BREEDERS

Introducing

By 1991, the Mangalica had practically arrived at the stage of complete extinction, there were less than 200 breed breeders (!) in the world. The number of the swallow-bellied and red Mangalica sows was as small as 30, their extinction was just a question of months.

In the spring of 1991, Juan Vicente Olmos Liorente, manager of the Spanish ham-producing company, Jamenos Segovia Sa serrano, contacted Péter Tóth, a student of agricultural engineering, asking him to look for a very fatty ancient Hungarian breed that could be bred under natural circumstances, and used as the base material of high-quality ham and loin products. Naturally, this breed turned out to be the Mangalica, and Olmos és Tóth Kft. having been founded at that time has been working on the multiplication of the breed since 1991. As a principle, porkers should be fattened in Hungarian pig-breeding plants as utilizing Hungarian feeds and Hungarian live labour, while their meat are to be processes in Hungarian butcheries. The hard work throughout the past 10 years now seems to yield the first successes. The number of the breeding stock of the Mangalica has been increasing gradually, in 2006 the number of sows is foreseen to exceed 8,000, while porker sales by Olmos és Tóth Kft. are expected to reach up to 15,000 individuals.

Olmos és Tóth Kft. is the only company to combine efficiently traditional Mangalica farming with the hygienic breeding of piglets and sows as complying with the associated requirements of these days. Sows are kept in the huge grazing grounds and paddocks all the yearlong where they live in large groups under “pig-friendly” conditions. Farrowing is performed in spacious farrowing pens to provide sows with extensive room to move around, and piglets are looked after with special care. They have separated feeding, drinking and resting places.

Naturally, at the age of just a few days each Mangalica piglet receives its individual microchip number for their identification throughout their lives, and to make them retrievable even from the later products. Sows are transferred to the selected breeding boars 4 weeks after farrowing, and then back to the fields. Piglets are relocated to hygienic piglet-growing halls using the most up-to-date technologies. After two months, with their weight growing to 35 kg they are moved to their final places, the traditional large-group, straw-bedded yards with large paddocks. Here, they reach the 150–160 kg killing weight within one year.

Feeds are exclusively made up of wheat, barley, corn, soy, mineral additives and green fodder manufactured for Olmos és Tóth Kft. by the largest feed mills under strict control as based on special formulae.

It is a requirement for all pigs of Olmos és Tóth Kft. that only the breeders and piglets receive preventive veterinary treatment. No Mangalica is given individual veterinary treatment or medicine. All the pigs of Olmos és Tóth Kft. are free of Auyeszky, Leptospirozis, Brucellózis, PRRS diseases, thus there is no vaccination performed. Fattened Mangalica pigs are killed and processed in the butcheries of Pick Szeged Zrt.

Shaped, deep-frozen hams and loins are exported to the Spanish partner, Jamenos Segovia Sa as semi-finished products, while the remaining pork parts are processed exclusively in Hungary.

Due to the still low individual number of the livestock, as well as in order to protect the genetic bases of the breed, Mangalica products are only available in limited amounts.

In order to preserve the genetic bases, in 1994, after a 45-year interval as initiated by Olmos és Tóth Kft. the National Association of Mangalica Breeders (MOE) was reorganized as the only breeding body of the Mangalica officially recognized by the Hungarian State. To maintain consumer trust and confidence, Olmos és Tóth Kft. purchases Mangalica pigs only with the certificate of the Association, thus officially guaranteeing the origin of the Mangalica products.