Due to the special meat quality, the breed is also in increasing demand in Austria. With the exception of a few small - often part-time - businesses, hardly any larger breeding or fattening businesses are involved in the professional keeping of this breed. The main task of this scientific activity is to bundle activities relating to the Berkshire breed with the long-term goal of establishing and maintaining a herd book. The necessary support is provided by the Austrian breeding company “PIG Austria GmbH”. 

There is noticeably greater interest in pig breeds with defined characteristics. Until a few years ago the goal was to generate animals for fattening that were as uniform as possible, but there is currently a noticeable increase in diversification. In addition to well-known “alternative breeds” such as Duroc or Schwäbisch Hällisches Landschwein, the demand for other breeds is increasing sharply. In 2021, the first insemination boar of the ​“Iberico” breed was housed at an Austrian insemination station and semen was made available for widespread use. Berkshire is also described as the “Wagyu of pig breeds” due to its outstanding meat quality and is widely popular in Japan with around 28,000 animals. The few animals that can be found in Austrian pig farming are often kept in “hobby farms”. Therefore, the creation of a herd book including the already active farms is a necessary first step towards establishing the Berkshire breed in Austria.

The creation of a herd book should create new opportunities and better access to breeding material for interested companies in the future than before. Since there is no structured breeding work with this breed to date, the activity presented represents, so to speak, pioneering work in the field of herdbook breeding. The primary purpose of the work is to support Austrian agriculture.