Chester White Chester White The Chester White is a breed of domestic pig which originated in Chester County, Pennsylvania. It was formerly known as the Chester County White. The Chester White was first developed around 1815–1818, using strains of large, white pigs common to the Northeast U.S. and a white boar imported from John Russell Duke of Bedford, Bedfordshire county, England, referred to as the Woburn breed, brought by Captain Jefferies of Liverpool, England. In 1848, two breeders at a county fair, one from Delaware County and the other from Chester County, showed their two breeds. The judge decided to use the
Breed registry conformation shows. For the breed to move to the Miscellaneous class and then to fully recognized status, the breed's stud book must be closed. A closed stud book allows the breed to stay very pure to its type, but limits its ability to be improved. This may put a breed at a disadvantage, especially in performance disciplines, where an animal is worth more if it is successful in competition even if it is not pure. It also limits the gene pool, which may make certain undesirable characteristics become accentuated in the breed, such as a poor conformational fault or a