The 600kg piggy not going to market

This big piggy took Balclutha 14-year-old Jack Thom all the way home. Picture / Otago Daily Times

Despite weighing as much as a small car, Toby is no greedy pig.

The 3-year-old large white boar tips the scales at 600kg and from snout to curly tail is about 2m long.

Immediate past owner Roger Legg, of Pine Hill, near Dunedin, said Toby was "a gentleman of the pig world".

"There's not a bad bone in his body. He's easy to please, a hit with the ladies and eats just the same as any other pig," he said.

Mr Legg ended his 33-year term as a pig farmer on Saturday when he handed Toby over to a Tarras, Central Otago, breeder.

He bought Toby from Oamaru when the boar was 18 months old and put him to work on his Dunedin property as a sire.

Toby had sired too many piglets to count, including a litter of 16 which was born two weeks ago, Mr Legg said.

"Ever since I got him he hasn't put a foot wrong. He's very active," he said.

Pigs of the large white variety tended to be big, but Mr Legg said Toby was the largest boar he had seen, even during his 18 years as an abattoir worker.

"He's just an exceptionally big guy and I reckon he'll grow a bit yet. They [boars] live for years," he said.

Mr Legg gave Toby about 20 litres of mixed feed every day, as well as greens, such as cabbages.

He had not over-fed the boar, or intentionally enhanced the animal's natural growth.

"He's the size of a young cattle beast, and heavier than one. I was sorry to see him go but would rather he went to a farm than be killed, because he's still got a lot of work in him," Mr Legg said.

- OTAGO DAILY TIMES