M'LancMter Farming Saturday, May 17,1M6
Spruce Creek Meat Company
BY BETSY STITT
Blair Co. Correspondent
SPRUCE CREEK Five area
farmers have joined to market
their beef in an effort to eliminate
the “middle man.” The Spruce
Creek Meat Company was
organized to take meat directly
from the farm to the consumer.
Incorporated in 1985, the com
pany consists of five farmers from
Blair and Huntingdon Counties, a
meat scientist and four local
businessmen. The farmers are
Martin Farms of Blair County, and
Elwood Kyper, Mike Lang and
Herman and Paul Espy of Hun
tingdon County.
Espy, the organization’s board
president, said that the idea has
been in the development stage for
several years. Espy feels that the
concept enables them to avoid the
highs and lows of the beef market.
The organization has several
objectives in mind. The main goal
is to maintain a solid and efficient
business to provide consumers
with consistently high quality
meat. The company feels that, by
eliminating the middle man, it will
also be able to provide bargains for
consumers.
To maintain quality, controlled
conditions are the name of the
Shorthorn Breeders Hold Spring Sale
BY BARBARA RADER produced a sale average of $449 on
Butler Co. Correspondent 28 consignments.
MERCER - The recent Shor- Topping the sale was the last lot
thom-Polled Shorthorn Spring Sale to enter the show ring. Woodside
held at the Mercer 4-H Park Wachess Queen 3dz, consigned by
Mr. and Mrs. Bradley Eisiminger
The sale’s chairman was George
Hunter of Stoneboro, with Uoyd
_ Braham, Grove City, serving as
Woodside v'» <> * '8- J y w auctioneer and Mercer Extension
Eisiminger (at halter), was top seller at the Shorthorn Spring agent Bob Calvert reading
Sale. Buyer William B. Ziats paid $785.
Carcass Trai
By
Richard Barczewskl
University of Delaware
NEWARK, Del. - How good are
the hogs you finish? If you’re like
the average producer in the
country, you probably don’t know.
You might be able to tell me how
they grow and what their feed
efficiency is, but what about their
carcass traits?
Selecting breeding stock for
improvements in carcass traits
has become easier with /the
development of equipment capable
of measuring,backfat and loin eye
area without slaughtering the
animal.
We in the hog industry are
blessed with the ability to make
rapid changes in our livestock over
a relatively short period of time.
This is possible because gilts can
be bred at six to eight months of
age, and then-due to large num
bers of piglets in littery
superior individuals can be chosen;
Where the Feed , the Beef and the Customers Are All
game. All beef is fed a carefully
monitored amount of grain, and
extensive records are kept. “I can
tell you down to within 10 pounds
how much a steer ate,” com
mented Espy. All feed is locally
grown.
Espy also pointed out that all
meat is free of antibiotics and each
animal to be slaughtered is hand
picked.
Spruce Creek uses only Angus
and Angus crosses. “We are
sticking with Angus because many
people are convinced they are the
best beef buy for their money,”
Espy stated.
The beef is from quality, young
feeder steers between the ages of
18 and 24 months and is trimmed of
fat. “All hamburger is ground
from young steers, not old
animals; “why, it almost melts in
your mouth,” exclaimed Espy.
The meat sold at the market is
aged at least 10 days, or longer at
the customer’s request. Espy
explained that aging greatly im
proves the flavor of beef.
Spruce Creek Meat Company
also offers fresh and smoked pork,
lamb, veal, poultry, seafood, deli
meats and snack and party trays.
In addition to cutting meat to the
buyer’s specifications, Spruce
Creek also provides nutrition facts,
for breeding and replacements.
Selection for carcass traits is
difficult because all too often we
fail to measure carcass charac
teristics in our hogs. This is usually
because we don’t have a suitable
facility to do the measuring, or
because we commonly market our
hogs without ever seeing them on
the rail.
Yield and grade systems of
marketing give you some idea of
the type of hogs you’re selling. This
system takes into account the live
weight, dressed weight and grade
(an indication of fat cover and
muscling) in determining a price
for those hogs. Some processing
plants go as far as to measure the
percent lean cuts, loin eye area
and backfat for an even more
accurate determination of carcass
value.
You might be wondering why
I’ve jumped on this bandwagon.
Recently I had the opportunity to
view 45 hogs as they were
ts Important to Improvi
Paul Espy, president of the board of Spruce
steers ready for market
cooking tips and information on
where the meat comes from.
Presently located near Altoona
on Route 220, the company is
opening another store in State
College. Espy said that the store is
of Waynesburg, sold for $785. The
top bid came from William Ziats of
Castle Creek, New York, who
outlasted contending bidder, David
Whiting, of Edinsburg. Born Sept.
7, the calf was sired by S.P. Irish
JimSX.
The second highest seller was a
polled yearling bull consigned by
Frank McCracken of Monaca.
Helen Foulk, Mercer, paid $750 for
Irishman X, a May 1985 calf sired
by IDS Duke of Dublin.
Three other consignments were
bid to $6OO. They were owned by
Armstrong Farms, Saxonburg;
Tuscarora Farms, Neelyton; and
Woodside Farm.
Volume buyers were Clifford
McCartney, Greenville; Fred
Kozakovsky and Melvin Mc-
Clintock of Cooperstown; and the
John Whiting family of New
Wilmington.
The sale’s three bulls averaged
$567, while the 25 heifers averaged
$435.
pedigrees.
processed. Following the
slaughter, I took backfat
measurements and hot carcass
weights. On several of the hogs I
attempted to guess the backfat and
hot carcass weights prior to
slaughter. What were the results?
Sometimes I was close and some
other times I’d rather not talk
about. It takes an extremely
skilled eye to predict carcass traits
in a live hog. I’m not saying that
it’s impossible, but it is difficult.
Some of the best evaluators will
occasionally mess up an
evaluation, and 1 in no way want to
classify myself in their league.
People who are skilled at deter
mining how a hog will hang have
opportunity to look at thousands of
hogs on a regular basis.
Pork porducers tend to be too
removed from the processing plant
to be able to evaluate their animals
on visual characteristics alone. A
processor or butcher is in a better
position to do so. My father, who
doing even better than expected, slaughtered at Shaw Packing
the biggest problem being an- Company. In the future, the
ticipating sales 10 days ahead so company hopes to build a
that enough beef can be aged. slaughterhouse to literally bring
While Spruce Creek does do its the meat from the farm to the *
own butchering, the animals are consumer,
a
Beef Breeding Management
The single largest economic loss
to the beef cow-calf industry
nationally results from females
failing to become pregnant. Recent
studies indicate that 63 percent of
the total reproductive losses to the
cow-calf industry are the result of
not getting females bred. Certainly
there are many factors implicated
in why cows don’t conceive but the
largest contributing factor to these
losses is inadequate nutrition.
Nutritional management of the
breeding female is important prior
to and following calving. Low
levels of energy prior to calving
extends or lengthens the post
partum periods thus not letting
cows breed back in the early part
of the breeding season. Similarly
inadequate levels of energy after
calving will result in low first
service conception rates.
As we evaluate nutritional
requirements of the breeding
ng Swine Production
was a butcher by trade, used to tell
me that when he looked at a live
hog he saw it hanging on the rail.
Seeing lots of animals from lots of
different farms helps to develop
such skills.
How does a producer get
valuable carcass information? By
using carcass data f-om per
formance tests and from some of
the new technology that enables
live carcass examination. Some
measurements, such as backfat,
can be measured using a sterile
scalpel and a backfat probe.
Knowing the carcass traits of the
slaughter animals in your herd can
give you the base line for selecting
performance tested boars. A lot of
boar producers have carcass data
available, along with growth rates
and feed efficiencies for siblings of
the boars you may be looking to
buy. You need to know your own
herd’s performance in order to
select a boar that will improve
your herd.
Homegrown
Creek Meat Company, inspects some
■ i ■ » » «»i ■ I
Livestock Ledger
Chester D . Hughes
Extension Livestock Specialist
females and access to our natural
resources we quickly determine
that synchronizing our calving
season relative to available
forages not only meets the
nutritional requirements of the
cow but also allows optimization of
forages thus reducing costs.
Therefore, plan your breeding
and resulting calving season so
calves are approximately 45 to 60
days of age when pasture forages
become available.
And, while we’re talking cows,
the fly and external parasite
season is rapidly approaching.
Plan your defense now. There are
numerous commercial products
available at various costs. Make
certain that the products or
procedures you select are
providing effective control of flies
and are cost efficient. Consider
dust bags, sprays, feed additives,
oilers, backrubbers, and eartags.
Good luck.
Obviously, if your herd is
averaging 1.3 inches of backfat on
its finished hogs, a boar with 1.4
inches won’t help you at all. In
stead, choose a boar with 1.2 inches
or less.
How much improvement you
make will be based on the trait, its
heritability and how different the
selected boar is from your herd
average.
Never settle for an inferior boar.
He will cost you money in reduced
market price for your finished
hogs, reduced growth rate and feed
efficiency. Keep accurate records
on your finishers and select boars
that help you excel in the hog
business. Also avoid keeping
replacement females from any
sows that produce poor-doers or
high-backfathogs.
Carcass traits are the key to
revitalizing consumer interest in
pork. Keep abreast of the carcass
performance of your hogs and
make changes to better your
product.
By