During the 19th century, pigs were Serbia's main product exported to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Pigs were mostly reared in the regions of Šumadija (central Serbia) and Vojvodina (northern Serbia), where they roamed the forest areas in search of natural food resources such as acorns and worms. The Šumadinka breed was one of the first breeds to originate from the domestication of the wild boar in Serbia. Now extinct, it remains the ancestor of a better known breed: the Mangalitsa. The story tells that Serbian Prince Miloš Obrenovič presented a Hungarian county named Jožef with several pigs of the indigenous Šumadinka breed. The latter then made crosses with Hungarian breeds (Bacon and Salantor), to create a special breed, called Mangalitsa.
Covered with a thick blanket of hair giving it the appearance of a sheep, the Mangalitsa pig is slow growing and adapts perfectly to extensive breeding. Its fur offers it the possibility of facing all types of elements (sun, rain, wind, snow ...), which justifies its breeding in Serbia, where temperatures fluctuate between winter and summer by some thirty degrees in -below and above zero. The breed is divided into three genera: the blond Mangalitsa, the red and the "swallow-belly".
After several kilometers of a dirt and pebble road, we reached Mićun Nikolić's farm, populated by around one thousand Mangalitsa pigs on Mount Radan in southern Serbia. Upon arriving there, we were greeted by a curious and reckless little lamb, who stepped aside from the herd to welcome us. We quickly learn that the little one month old lamb, named Mićko, is the symbol of a sad event that occurred earlier on the farm. Mićun Nikolić, the creator of the largest Mangalitsa farm in the country, died on the day of the birth of the little lamb. This story pays homage to him.
A former police officer, Mićun Nikolić left the stability of his job to set up his own technical control company 20 years ago. Far from stopping there, he started a small sheep farm on his 70-hectare property, before devoting himself to Mangalitsa herding. He found there a passion for this rustic breed, which requires little labor since it is robust, autonomous to look for food in the mountains and very little susceptible to disease. It was with great pride that Mićun bred his Mangalitsas, the breed of which had almost disappeared in Serbia, ousted by the more productive white pigs.
It was with Tanja, his wife now in charge of the breeding, as well as his two daughters, that we walked the farm to meet the woolly pigs. On the 70 hectares of fenced land, a few thousand Mangalitsas of all ages roam freely, like wild pigs. The pigs feed mainly on food gleaned from the forest and in winter are supplemented with maize. A few buildings, opened seven days a week and 24 hours a day, give animals the opportunity to protect themselves from the elements and give sows the opportunity to isolate themselves to give birth and nurse their piglets. Among the Mangalitsas, three to five piglets wearing a striped coat like wild boar are born at each birth. We are far from the breeds of pigs selected for their prolificacy, which give birth to fifteen or twenty piglets! Pigs are retailed to individuals or ranchers across the country, from twenty kilograms to over one hundred kilograms for "ready-to-eat" pigs.
Mangalitsa is called “the pork version of Kobe beef” because its meat is marbled (rich in intramuscular fat) and strong in taste. Mangalitsa meat also has a large amount of unsaturated fatty acids which give it interesting properties to fight against "bad cholesterol". On November 28 and 29, Mićun organized the first Mangalitsa days on the farm. These days, bringing together breeders from all over Serbia and visitors eager to discover the breed, were an opportunity for all those who went there to taste culinary specialties from the animal: ham, sausages, bacon, ...
We are not going to lie to each other, this visit was loaded with emotion. We wish Tanja and her daughters every courage to continue the breeding built from A to Z by their passionate husband and father.
