Lancaster farming. (Lancaster, Pa., etc.) 1955-current, August 08, 1981, Image 36
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.