—Lancaster-Farming, Saturday, Nov., 27, 1976 70 Consumer should know about remodeled hog By JERRY WEBB Agricultural Editor Delaware Cooperative Extension Service NEWARK, Del. - Today’s homemaker may not be exactly happy about the price of pork, but she can take some comfort from the fact that she’s getting a much better product. Ask Dr. Richard Fowler, extension livestock specialist at the University of Delaware, and he’ll demonstrate in facts and figures that the 1976 model is a much better hog than the post World War II model was. Ask Jack Kling, Dover area meat packer, and he’ll show you that improved model on the hook with its improvements in plain sight. Ask any member of the Delaware Pork Producer’s Association, and he’ll take you right to the feeding floor where that better pork is made. Not many consumers have a chance to talk to the ex perts about the pork they buy, so they’re left with their memories of how good things used to be and their suspicions that like so many other things progress hasn’t helped the hog. These Delaware experts agree that in almost every way today’s hog is improved and is a better buy for the consumer’s meat dollar than ever before. Sure, pork prices are higher at the meat counter compared with 30 years ago. But so is everything. SAVE ENERGY make me a bulk milk cooler that has everything! Jack Kling, his brother Donald and father Wesley operate a federally inspected meat packing plant and livestock feeding operation on Route 10 west of Camden- Wyoming. They remember the hog of 30 years ago. That was about the time Wesley Kling first started but chering a couple of hogs a week for sale off the back of his truck at the King Street market in Wilmington. Back in those days lard was a valuable by-product and three to four inches of backfat on a 240-pound hog was considered an asset. But then lard went out of style and the market for salt pork and hog “jowls vanished. Producers faced a bleak future. Consumers wanted lean meat and on a hog that meant hams, loins and shoulders - three areas that made up less than half of the carcass weight in those days. Hogmen faced the monumental task of redesigning those wasty, short, squatty porkers of the forties into today’s long, lean, meaty pigs. If they were to compete for the consumer’s meat dollar, they had to change the product they were sending to market. Kling says change has come slowly but in his and many other meat processing businesses, it’s been com plete. The hogs he raises and the ones he buys from a couple of local feeders meet the test of quality. They must do well on the feeding floor VtXJBT T FHE-HEATER and dress well in the packing house. That means a pig that will be ready for slaughter in five months instead of eight, one that will turn three pounds of feed into a pound of live weight instead of the 4 V 2 to five pounds it used to take. It also means a pig that will have no more than an inch of backfat, and yield 55 to 60 per cent of the live weight in those three lean cut groups - hams, loins and shoulders. And according to Fowler it means a loin eye that will measure 5 Vz to six square inches instead of only 3 Vz. Kling looks for young pigs with that potential when he goes to the feeder pig auc tions in Denton, Md. and Lancaster, Pa. He knows the breeders who raise those kinds of pigs and he watches for their stock - mostly crossbreds of York, Duroc and Hampshire. Other feeders know them too, so it’s not uncommon to pay a premium for those lots. In today’s feeder pig market the going price for a 10-week-old, 40-pound barrow or gilt will run $35 to $4O. A hundred days and 550 pounds of feed later, that finished hog will weigh from 220 to 240 pounds and will be on its way through the processing line. Kling slaughters about 40 hogs a week to meet the retail demand for pork at the family-operated rural outlet. Another 30 or so are processed each week for people who raise or buy their own for home freezers. «' SPECIAL OF THE WEEK- -■■9 1 HOT WATER Kling sees a lot of hogs in a year - his own streamlined lookalikes and whatever comes in for custom packing. And he says there’s a big difference in hogs. Some folks who keep one or ' two sows and sell pigs to neighbors and friends just aren’t up with the times. Seeing these old-fashioned hogs hanging on the hook beside KUng’s hand-picked porkers tells the whole story. In fact, Kling says he feels sorry for some of the people who bring the old style hogs in for slaughter.. On the other hand, his modem hogs will yield up to 80 per cent of their live weight in edible pork and most of that will be hams, loins and shoulders. Kling’s Meat Market customers seem to know the difference, traveling many miles to buy fresh, lean pork. His prices are competitive, maybe even lower for some items, but he doesn’t stress that. What is stressed is fresh, high-quality pork - the best that’s available. He knows it’s good because he controls the quality that enters his feedlot, the quality that goes to the processing floor, and the "quality that goes into the meat case. He says being a small packer and feeding most of Ms own hogs gives him the ad vantage of quality control. He’s not at the mercy of producers who aren’t willing to meet Kling standards. THE BULK MILK COOLER THAT HAS EVERYTHING, including AUTOMATIC WASHING SYSTEM! If you are in the market for a bulk milk cooler and you don’t check all the advantages of the Mueller Models “OH". “MHL," and “MW” you may be buying an obsolete cooler. - USED BULK TANKS - - USED DIESELS - New 18 can |Can Coolers) 425 gal Esco 300 gal Dan Kool QUEEN ROAD REPAIR Box 67, Intercourse, PA 17534 fitter 5 P M. JOHN D WEAVER 656-9982 GIDDIENNER 768-8521 SAM STOLTZFUS 768-3594 i OR Answering Service 354-4374 24 Hour Service We Stock Hess’ Farm Supplies, Check Our Prices on Animal Medications Jack Kling believes the the industry has met th< pork industry needs to do a challenge -to reshape j.ti selling job to consumers product, but it must alsi about the new streamlined meet the challenge of tellinf hog-and the lean nutritious consumers about thi pork it yields. He believes tremendous Job it’s done. VINEYARD OPERATORS SOLO 451 / SOLO 452 High • Concentrate Mist Blowers for Power Take Off Operation for 15 - hp - and - over tractors with three-point hitch Total Reach: 18-21 ft each side O— • 451 Model features standard centrifugal' pump. • 452 model features a 285-psi heavy-duty piston-activated diaphagm pump in lieu of the standard centrifugal pump. Outlet for high pressure hose. • MINOR herbicide boom, ULV and dusting attachments can be used. • Net weight, empty: 155 lbs. |451); 165 lbs. |452|. AVAILABLE 80 GAL (300 LITRE) TANK DEALER INQUIRIES INVITED ON ALL SOLO PRODUCTS. _ PLAN NOW TO ATTEND Wine Conference - Thurs. & Fri. Dec. 2,3. At The Host Corral Route 30 East. LESTER A. SINGER RONKS, PA The Mueller Model “OH" with HiPerForm cooling, Mueller-Matic Automatic Washing System, and built in freeze protection control is the most advanced bulk milk cooler in the world. The nation’s most progressive dairymen are using it. Shouldn't you be? 300 gal Esco 500 Gal Dari-Kool PHONE 687-6712 Lancaster County's Only Dealer Specializing in Sprayer Sales & Service SPcrFon MUELLER NEW MODEL "MW" The “MW" is one of the Lowest pouring Height Bulk tanks. Check with us all the added new features of the "MW" bulk tank. 300 gal iamesway 600 gal. Dari-Kool Phone 717-768-7111 300 Gal. Sunset DVA 2200 Sianzi
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers