Bentheim Black Pied Pig
The Bentheim Black Pied pig, known in Germany as the Buntes Bentheimer Schwein, is a rare landrace-style breed from the Bentheim area of Lower Saxony. It is a large white pig with irregular black patches, lop ears, a long body, and a calm, traditional farm-pig build. Once common in northwestern Germany, it declined as leaner commercial pigs replaced slower-growing outdoor and small-farm stock. Breed recovery has made it a recognizable conservation and specialty pork animal.
Bentheim Black Pied pigs are often kept in outdoor runs, orchards, or straw-bedded housing where they can root and grow at a natural pace. They tend to produce pork with more fat cover than modern hybrids, which suits sausages, cured products, and farm-direct meat, but it requires buyers to expect a heritage carcass. Strong fencing matters, as the pigs are heavy and active. Conservation breeders pay close attention to true black-pied markings, sound legs, litter records, and avoiding close inbreeding in a relatively small population.
Colors: Belted, Black, Black and White, Blonde, Brown, Cream, Ginger, Ginger and Black, Pied, Red, Red and Black, Sandy, Solid Black, Solid White, Spotted, Swallow Belly, White
