The Red Wattle Hog Association (RWHA) and The Red Wattle Project

Welcome! The Red Wattle Project and the Red Wattle Hog Association have joined to bring you this web site. We are dedicated to recovering and promoting the critically endangered Red Wattle Hog. Click for more info on the RWHA.

We believe this website will become a valuable tool for breeders and RW enthusiasts. The site creates a central searchable database of registered animals, inbreeding coefficient calculation function, hypothetical breeding function, breeder listings and more!

The site also includes a user friendly forum where folks can network with breeders, share successes and failures, ask for help, and post animals for sale. The forum also makes it possible for the RWHA to post meeting minutes, announcements, and events in addition to responding to questions, concerns and comments in a timely manner. RWHA members can post ads in the Buy/Sell/Trade area of the forum.

About the Red Wattle Hog

The Red Wattle is a large, red hog with a fleshy wattle attached to each side of the neck. The wattles have no known function. They are a single gene characteristic and usually pass to crossbred offspring. The breed is unique to North America making them especially valuable genetically.

The Red Wattle comes in a variety of shades of red, from light blond red, to a red that is almost black. The color is consistent throughout the animal. Animals with black spots may be registered, as long as the spots only appear on the belly area and are small in size.

Hair can be short and straight or longer and wavy. The head and jowl are clean and lean, the nose is slim with a slight curve, and ears are upright with drooping tips. The body is short coupled and the rump or rear end is slightly arched.

Mature animals weigh 600 to 800 pounds, but may weigh as much as 1,200 pounds. They measure up to four feet high and eight feet long when fully grown. Most breeders now prefer butcher weights around 300 to 325 pounds with hanging weights from 220 to 245 pounds.

Red Wattle hogs are known for hardiness, foraging activity, and rapid growth rate. They produce a well marbled flavorful meat that has been described as similar to beef. The sows are excellent mothers, farrow from 7 to12 piglets, and provide good quantities of milk for their large litters.

Red Wattles adapt to a wide range of climates. Their active foraging makes them a good choice in outdoor or pasture-based swine production. They have a mild temperament and their gentle nature recommends them to the small-scale, independent producer.

The origin and history of the Red Wattle breed is obscure, but red hogs with wattles are known to have been in North America since at least the mid 1800's. It is believed that these ancestors were introduced through the Gulf of Mexico and spread throughout the country. The modern roots of the Red Wattle hog trace to 20th century descendants of these wattled pigs in Texas.

In the mid-1980s the Livestock Conservancy facilitated a meeting of Red Wattle breeders, encouraging them to unify their efforts to benefit the breed. The breeders preferred to continue with the three registry system. The Conservancy's 1990 census reported 272 purebred registered offspring. In late 1999, Jerry Russell began to search for Red Wattle hogs and found only 42 breeding animals belonging to six breeders. None of the three registries had registered stock in years.

The Red Wattle Hog Association was founded in 2001 with the support and encouragement of The Livestock Conservancy. Beginning with only 8 members, the breed association continues to grow and support the breed throughout America. Currently there are approximately 100 members with more than 100 purebred hogs registered annually.

Site Update -- October 2012

The RWHA has been given responsibility for the Red Wattle registry from the ALBC. The ALBC encouraged the RWHA to take over the registry because they felt the RWHA has matured to the point they can manage the registry themselves. This change took effect in September 2012 and now this website shows data from the actual Red Wattle registry rather that a copy. So the animal and breeder data shown here will always be current. As before, RWHA Site members can upload pictures of their animals and use the pedigree analysis (and COI) features through the Members Area.

If you notice any errors or other issues with the data displayed on this website, please report them to for verification and correction.

Tips for getting started with the site:

1. Be sure to create a login for both the website and the forum.
2. Read through the information/explanations provided before diving in. It will save frustration later.
3. Introduce yourself on the forum. Click on the "New Member Introduction" topic and tell us about yourself, your hogs, and your farm.
4. Check back often to see what's new!

If you need assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us or the site administrator. Send an email with details to: or

Using the Online Database

To get started, click here to see the list of all animals currently in our online database.

After you have some search results on the Animals List page, you can try out these features:

• Animal Info: Click the little blue "i" button at the left of table of animal info to see an Info page for that animal. The Info page basically shows all of the info available from the database for an animal. The Info page will show a picture if one is available for that animal.
• Pedigree: Click the little blue "P" button to see a pedigree for that animal. Or click the Sire Name or Dam Name links to see a pedigree for the sire or dam. Note that you can customize the Pedigree format somewhat using the link at the upper left of the Pedigree.
• Progeny: Click the little blue "O" button (for Offspring) to see a progeny report for that animal. Note that while you hold your mouse over the "O" button, it will tell you how many progeny that animal has. The progeny button won't be shown if that animal has no progeny in the database. The Progeny page works much like the Animals List page so you can sort by column headings and customize the fields that are shown.
• Descendants: Click the little blue "D" button to see a descendants report for that animal.
• Breeder/Owner Info: Click the Breeder or Owner Name link to see their Breeder Info page.
• Customize Search Results: Be sure to try this feature. Click the "Customize Search Results" link on the Animals List page (just above the Quick Search form.) This will show you a form where you can select which fields of the database you want to see on the Animals List page. You need to have cookies enabled in your browser to use this feature.

Special Thanks...

Special thanks goes out to Bill Burge, RW enthusiast, for all his work in creating the first Red Wattle Hog Association website. Also, special thanks to Paul Bradshaw, RWHA member and RW breeder, for investing his own funds in creating this site and for his enthusiasm, cooperation and willingness to work for the recovery of the Red Wattle Hog.