Best of both worlds

The Hungarian breed of pig that has caused a trip down memory lane, and stirred up a storm on social media

- Adam Henson

Sheep are sheep. And pigs are pigs. It’s self-explanatory and something you can’t argue with. Unless you’re a Mangalitza, that is! I recently took delivery of some of these wonderful hairy Hungarian pigs from a farming friend who wanted to mate his sows with the Berkshire boar we’ve got at the Cotswold Farm Park. Mangalitzas are distinctive beasts with a woollike covering all over which looks just like a fleece.

So, when a BBC film crew arrived for our weekly ‘Countryfile’ assignment, I couldn’t resist showing my piggy visitors off to the viewers. Despite making just a brief appearance on screen, the reaction from the public to these ‘sheep-pigs’ was a mixture of delight and amazement.