# Berkshire vs GOS taste?



## Hazel2006 (Nov 23, 2012)

Hi. I was wondering if anyone had tasted pork from a Berkshire hog and a Gloucestershire hog and if you noticed much of a difference? Thank you. Or maybe this question is irrelevant as I understand diet and environment is a big contributor to taste.


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

Flavor almost totally produced by what the pigs eat in the last month of their lives. I've done a lot (thousands) of double blind taste tests over the past decade with different breeds and different feeds. It takes about a month for the flavor to set and at three months there is no longer any change.

The flavor is primarily found in the fat, not the lean. This means that marbling is important. Marbling is primarily, almost exclusively, determined by breed and age of the pig but also somewhat by calories consumed vs spent. This is the part where breed does have an effect. Both Berkshire and Glouster Old Spot marble well.

That said, note that there seems to be two variations on the Berkshire breed. One is the taller and a bit leaner modern version and the other is the older shorter legged lard version. We have the taller version. (I select for tall pigs as the longer legs do better on our rugged terrain and deep snows.) There was a recent thread on this:

http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/pigs/522128-yorkshire-duroc-cross=tamworth-2.html

Feed for flavor.

Breed is a varied personal perspective. It seems to attract almost religious zealotry. Go with what you enjoy.

Cheers,

-Walter


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## kaniacarpentry (Dec 15, 2013)

What do you recommend finishing a pig on? Corn?


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

Pasture.


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## farmgal-va (Aug 7, 2014)

Our two hogs we butchered 1 month ago was finished on a mixture of several grains including corn, wheat, oats, barly..etc and it turned out great. I'm not knocking pasture just going by taste of ours. I knew a bunch of my husbands friends told him to feed strictly corn the last month.


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## Philosaw (Mar 3, 2014)

farmgal-va said:


> Our two hogs we butchered 1 month ago was finished on a mixture of several grains including corn, wheat, oats, barly..etc and it turned out great. I'm not knocking pasture just going by taste of ours. I knew a bunch of my husbands friends told him to feed strictly corn the last month.



I would think that finishing on pasture could have a negative impact as well as positive one on the flavor. Highlands has refined his pastures to reflect what does well by his pigs and location. If you were to finish your pigs on a pasture of scrub and weeds, the impact would be quite different. Where we raise pigs, our objective is to finish on an oak pasture to take advantage of the acorn crop. If you don't have the advantage of a pasture then you can try a multitude of different feeds to try to effect the flavor to you liking.


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

That's the key. Grow into it slowly. Figure out what works with the available resources. Develop the infrastructure, pasture mixes and management style necessary to make it work. Get genetics that will work on pasture and then keep improving them.

It takes years. Enjoy the journey.

-Walter


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## gerold (Jul 18, 2011)

farmgal-va said:


> Our two hogs we butchered 1 month ago was finished on a mixture of several grains including corn, wheat, oats, barly..etc and it turned out great. I'm not knocking pasture just going by taste of ours. I knew a bunch of my husbands friends told him to feed strictly corn the last month.


I have tried different grains,pasture etc. For here and the type of pigs i raise for meat , it is Corn that i raise here on the farm that works best for me. The last 45-60 days a butcher hog gets mostly ground corn all they can eat. By the time they are butchered they really are fat. Makes for a lot of flavor in the meat also. I do all my own butchering. Most hogs i butcher now are 400 lbs. plus.


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## ErikaMay (Feb 28, 2013)

I've been feeding my guys a healthy dose of brewers grain. Anyone have experience how that might affect, or not, flavor?


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## gerold (Jul 18, 2011)

ErikaMay said:


> I've been feeding my guys a healthy dose of brewers grain. Anyone have experience how that might affect, or not, flavor?


Be interesting to see how that works out. Sounds ok. Don't forget to post the results.

Best,
Gerold.


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

Over the course of the year we feed something like 1% to 2% of our pig's diet as the spent barley from a local brew pub. It comes in in big amounts, they eat it fast, and then it is gone for a while. At that point it comes in and for the next day the spent barley might be 30% of their diet, for those few days, but then we don't have it for a while so overall it isn't much. My reading says up to 50% is okay in terms of health and meat quality. My experience says don't exceed the 25% or so for any length of time or they may get constipation. About 80% of their diet is pasture/hay and about 7% whey with the rest being things like pumpkins, apples, etc. Thus it's a pretty pasture focused diet and the brewer's grain is not a major component. They do like it but they will get tired of it and switch back to the pasture of their own accord.

It is important not to confuse the barley based brewer's (beer) material with the corn based distiller's (ethanol, etc) material. I have seen research that said that the corn based causes soft bacon at over 20%.

https://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/id/id-345-w.pdf

Something else of interest:

http://nutrition.ansci.illinois.edu/sites/default/files/AlternativeFeedIngredientsSwineDiets.pdf

Flavor is fine in our experience but then again we're not feeding huge amounts.

Also see:

http://www.sugarmtnfarm.com/?s=barley

Cheers,

-Walter


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## gerold (Jul 18, 2011)

Both studies in the links that Walter provided on pork diet is very important. Good idea to read and study them.

I did feed DDGS to one hog for 6 mos. 40% of the diet was DDGS.
The meat was ok however the bacon was not up to par. Also the pig did not eat pasture as well as the other pigs that were on a straight corn mix. 

Another down side to DDGS was the pig would leave some of the feed and go off and sleep for 1 plus hours and then didn't feed on the pasture very well. Also the pig did not gain weight as well as the pigs that was on straight corn and pasture diet.

Others have been feeding DDGS to hogs but i have no reports on how well they do. The company that sell it has sold a lot of it for stock feed. It just didn't work out for me. I think Lazy J has done some studies on this feed.


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

The DDGS and Brewer's spent barley are rather low in energy which is a factor.


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## Lazy J (Jan 2, 2008)

I've been formulating with DDGS in hog rations for over a decade, you have to understand nutritional profile of the DDGS to formulate diets. 

I'm not surprised that the bacon was not up to par, the DDGS is not a perfect protein source and the corn oil in it can cause soft fat which results in flabby bacon.

My customers are using from 10 to 30% in their grow-finish rations right now and are not experiencing dramatic changes in growth or carcass composition.

Jim



gerold said:


> Both studies in the links that Walter provided on pork diet is very important. Good idea to read and study them.
> 
> I did feed DDGS to one hog for 6 mos. 40% of the diet was DDGS.
> The meat was ok however the bacon was not up to par. Also the pig did not eat pasture as well as the other pigs that were on a straight corn mix.
> ...


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## Lazy J (Jan 2, 2008)

highlands said:


> The DDGS and Brewer's spent barley are rather low in energy which is a factor.


In my formulations I use a Metabolizable Energy value for DDGS that is 95% of that of field corn. Part of the issue with DDGS is the decreased bulk density of the feed which results in a decrease in feed intake because the animal feels full sooner. This results in less energy and amino acid consumption which decreases growth rate.


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## no1butcherman (Sep 6, 2007)

Once the results were tallied, the Mulefoot was on top, but with the exception of the Large Black, all heritage hogs out tasted the commercial breed. The specific results were as follows:
1. Mulefoot
2. Gloucestershire Old Spot
3. Red Wattle
4. In a tie: Tamworth and Guinea
5. Hereford
6. In a tie: Ossabaw Island and commercial
7. Large Black
According to Ayrshire Farmâs Large Livestock Manager, Don Schrider, this event was the largest comparison of pork breeds in North America to date and it successfully demonstrated that each of the breeds is valuable for the unique culinary experience it offers.


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## sang (Aug 23, 2013)

no1butcherman said:


> Once the results were tallied, the Mulefoot was on top, but with the exception of the Large Black, all heritage hogs out tasted the commercial breed. The specific results were as follows:
> 1. Mulefoot
> 2. Gloucestershire Old Spot
> 3. Red Wattle
> ...


Berkshire was not included in this test. These pigs also came from different farms under different conditions. I have eaten Red Wattle and Berkshire both finished on corn and pasture, I preferred the Berkshire.


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

This non-science event keeps getting touted out. It's marketing not science. I don't buy it because in order of importance: they failed to control for feed, the animals came from different farms with different management, they didn't have a significant sample set and it was not a double blind test. Keep in mind that various groups are always announcing the "best of X" but it doesn't mean much. Best beer in the world. Best shampoo as voted by 9 out of 10 dentists. Best word processor according to Retired American Teachers Society. It's just a promotional thing. Best is a very slippery term.

You can test this yourself. Raise up ten pigs of all the same sex on one feed. That's a rather minimal sample set. (A single animal can be used as an indicator but the margin of error is large with such a small sample set.) Raise another group also all the same sex, age, etc. Both groups are of the same breed - what ever your favorite is. Each time only change one variable and use significant sample sets for groups to get good comparison data. Do a double blind taste test and compare. Now repeat but this time keep the feed constant but change the breed. Use a second breed with comparable marbling. Use the same cut of meat from all the animals to keep a consistent sample. A Boston Butt steak is a good choice as it is well marbled. Flavor is stored in the fat. Science is fun - we do this sort of thing all the time to test things.

I've done this across four breeds as well as crosses, ten years, many feeds, seasons, sexes and other variables. The effect is very strong. Feed for Flavor.

One interesting result I found is that it takes about a month to set the flavor and after about three months we found no further change in flavor - it had reached its peak. That's the finishing period. So if you're trying for a particular flavor, like acorns, it is the last month you definitely want to to hit and more than the last three months doesn't deliver a lot more for the effort. Conversely if you're feeding fish (readily available some places and highly nutritious) and don't want a fishy taste to the pork then switch to a sweet feed to finish.

Cheers,

-Walter


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## Lazy J (Jan 2, 2008)

no1butcherman said:


> Once the results were tallied, the Mulefoot was on top, but with the exception of the Large Black, all heritage hogs out tasted the commercial breed. The specific results were as follows:
> 1. Mulefoot
> 2. Gloucestershire Old Spot
> 3. Red Wattle
> ...


 While I understand what this test was attempting to accomplish they did not actually test the differences in breeds, rather they tested the differences in the production systems and their affects on flavor.

To truly test the differences in flavor attributed to breed differences all the pigs must be fed the same rations in the same environment at the same time.


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## linnell (Aug 14, 2014)

We use berkshire X large black crosses and finish on apples/pasture only for the last month or so in addition to feeding produce/whey for the entirety of the pigs life. We love the flavor of our pork and so do our customers. We've had trouble keeping meat in stock this season.


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## FarmerDavid (Jul 16, 2012)

linnell said:


> We use berkshire X large black crosses and finish on apples/pasture only for the last month or so in addition to feeding produce/whey for the entirety of the pigs life. We love the flavor of our pork and so do our customers. We've had trouble keeping meat in stock this season.


So do you only finish hogs once a year? Or how do you get around apples being seasonal?


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