Estonian Bacon

Estonian Bacon is a variety of meat pig breed, which is found in the land of Estonia. Although in appearance the Estonian Bacon is quite alike to the Landrace, the former differs from the latter in many ways. For example, the Estonia Bacon took six days less in order to gain 100 kg of live weight than the Landrace, as per the 1976-77 state evaluation of breeds.

Bacons in Estonia are greatly used for the purpose of crossbreeding schemes as a paternal line. However the Bacons at Estonia are also used as a maternal breed. Selection is done in order to improve the meat quality and for various fattening processes. There are approximately fourteen boar lines and more than thirty sow families in the Bacons of Estonia.

In 1983, the sow Kryyt 3516 was the Estonian Bacon breed's champion and was owned by Suigu collective farm. The farm provided the results as litter size - 13.0 head, weight of two-month-old litter - 245 kg and weight of one-month-old litter - 57.3 kg,. The offspring of that Estonian Bacon produced the results in the fattening performance test as the time to gain 100 kg body weight - 171 days, feed/kg gain - 3.4 fodder units, the average daily gain - 828 g, backfat thickness - 29.4 mm.