Characteristics of Landrace Pigs and An Introduction to Their Breed Features

Landrace pigs originated in Denmark and are a world-famous lean-meat pig breed. Their main advantages are a high litter size, fast growth and development, efficient feed use, and a high carcass lean-meat percentage, but they have poor stress resistance and relatively high requirements for feed nutrition. China first introduced them from Sweden in 1964, and at present Landrace pigs in China include the British line, French line, Belgian line, New Danish line and other lines. In production, Landrace pigs are commonly used as the first sire or first dam in three-way cross (Duroc x Landrace x Large White) pigs. Among the existing Landrace lines, the crossbred offspring of the French line and the New Danish line have fast growth and high feed efficiency, while the offspring of the Belgian line have a better body shape and a high lean-meat percentage.