—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 20,1979
36
Penn National results
(Continued from Page 30)
Amateur Owner Jumpers,
Fault And Out,
Time Limit
1. K E M Farm, Westport,
CT; 2. River Ridge,
'Harrisburg, PA; 3. John
Holmes, Lagrangeville, NY.
Open Flve-Galted
Saddle Hone
1. Jack Pepe, Canfield, Ohio;
2. Judd Stables, Gibsonia; 3.
Symbol Acres Farm.
Hackney Pony Open
1. Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth
Wheeler; 2. R F Hough; 3.
Susan Saltonstall, Dover,
Ma.
|SM.M Championship
Junior Walking Horse
Champion Bob Parks
Realty; Reserve Champion
Muriel Lee.
Flve-Galted
Three-year-old Classic
1. Mr. and Mrs. Alan Rob
son; 2. Lakeview Farms; 3.
Mrs. Judy Kingsford,
Lambertville, N.J.
Open Three-Gaited
Saddle Horses
Mr. and Mrs. Alan Robson;
2. Lakeview Farm; 3. Jim
Robertson, Lexington, Ky.
Harness Pony Open
1. Mr. and Mrs. Alan Rob
son; 2. Leonard Cheshire,
Arlington, Va.; 3. Edgar
Spencer, Hartford, Ct.
Open Fine Harness
1. Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth
Wheeler; 2. Symbol Acre
Farm; 3. Mrs. William
Goldberg, Piscataway, N. J.
Green Conformation
Hunter
1. Betty F. McGuire, Mid
dleburg, Va.; 2. John Danza,
Manhasset, N.Y. 3. Alison
Wallace.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18
Amateur Owner
Working Hunters
1. Mrs. Sylvester Johnson; 2.
Susan Sawyer, Mt Pocono,
Pa.;3.KEMFarm.
First Year Green
Working Hunter
BREAKING MUX RECORDS!
Lancaster Farming Carries 7
DHIA Reports Each Month!
1. Mrs. Roger Young; 2.
Jane Clark; 3. All Seasons
Farm, Cincinatti, Ohio.
Green Working Hunter
Grand Championship
Champion Lisa Pemba ur,
Cincinatti, Ohio; Reserve
Champion Edwin Andrews,
Darien, Ct.
Regular Open
Working Hunters
1. Mr. August Busch, Jr., St
Louis, Mo.; 2. W Taylor
Cook, Sparks, Md.; 3.
Jennifer A. Bergh, Plam
ville, Ma.
Amateur Owner
Working Hunter
1. Pamela Brewster,
Stonington, Ct.; 2. Julie
Evans, Warrenton, Va.; 3,
Judy Lee, Keswick, Va.
Ladies’ Three-Gaited
Saddle Horses
1. Symbol Acre Farm; 2.
Misty Hills, Loudon vdle,
N.Y.; 3. Paul Deblois,
Verona, N. J.
Walking Horses Mares
1. Munel Lee; 3. Harold J.
Rose.
ESHBA American Sad
dlebred
Three-Gaited
Horse
Pleasure
1. Mrs. Alan Robson; 2.
Debby Huber, Columbia, Pa.
3. Dr. and Mrs. Robert
Hummer, Jamesville, N.Y.
Three-year-old
Walking Horse
1. Helen George,
Holidaysburg, Pa.; 2. Mr.
and Mrs. Artie Myer,
Winfield, Pa.; 3. Bob Parks
Realty.
Single Pony Roadster
Amateur
ICG Sweigert; 2. Carl
Swedburr, North Swedel,
Pa; 3. Dr. and Mrs. Robert
Hummer.
Walking Horse
Stallions or Geldings
1. Ida Valley Stables; 2.
Howard Hubbard, Elk Ridge
Md. 3. Robert Pumphrey.
By JERRY WEBB
NEWARK, Del. - Hog
farming has changed
dramatically since the good
old days when every farmer
had an old sow and a few
pigs wallowing belly-deep in
mud behind the bam. How
much it has changed is
exemplified by Don Tyson,
of Springdale, Arkansas. He
heads up an operation called
Tyson Foods, Inc., that deals
in 25,000 sows and a half a
million pigs every year.
He’s the nation’s largest
hog fanner and he’s making
a pattern that may go in
dustrywide before too many
years go by.
A story in a recent issue of
Successful Farming details
the Tyson operation and how
this man has whipped some
of the management
problems that has tended to
keep hog farmers from going
really big tune. The Tyson
company, whose primary
business is poultry
production, is handling its
hog business much the way
the nation’s big broiler
companies handle their
chickens. Tyson owns the
pigs and the feed and parcels
them out to farmers who
provide the day-to-day
management and the
facilities. It’s the integrated
broiler business re-mvented.
Tyson started m the hog
business in thedate 1960’s
with a few hundred sows
used primarily to dean up
leftover feed from its poultry
business. By 1970, it was up
to 350 sows and in 1975 to
4000. The current 25,000 sow
operation is by no means the
ultimate goal.
Relying heavily on what
they already knew about the
integrated broiler business,
Hog farming undergoes
dramatic change
the Tyson management
experts set up a program
based on 500 sow production
units. These produce the
feeder pigs that at seven
weeks of age are distributed
to farmers for finishing. The
sow farrowing and breeding
units are owned by the
parent company but are
scattered around Arkansas
and Missouri.
While skeptics continue to
say that hogs won’t go the
way of broilers, Tyson
Foods, Inc., is moving ahead
rapidly with its plans. It
seems to have hcked the one
management problem that
has been a source of trouble
to many large producers
the question that has long
been asked, “Who will set up
with the corporate sow’”
seems to have been an
swered. Well paid animal
science majors are recruited
from ag colleges around the
country. These young men
and women, who get good
starting salaries, bonuses,
and other fringe benefits,
seem more than willing to
provide top management to
company-owned farrowing
units. And the farmers who
work under a contract
provide the care and at
tention needed for the fat
tening hogs.
Expert observers think the
hog business is too cyclical
for vertical integration
that the price and cost
swings are too great and too
long for survival. Granted,
Tyson Foods got m on the
upswing in the hog business
and hasn’t faced the really
hard tunes that are just
around the comer. And with
good management and
control over many of the
inputs of hog production,
perhaps their losses will be
no greater per sow than any
other farmer-owned
operation. If the company
survives, think what impact
it will have on the next up
swing.
Marketing economists see
a lot of similarities m the
way the broiler business
gradually converted to a few
large companies controlling
the industry and what seems
to be happening m the hog
business. Today, no more
than 20 companies produce
more than half of the
nation’s broilers while hog
production still rests
squarely in the hands of
commercial farmers. But
those farmer operations are
getting larger and they note
that agribusiness firms
already account for about
ten percent of the large
volume hog units and the
trend seems to be growing.
In 1964 operations
marketing a thousand or
more hogs a year accounted
for just seven percent of
total sales. But by 1977 they
held a third of the market
and the Department of
Agriculture thinks that
farms selling a thousand
head or more will account
for 40 percent of all sale* this
year.
Like it or not integrated
hog production may not be
far away, with a few major
compames owning the pigs,
blending the feed, and
providing both to contract
growers. Finished hogs
would then be returned to
company packing houses
where they would be
slaughtered and packaged in
brand name containers for
distribution through major
retail outlets.
It’s an old formula, one
that sounds very familiar to
Delmarva broiler growers.
Some of them can remember
when they had a few
chickens scratching around
in the front yard and one was
occasionally caught and its
head chopped off to be
served for Sunday dinner.
And the old sow and a few
pigs out back in the mudhole
provided meat for the wmter
and lard for cooking.
Those kmds of small farm
operations still exist but they
don’t have much impact on
agriculture. But don’t be too
surprised if large hog
operations patterned after
Tyson Foods, Inc., become
more prevalent in the years
ahead. And if they do, you
can expect contract hog
production just like the
broiler production we
already know about.