Gloucestershire Old Spots - Cyclic Breeding

Cyclic Breeding

The British GOS pig breeders developed the cyclic breeding system in an attempt to minimize inbreeding. All pure bred Gloucestershire Old Spots pigs belong to one of four color groups: Red, Black, Green and Blue, represented in the color chart to the left. Although GOS pigs all maintain the identical coloring, white with black spots, the color groups represent the family or lineage from which a pig originated. Referring to the color chart, Red Group Boars (Sambo) breed Black Group Sows, Black Group Boars (Patrick) breed Green Group Sows, Green Group Boars (Gerald) breed Blue Group Sows and Blue Group Boars (Rufus) breed Red Group Sows. It is important to note that the cyclic breeding is suggested not mandatory. Due to the shallow gene pool here in the US, breeding registered stock outside the color group, in some circumstances, may be advantageous for diversification. The only true requirement to register GOS piglets is that both the Dam and Sire have been registered by the US or UK GOS registry. For each color group there are up to five different female names but only one unique male name per group. All female offspring from a registered sow, whether bred following the color chart or not, inherit the color group and name of that sow, while the males take on the unique boar name of the particular color group designated by the Dam. Therefore a registered Green Princess sow's male offspring can be registered as a Green Gerald and a female offspring can be registered as a Green Princess, as long as the boar that fathered the litter is also registered. (See example here: GOS cyclic breeding table 1 or here GOS cyclic breeding table 2.)

The advantages of the GOS breed can be summed up as follows:

Docile – making it a suitable choice for first time pig keepers and an important consideration for larger operations.

Hardy – the breed is kept in many parts of the UK where extremes of temperatures and weather patterns are experienced.

Good dams – the GOS is a milky breed and a good dam. In many cases, sows will continue breeding at a greater age than many breeds and hybrids.

Quality pork and bacon – there is a huge demand for the high quality meat produced by GOS pigs. Experience shows that good management can produce good quality carcasses without excessive fat coverage.

They make an ideal crossing breed. Put to a white breed, the offspring will be white with the advantage of hybrid vigour.