A36—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, August 8,1981
Beam’s hogs ‘fight’ way to Berks championship
BY DICK ANGLESTEIN
IJSESPORT Nelson Beam’s
entries literally took on all comers
at the Berks County FFA Market
Hog Show on Wednesday
And in more ways than one
First of all, the 18-year-old Twin
Valley graduate’s entries took both
the grand and reserve cham
pionships among the 94 hogs in the
show
Also, when they were m the ring
at the Leesport Auction, extra
personnel were kept busy with the
boards, whips and canes
separating them from other hogs
When judge Rod Gilbert,
livestock superintendent at
Delaware Valley College, picked
Beam’s 225-pound Duroc-X as the
grand champion, he made mention
that “it wasn’t just because it’s a
good fighter ”
“It’s the kind of market hog that
we’re looking for today and will
hang up well on the rail,” he ex
plained
But each time the red hog nipped
an ear and another squeal erupted,
it caught the attention of everyone
at ringside
The reserve grand champion,
also shown by Beam, who is in his
first year in animal production
studies at the Berks Campus of
Penn State, was a purebred
Yorkshire
At the evening sale, both the two
top entries were bought by Hatfield
Packing Beam ended up with
$1602 00 to put toward his studies
The grand champion brought
$4 30 a pound and the reserve $2 70
a pound The grand came out of the
225-pound class and the reserve out
of the 235-pound category
In all, the 94 head tipped the
scales at 19,913 pounds and brought
the youthful exhibitors a total of
$11,890.91. Average price including
the champ was 60 cents a pound
It was a repeat performance for
Beam at the countywide show,
which also had entries from
Northern Lebanon and Blue
Mountain high schools He took
the grand championship last year
when he showed for the first time
He is the son of Omar and Ruth
Beam, of R 2 Elverson
Actually, the battles his hogs
were staging in the ring were with
entries of a neighbor. The com
peting hogs had been penned side
by-side the night before the show
Four-year-old Jason Wisser was the most "future" of the par
ticipants in the Berks County FFA Market Hog Show on Wed
nesday.
He was in the ring several times with cane in hand, including the
super heavyweight class, in which the hogs outweighed him by
more than five times. But he stuck right in there despite being
Now, let's see, which one o' these is
mine?
Beam explained he did
something a bit different this \ car
“I,ast year, I had to hold the hogs
back.” he explained
"But this year, I had younger
ones and really pushed them
toward the end And about a week
before the show, I started walking
them ”
Beam also took the runnerup
spot in senior showmanship and
third in the fitting
The senior showmanship
champion was Scott Stoltzfus. of
Twin Valley, and the fitting champ
was Marjorie Faust
In the junior category. Rod
Stoltzfus, also of Twin Valley, won
the fitting and Charles Seidel, of
Hamburg took the ]umor
showmanship
Class placmgs in the show in
clude-
1 Rod Stoltzfus Twin Valley 2 Troy Adam
Kutztown 3 Mark Rohrbach Hamburg 4 Pauline
Noss Conrad Weiscr 5 Bruce Light Northern
Lebanon
1 Charles Seidel Hamburg 2 Rod Stoltzfus
Twin Valley 3 Troy Adam Kutztown 4 Bruce
Light Northern Lebanon 5 Pauline Noss Conrad
Weiser
1 Scott Stoltzfus Twin Valley 2 Nelson Beam
Twin Valley 3 Marjorie Faust Kutztown 4 Diane
Stoltzfus Twin Valley 5 Alan Rohrbach Ham
burg
k t&ach \
Senior champions include Marjorie Faust, of Kutztown, in
fitting contest and Scott Stoltzfus, of Twin Valley, in showing.
It’s not easy being a little guy in a big ring with big pigs
Junior Fitting
Junior Showing
Senior Fitting
(Turn to Page A37j
■OkWMr 9
to
** *
If you can dot ite*- «ou get in here - po st° W She S h,dmg behind the
A double-barrled winner, Nelson Beam, of Duroc-X grand champ came out of the 225-
Twin Valley, is shown with both the grand pound class and the Yorkshire reserve was
champion and the reserve grand champion of from the 230-pound class. Beam was also last
the Berks County FFA Market Hog Show. The year’s top winner.
dwarfed by the other exhibitors and just about being able to look
out over the backs of some of the hogs.
With this head start, Jason, son of Mr. and Mrs. Larry Wlsser, of
.New Tripoli, is sure to be a top showman and exhibitor when he
reaches FFA age.
The suggested captions are just our version of what might have
been going through his youthful mind during the show.
” 7 K? ,»
I ' -
* * V X
Junior champions include Rod Stoltzfus, left, of Twin
Valley, in fitting competition and Charles Seidel, of Hamburg,
in showmanship.
C'mon do your stuff. Here comes da
judge.