LSF Mayzie is owned by Will and Dana Schouten of Closer to the Land Farm. She is the full sibling of LSF Bess, a hog you will see on many BRP pedigrees and the dam of Sonny Boy Williamson, the cover pig on Cathy R. Payne’s book Saving the Guinea Hogs. Notice the low number on her pedigree registration. Hogs without the DNC prefix under Great Great Grandparents are all foundation stock.
Don Oberdorfer bred the first pair of what eventually became registered Guinea Hogs, and DNC George, born in 2002, was a boar out of that first breeding. DNC George was sold to Stephen and Holly Brothers, who sold him to Arie McFarlen of Maveric Heritage Ranch. The pedigree is about half Biggers and half Setty/Celesky in regard to influence, so I will link this page to Biggers Linebred and Setty/Celesky Linebred as well as Mixed Pedigrees of Original Stock only.
DNC stands for Dodge Nature Center, the owners of hogs managed by Don Oberdorfer. LSF stands for Laughing Stock Farm, the farm of Malcolm and Lisa Duff, DVM. All of the Brothers herd was sold to Maveric Ranch in 2005. Many of them were piglets born that July. Because the AGHA was not formed until 2006, the herd was not registered and numbers assigned begin with NR for “not registered,” as assigned by Shirley Sullivan, an early registrar. I believe that at some time official registration numbers were assigned to many of these hogs.
Because the hogs were not registered, there was no naming protocol, and nothing was submitted to the AGHA (that did not exist at the time), this pedigree can be a bit confusing. All of the grandparents were bred by the Brothers, not by Arie. John Henry and Harriet were bred by Arie McFarlen of Maveric Heritage Ranch, not the Virginia Zoo. But the hogs were owned by the Virginia Zoo. Lisa Duff made many requests to obtain piglets from the zoo until they finally relented.
LSF Mayzie 0185 is the hog that caused Will and Dana to fall in love with the Guinea Hog breed. She is gentle-natured, barrel-shaped big-boned hog with a thick, curly coat in the winter that completely sheds in the summer. She inherited the thick curls from her sire VAZ John Henry. I believe that the curls result from the heavy influence of Biggers Arther. Bill Biggers reported many wavy or curly-haired hogs in his herd. I am not certain if DNC George had a curly coat, though. Regardless, I can attest that the gentle giant VAZ John Henry was a docile boar that loved belly rubs and had an extremely dense coat of curls.
Dana reports that she and Will got “amazing results” with offspring from Mayzie bred to their boar Horton. She stated that Mayzie’s sons reach 400 pounds between 2.5 and 3.5 years of age.
Mayzie’s mother was still farrowing at age ten. Mayzie produced a litter of five at age 9.5 years. The litter thrived, but Mayzie started losing condition. The litter was weaned early and Mayzie was rewarded with a well-deserved retirement.
