The Lincolnshire Curly Coat Breed Society was formed in 1906. By 1948 it had 71 members and 32 boars were registered. The Lincoln Show (which this years takes place today and tomorrow) of 1911 saw 123 Curly coats entered and Class 25 featured 5 entries for "three clean wash Lincoln Hog fleeces".In 1957 there were just 12 Curly Coats at the show. The following year only 8 boars were registered and the Breed Society had just 20 members. The Lincoln Show discontinued classes in 1959, the Breed Society closed in 1960 and by 1972 the breed was extinct.
The answer to question 1 of the quiz is revealed above: the picture shows a pig's fleece. More precisely, it shows some of Samson's fleece collected by grooming him (with a standard wire dog brush!). He just loves it - as the picture here shows.... as soon as he feels the brush on his back he rolls over on his side like a puppy and doesn't move till minutes after the brushing stops!
Since Samson is still in the process of moulting, we don't yet know how much fleece we shall collect; however.... the answer to question 2 .. the quiz picture shows 3.7 oz which was the result of one day's grooming session. So far we have collected about 10 oz and, as the picture above shows, there is still a fair way to go. By comparison, Precious, in the foreground, has already completely moulted and is resplendent in her summer coat. Now she looks more like a wild boar, particularly with her bushy mane. The wool will begin to grow over the coming months and by the end of November she will have a full curly coat again.
This is the first year that we have made an effort to collect the pigs' wool having just let it 'fall out' in the past. What's changed? Well, that takes us back to 1911. Then, the fleece from the pigs had a value on its own and would have been woven into textiles to be made into winter waistcoats and jackets. 10 oz - or even 30 - probably wouldn't make a waistcoat for anything bigger than a garden gnome. HOWEVER, there is a market today for fishing flies. And pig's wool is used (along with, for instance, badger hair and feathers) to make, inter alia, a 'mayfly'. This we know from a UTube video showing a pair of man's hands making said 'mayfly'. And this we know courtesy of a customer in America who enquired after, and is now buying, our pigs' fleece for that very purpose! Courtesy of Samson and Precious we have fulfilled our very first export order!!! Delila, being red, is a little slower getting into her moult...(as you can see in the second picture); her wool is also a good deal more coarse than that of the Blonde pigs.
Thus, the answer to the third question. The value. This is somewhat sentimental and, hence, inestimable. The original Lincolnshire Curly Coat pig went from Boom to Bust in just over 60 years; it has been extinct for almost half that length of time. Now, however, the Mangalitza Curly Coat is gradually gaining in popularity and here in Lincolnshire we currently have 4 breeders. RectoryReserve is producing an ever broadening range of products - from just sausages, pate and pies a year ago to almost 'everything but the squeak' today. Finding a market for fleece is the icing on the cake! The Big Boss has always said that without saleable products, the future of the Curly Coat could not be secured. And we would like to think that these pigs will be around for a great deal longer than the next 60 years.
So the value, to us, of the fleece is that it provides another platform on which to build a future for these amazing creatures.
Fishing flies today: gold plated trotters for stalking sticks tomorrow? Who knows?
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