George,
This is a long debated topic, and you will never have people on both sides agree on a single answer. My belief that, as someone who has quite a bit of experience with Iberico de Bellota products for some time now, the short answer is no. I found your post through a google search for Iberico de bellota since I like to keep up with the most recent happenings regarding this breed. Heres is more info on my answer:
Iberico is the breed of pig that is indigenous to the Iberian peninsula, and not found outside of Spain or Portugal. Iberico de bellota are iberico pigs that are finished on indigenous acorns (Bellota is Spanish for acorns) that fall during the autumn in specific areas of Spain (I will only speak of Spain from this point forward). The trees are only found in Spain, in areas that are known as "dehesas". "Indigenous" is the key word here. You have a breed that is only found in Spain that is finished on bellota coming from native oak trees (Encina) found nowhere else.
You can try to recreate with different breeds of pigs, but there is some agreement that these pigs have developed their unique way of building intramuscular fat like no other breed. The color of the raw pork is red and marbled like prime beef. The other food it eats is what it finds growing in the government protected lands, iberico de bellota graded pigs are not fed supplemental feed, they eat only what they find. They have very little contact with humans for the majority of their lives. The age of the pigs at slaughter is 18 months, and the average weight is 200KGS (thats 440LBS!). I've seen bigger and smaller while on tour of a slaughter facility in Spain.
The argument that you cannot recreate the original is kind of like how Champagne cannot come from any other region that Champagne, France, and the same for Dijon Mustard. Iberico pigs have been doing this for hundreds, if not thousands of years. They are not force fed the acorns, and are considered almost wild pigs by most definitions.
The one thing I've learned over the years, is that great things are still out there to be discovered. Keep up with your experiment, theres probably some great benefits to your pig eating the pecans, especially if they are from an abandoned yard means that there is chance that they are growing without any artificial fertilizers or pesticides, meaning a better product in the end. Good luck!
