[7] It is a porker, reared for fresh pork (rather than for bacon or for lard like some other breeds of pig), and is characterised by a short and sharply-upturned snout.

[8] After the Second World War it came close to extinction; although numbers have recovered somewhat, it is listed by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust as "priority" – the highest level of risk.

[3] In the early eighteenth century the traditional Yorkshire pigs of the county of that name were to a greater or lesser extent cross-bred with other stock, mostly of Asian origin; the effects of this were seen mainly in the shape of the face and in the size of the resulting animals.

[6]: 145  In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the Middle White was among the most successful pig breeds in Britain.

It was exported to a number of European countries, to Australia and South Africa, and to parts of Asia including China, India, Malaysia and particularly Japan, where – under the name "Middle Yorks" – it was the preferred pig breed until the later twentieth century, when it was progressively displaced by the Japanese Berkshire.

[5]: 649 From 1933 the politics of pig-breeding in Britain favoured baconers over porkers;[5]: 649 [9]: 108  this was particularly the case under the food rationing during and after the Second World War.

The bones and offal are fairly light, and carcass yield or killing-out percentage is high; in one exceptional case it was recorded at over 90%.