the commercial breeds of today. They do not fit the description of "delicate", thus are perfect as a farm addition.
The Mulefoot hog population is classified as Critical by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy (fewer than 200 in annual registration). However its outlook is improving. It is now being raised by breeders across the United States. American Livestock Breeds Conservancy. ALBC
The Origin of the Mulefoot hog.....
The origin of the American Mulefoot breed is not clear. F.D. Coburn, in his classic 1916 book SWINE IN AMERICA, notes that the Mulefoot hog was found in Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Indiana, across the southwest and in some parts of Mexico. The breed has a well-documented history over the last century. My personal belief, as well as documented in Swine Science by M.E. Ensminger, B.S., M.A., Ph.D. Former Manager, U.S.D.A. Dixon Springs Project, Robbs Illinois, Copyright 1961 is that this breed originated in southern ohio.
Mulefoot description.....
Coburn describes Mulefoot hogs as mainly black, with occasional animals having white points; medium flop ears; and a soft hair coat. The hogs were of fairly gentle disposition, fattened quite easily, and weighed from 400-600 pounds at two years of age. They were considered the highest quality "ham hogs" & and were fed to great weights before slaughter. For some years breeders claimed that Mulefoots were immune to hog cholera. That claim has been disproved, though the breed does seem to posses remarkable hardiness.
The National Mulefoot Hog Record association was organized in Indianapolis, Indiana, in January 1908. Two additional registries were also founded. In 1910 there were 235 breeders registered in twenty-two states. Mulefoots were taken to Canada between 1900 and 1920 but no attempt was made to establish a herd book and pedigree records were not maintained according to J.W. MacEwan in The Breeds of Farm Livestock in Canada.
A remnant population of the American Mulefoot has been owned by R.M. Holiday of Louisiana, Missouri, for nearly forty years. He remembers from boyhood that his family and others raised these hogs by putting them on islands in the Missouri and Mississippi rivers to forage during the summer and then rounding them up in the fall for slaughter. This practice was terminated by the Army Corps of Engineers in the 1950's. In 1964 Mr. Holiday gathered together stock from all the known breeders and established his herd. During 1976 he swapped animals with a breeder in North Dakota, which introduced some undesirable traits such as prick ears, wattles and split hooves. Nevertheless, Holliday's strong and consistent production selection has maintained a generally uniform and characteristic herd. After his experience with this "exotic" animal dealer he sold no more stock except those contracted for slaughter. During these years the Mulefoot registries folded and all known copies of the herd books were lost.
As seen on the American Mulefot Hog Association Website.
HISTORICAL LITERATURE CONCERNING MULEFOOT HOGS FROM OPEN LIBRARY.com
CProductive Swine Husbandry by George E. Day (c1915)
CHAPTER XVII. - THREE MINOR BREEDS.
Three breeds of minor importance in America are the Mule-foot hog, Large Black Pig, and the Middle White or Middle Yorkshire.
MULE-FOOT HOG.
Description.—A marked peculiarity of the Mule-foot hog is its solid hoof, and from this peculiar feature the breed takes its name. In general conformation, it is claimed that the Mule-foot hog is between the fat type and the bacon type, but it is not noted for great length of side.
The color is black, but white points are admissible. More white than black is a disqualification, and any considerable amount of white is regarded as objectionable.
Origin and History.—The National Mule-foot Hog Record Association, which has its office in Indianapolis, has issued the following statement: "Up to the present date, the Mulefoot hog is a hog without an authentic history. Rumors and reports offer Denmark, Holland, South Africa, Mexico, South America, and the Sandwich Islands as the country of his birth. . . . Reports are so contradictory that this Association cannot, without further research, endorse any of them. Every effort will be made by the Association to discover the origin of the Mule-foot hog, and to furnish its friends with a true and complete history."
Distribution.—So far, animals of this breed are not numerous nor widely distributed. Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, and Louisiana are probably the principal states for the breed, but the breed is not Largely represented in any state as yet.
Utility.—The National Mule-foot Hog Record Association makes the following claims for the breed:
" As to the special qualifications and fine points of the Mule-foot hog, we know it to have greater vitality than any other breed in the United States. We have never known a full-blood Mule-foot hog to have hog cholera. It is an easy feeder, develops early and rapidly, is in strong demand on the market at a premium. . . . The sows are good, gentle mothers and raise large litters of pigs, which, if turned out, will hustle for a living, or they will grow fat and thrive, paying big returns, under good care and attention."
It must be remembered that the claims set forth above are made by admirers of the breed. So far as can be learned, these claims have not been tested by independent investigators.
CHAPTER III. Breeds, Popularity and Distribution
Swine in America by F. D. Coburn
MISCELLANEOUS SORTS
Aside from the distinct breeds, a few miscellaneous sorts are known in America, but they are without standing. These are: The Razor-Back, as the wild or semiwild hog of the more southern or Gulf states and Mexico is called; the Guinea; the Mule-Foot or solid-hoofed; and the Cuino. Domesticated swine have been traced back in origin to the wild hog, and remarkable changes have been observed of the manner in which wild specimens kept in confinement will take on the appearance and flesh of those that are the product of man's improvement. On the other hand, improved varieties turned out to shift for themselves have assumed all the characteristics of wild hogs, although observations in New Zealand have shown that animals once domesticated do not revert to as wild or solitary a disposition as is noticeable in the undomesticated types. Experiments in confining wild animals have shown that advantages attained through years of domestication are valuable because they have been secured and made permanent by very slow processes, and that the opinion sometimes advanced that crosses with the Razor-Back or other untamed stock will give a much hardier and "choleraproof" constitution is without substantial foundation.
MULE-FOOT HOGS
The Mule-Foot or solid-hoofed hog is reared, but to an extent scarcely appreciable, in the southwestern part of the United States, and is said to be common in some portions of Old Mexico in considerable numbers. There are some in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas, and a few have found their way to Missouri and Indiana. There was organized at Indianapolis, Indiana, in January, 1908, "The National Mule-Foot Hog Record Association," composed of Indiana breeders, which is to record and publish pedigrees and promote the dissemination of these solid-hoofed swine, which are claimed by their admirers to be in all respects equal to those of other breeds, besides having a vitality that makes them strangers to ordinary diseases, and "cholera-proof"!
Hogs of this family are mainly black, with more or less white points or markings, have coats of soft hair, fairly gentle dispositions, fatten quite easily, and can be made to weigh at two years or more from 400 to 600 pounds, and sometimes heavier. As a matter of fact they have no particular merits not possessed by other breeds, but their having solid instead of cleft hoofs makes them, as freaks, objects of curiosity to most persons, and the type, regardless of merit, will not be without admirers for this one feature, if for no other. At the first auction sale of these hogs, in Johnson county, Indiana, in the autumn of 1908, twenty-three sows brought an average of $32.50 each and six boars $20.10 each. One sow sold for $60.
Many of these hogs have wattles on their lower jaws. These consist of a round or teatlike piece of skin or tissue hanging on each side of the lower jaw, covered with hair, and on a full-grown hog are from three to four inches long.
In southern Missouri and northern Arkansas these swine are designated as "Ozark hogs." Various statements of their origin are extant, but no one knows definitely about it, which is of little consequence, although they are well enough in their way.
CHAPTER LXXI - THE MULE-FOOT
The name " Mule-Foot" is given this breed for the reason that it has a solid hoof, suggestive of the narrow foot of the mule, instead of the cloven one common with swine.
The native home of Mule-Foot swine is not satisfactorily established. Various claims have been made on this point, but it is generally admitted that the evidence is very superficial. They have been bred in Sweden and Norway for a century or more, it is said, and Kreglow states1that Linnaeus, the noted Swedish scientist, classified this type in 1735. He also states that mulefoot swine were extensively bred in England by Lord Reagh as far back as about 1810.
The introduction of Mule-Foot swine to America is of uncertain date. It is not a native breed, and no doubt was brought here long ago, possibly from northern Europe. J. H. Dunlap, a noted breeder, has stated that these hogs have been known in America for a hundred years2 and refers to the fact that for many years they have been bred by members of the Dunkard Church, although he does not mention the locality. The claim has also been made that these pigs were brought from the South Sea Islands about 1850.
The characteristics of Mule-Foot swine, as seen in the improved form of to-day, suggest the Poland-China, excepting for the ear and single hoof. The head is short, very nearly straight of face or quite so, and the cars are of medium size and incline forward, rather than stand erect or break over. The general conformation is typical of the lard type, with a fairly wide back and wide, deep, full ham. A slight arch of back is sought. As already noted, the hoofs arc of one piece instead of cloven. The color of the Mule-Foot, including the feet, is a pronounced black, but white spots sometimes occur and are admissible.
The size of the Mule-Foot places it in the medium class, although on the basis of some claims it might be regarded as a large breed. Dunlap states that the Mule-Foot equals the Poland-China and Duroc-Jersey in size, easily attaining weights from 600 to 800 pounds, while Kreglow places the weight for the sows at 400 to 500 pounds at maturity, with 100 pounds more for the boar. "Some of our brood sows," he writes, "could be fattened to weigh 700 and one of our herd boars will weigh 1000 pounds." By the standard a boar two years old should weigh 500 pounds, a sow of the same age 450, and a twelve-months boar or sow 300 pounds.
The feeding qualities of Mule-Foot swine are said to rank very well. In recent years they show much sign of improvement and without doubt will fatten satisfactorily.
The quality of meat of the Mule-Foot ordinarily shows superior mingling of lean and fat and is more comparable with the Berkshire than the Poland-China. Dunlap regards the bacon of this breed as an intermediate between the lard and bacon type. In the more improved form it suggests the lard type.
The prolificacy of the Mule-Foot swine is of moderate degree. The average size of two hundred litters reported by Kreglow was eight plus, and these included ninety-one gilts with their first litters.
The prepotency of the Mule-Foot is a pronounced characteristic. Not only is the general conformation and color transmitted but in crossbreeding it is said that the solid hoof is reproduced to "a remarkable degree."
The immunity of Mule-Foot swine to cholera has been claimed on various occasions, and early in the present century, prior to 1910, much publicity was given to this statement. As a fair sample of the claims made in behalf of the breed, the following by R. G. Long is quoted :3 "Mule-Foot breeders do claim that their hogs will not take the cholera from being confined with cholera infected hogs, and I believe that their animals have made good on that claim." In 1910 J. H. Dunlap published this statement:4
I have a list of two hundred and forty-five Mule-Foot breeders in twenty-five states, furnished me by C. E. Quinn of the United States Department of Agriculture, and have written to a great many of them regarding the immunity of the Mule-Foot hog. They have all replied that they have never known a full-blood Mule-Foot to die with cholera. Mr. Quinn also wrote me that he was unable to learn of Mule-Foot hogs dying with cholera in the thirteen states in which he investigated the claim of immunity.
These statements, however, are not supported by veterinarians, and the author is informed by an official of the Ohio State Veterinarians' office that in 1914 hog cholera was brought to the Ohio State Fair by a herd of Mule-Foot hogs exhibited the previous week at the Forest City Fair at North Randall. It is not regarded as impossible for herds of these hogs, under certain conditions, to contract cholera.
The distribution of Mule-Foot swine is quite widespread at the present time. There are many breeders in the corn belt, especially in Ohio and Indiana. Messrs. J. H. Dunlap of Pickaway County, Ohio, and C. G. Kreglow of Hardin County have long been prominent improvers and active exhibitors and promoters of the breed and have interested many persons in establishing herds.
The promotion of Mule-Foot swine has been taken up by two registry associations — the National Mule-Foot Association, organized in 1908 at Indianapolis, and the American Mule-Foot Record Association, with headquarters at Columbus, Ohio.+
C and K Misty Wood Farm is one of only a few farms in Ohio raising Mulefoot hogs the recent downturn in the economy and the recent extremely high cost of feed has caused many breeders to fold up shop. We have been lucky and have been able to weather the downturn and expand. Right now we have 5 breeding females and two boars one of home is a direct decendant of Holiday Stock. We will be planning on ten litters per year but the demand is great so if you want a hog please call and get on the list....
Three breeds of minor importance in America are the Mule-foot hog, Large Black Pig, and the Middle White or Middle Yorkshire.
MULE-FOOT HOG.
Description.—A marked peculiarity of the Mule-foot hog is its solid hoof, and from this peculiar feature the breed takes its name. In general conformation, it is claimed that the Mule-foot hog is between the fat type and the bacon type, but it is not noted for great length of side.
The color is black, but white points are admissible. More white than black is a disqualification, and any considerable amount of white is regarded as objectionable.
Origin and History.—The National Mule-foot Hog Record Association, which has its office in Indianapolis, has issued the following statement: "Up to the present date, the Mulefoot hog is a hog without an authentic history. Rumors and reports offer Denmark, Holland, South Africa, Mexico, South America, and the Sandwich Islands as the country of his birth. . . . Reports are so contradictory that this Association cannot, without further research, endorse any of them. Every effort will be made by the Association to discover the origin of the Mule-foot hog, and to furnish its friends with a true and complete history."
Distribution.—So far, animals of this breed are not numerous nor widely distributed. Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, and Louisiana are probably the principal states for the breed, but the breed is not Largely represented in any state as yet.
Utility.—The National Mule-foot Hog Record Association makes the following claims for the breed:
" As to the special qualifications and fine points of the Mule-foot hog, we know it to have greater vitality than any other breed in the United States. We have never known a full-blood Mule-foot hog to have hog cholera. It is an easy feeder, develops early and rapidly, is in strong demand on the market at a premium. . . . The sows are good, gentle mothers and raise large litters of pigs, which, if turned out, will hustle for a living, or they will grow fat and thrive, paying big returns, under good care and attention."
It must be remembered that the claims set forth above are made by admirers of the breed. So far as can be learned, these claims have not been tested by independent investigators.