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MANGALITZA  NEWS

Latest Series of Chanel 4's The F'Word Featuring The Mangalitza Curly Coated Pig

05/2009 Paradise Topsy now at Mangalitza.co.uk

02/2009 Getting Ready to go to the Royal Show in July 2009.

12/2008 Paradise Duchess now at Mangalitza.co.uk

12/2008 2 Paradise Bonny Gilts at Mangalitza.co.uk

06/2008 A very busy day  for Mark Graham at the Cheshire Show in the Pig tent - lots of new friends, and lots of people seeing the Mangalitza pig for the first time.

05/2008 Teddy the original Swallow Bellied Boar imported from Austria now at Mangalitza.co.uk, together with 2 Red Magic Abbottess Sows

09/2007 Mangalitza Owners Club Members. Free Advertisement Page - Adverts for Mangalitzas or just post on the Forum.

09/2007 UK Mangalitza Owners. Want to join the Owners Club? I am in the process of  setting up regular communication between owners, including a newsletter (although I will need anecdotes, observations, stories, notices, adverts and other items of interest to the "members" to start this up) - suggestions welcome. If you are interested in joining in, receiving the newsletters then email me at OwnersClub@Mangalitza.org

01/2007 The Herd book for the Mangalitza Pigs is being administered by the British Pig Association - http://www.britishpigs.org.uk

The online BPA pedigree pig register is available on the Web -  http://www.grassroots.co.uk/cgi-bin/start.cgi/pedeweb/BPA/pages/welcome.html Click on "MG" - Mangalitza and "Search for Animals"

03/2006 Pig Paradise have brought in 3 Mangalitza boar Lines and 7 unrelated Mangalitza Sow lines from Austria to introduce these pigs to the UK

Mangalitza  Curly Coated Pigs - what are we

Mangalitza (Woolly Pigs) Mangalitzas are an ancient breed of Woolly pigs from the area of Austria-Hungary. In Switzerland and Germany their colouring is often black back with a white under belly but the further east a single blonde colour predominates and in parts of Hungary and former Yugoslavia the black back takes on a red tinge. They ranged freely foraging for food in the steppe and wooded regions where they are still held in high regard of the quality of their bacon. At one time their meat products were in demand all over Europe to such an extent it was traded on the Vienna Stock Exchange and a hundred thousand animals a year were sold from Hungary to the West. In Switzerland the pigs were a very important product where they were slowly overtaken in importance by the dominant "English" style animals which are more suited to "intensive" rearing. SWALLOW BELLIED Mangalitza (pig) origin: Hungary Large framed breed with dark skin and thick wool.  Black is the dominating colour here, but the belly is white like that of a swallow. This explains the name. The piglets´ skin has stripes like little wild piglets. The breed is easy to keep in free-range. The meat of the Mangalitza pigs is of high quality. BLONDE Mangalitza: Blonde/White curly pig. Very hardy making them very suitable for the Hungrarian, Swiss, Austrian and Germany Range which it has typically been an inhabitant of. RED Mangalitza: Red curly haired pig, similar in colour to the Tamworth pig. Slightly larger than a Kune Kune pig, typically smaller than a Berkshire Pig. All of the UK Foundation Herd were of Austrian Origin - although some of their parents are of Hungarian Origin. Line Breeding is going to have to be maintained in order to maintain the Colours pure :-   Therefore all of the UK Pure bred Swallow Bellied Mangalitzas will be direct descendents of  Paradise Wonder VEGH/1119 - males will all have pedigree names of "Wonder" All pure bred UK Blonde Mangalitzas will be direct descendents of Paradise Curly VEGH/1744 - males will all have pedigree names of "Curly" And all pure bred UK Red Mangalitzas will be direct descendents of Paradise Leader VEGH/1734 and will have pedigree names of  "Leader" The progeny of mixed colour matings are fully pedigree eligible and this mixing will at some point be needed in order to ensure that some genetic diversity is available.

My first litter of Blonde Mangalitza's - Second Generation UK bred animals.   The Pedigree names allocated to the Imported Mangalitza pigs are actually a reuse of the original Lincolnshire Curly Coat names - a very fitting tribute to these interesting pigs.  The Boar names are - Wonder(Swallow Bellied), Curly(Blonde), Leader(Red).  The sow names are -  Delight(1-4), Princess(1&2), Abbottess(1-3), Duchess, Perfection, Bonny, Topsy, Pride.  The foundation herd is prefixed "Paradise" as will be all registered Piglets bred by Tony. All other piglets will be named after the Pedigree registration of the Farm where they were born.