The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1923-05-25
MEETING THE FARMER
ON HIS OWN GROUND
Written for Central Rosebud Hamp-
shire Association

VI course, We farmers are interest
ed in the exhibits of pure bred hogs
at state fairs and national shows but
these breeding animal shows really
mean most to the men who are III the
purebrcd business. When you take
in the International Livestock Show
and similar fat stock shows, you are
taking in territory with which every
farmer and pork producer is familiar
and it s the competition IN these mar
ket classes that wins the new man over
to purebreds; it s what really brings
the purebred hog home to him as ami
improvement for his own herd. In
the shows of breeding stock, the ami
mails which are exhibited have been
handled by men who are experts IN
fitting and developing a show hog.
In most breeds they have been petted,
pampered and pushed to the very
limit; they have been given whole
milk, rolled oats and the very richest
and most palatable feeds-feeds
which no man could afford to feed
market hogs. This is not true TO the
same extent in the Hampshire breed
a. in other because we have never
developed the craze for extreme size
and the coarseness which goes with 1t.
In our show animals we are interested
more in type and early maturlty--ln
O meat type and, as a consequence,
we have not attempted to get our
show animals in the younger classes
large out Of all proportion.
After all, we are in the hog business
for one purpose and that is production
of hogs to fill the pork barrel and 30
per cent of the hogs that 60 to mar
ket are marketed around 25O pounds.
The hog which will get to that point
in the shortest time and do 1t most
economically is the one which Will IN
the end become most numerous on
the farms of the pork producers and
not the hog which will, in a protract-
ed feeding period or when fed on I'M
practical rations, developed great size
and coarseness and along with 1t un-
desirability of meat cuts.
The production Of purebred hogs
for breeding purposes is specialized
business and the average farmer real
ICES it. He knows it and realizes that
he can't feed his market hogs on feeds
as GOOD and nutritious as go on hls
own table. He is interested in the
1900 pound boar-yes, Just like ne
would be interested in five-legged
cow in a side show, but he wouldn t
want to have either of them on his
farm. At the fat stock shows, how
ever. the farmers own language is
snoken because the animals which ard
shown in the fat barrow classes, more
particularly those which are shown
in the carload lots, are hogs whlch
have been raised on the farms OF men
not interested in the purebred busl-
ness-men who are merely producing
the best market hog they can. These
men don t pamper and pet their hogs;
they feed them under farm conditions
and on farm rations just as every
other farmer and feeder is doing
For the past five years in success
sion Hampshires have won grand
championship in the carload classes
at tbe international Livestock Show
and thew have, almost without excep-
ticn, shown the Youngest yet the heaVl-
est carload of spring pigs at that
show. When the farmer who Is show
ING Hampshires can get his pigs 10
outweigh any other breed exhibited
does # not show more than the fact
that few individual animals shown
IN the hands of professional showmen'
admittedly forced to the limit, are
heavier than some other breedsY The
GRAND champion carload at the W.
International Livestock Show aver
aged 800 pounds per head In weight
and every animal in the carload was
spring pig, farrowed after the flrs'
Of March, with the exception OF IA
head which were farrowed during the
last few davs of February. The near
est carload to them, OF any other
breed, averaged 81 pounds and they
were pigs of the same age, had peer
cared for in the same way ana rec
the same length of time. When inc
market producer sees animals when
have been made ready for market the
wav he is going to make hls ready
and sees that one breed for five years
in succession can win grand champion
shin in the carload classes at the In
ternational Livestock Show, 1T prove
to him that there is something behlne
the breed besides publicity; and wher'
he sees that the same hog can wir
grond championship, as Hampshire
-, 600 ot +ba Tptarn at ionol. tho