This Boar Sires Champions, According To Strauss Brothers
(Contfniwd (ram Pag* A 1)
said Rick. "It just doesn’t work.
_ You have to have a boar that’s
The brothers brought the boar heavily muscled and lean."
home, and immediatetybegan to improvements have been quick
see the impact on the herd. The and sure, resulting in pigs that are
brothers, who finish and sell about more consistent in leanness and
150 pigs a year using 10-12 sows, muscling than what the brothers
began to mate him with their best had before. They pick selected
gilts, usually Hampshire/Yorks or gilts from the better litters and use
Duroc/York crosses. They use the them in the herd. According to the
Duroc crosses because they grow brothers, the pigs they sell at the
the fastest and are most efficient, market, mostly New Holland, have
according to Rick. Yorks are used been fetching a good price,
for their maternal and strong wean- gome bf the gilts have been
ing ability, and provide a lot of saved, and the brothers have used
heterosis, or hybrid vigor. After AI to breed them, but haven’t been
obtaining the boar, pigs born alive pleased with the results. They
increased to about 12, and litter intend to continue to use the boar
size stabilized at about 10. for at least another two years.
Rick said that consumers are As to why the brothers don’t
demanding leanness from boar breeding as a separate
hogs, and getting it At this year’s business, Rick said that because of
KILE, the barrow champion car- nature of ,h e hog market
cms weighted in at 219 pounds around here (too many contract
with .6 backfat, a 7.7 square inches operations), breeders couldn’t
of lomeye, and 58.81 percent lean survive,
on rail. The third overall barrow, ••That’s what’s hurting the
also sued by their boar, weighed purebred industry in Pennsylvani
-241 pounds and had .7 backfat. a." he said
with a 7.4 loineye and measured As for their champion boar,
56.72 percent lean on tail. they’ve obtained about 50 litters
In 1992. according to Rick, the f rom him so far, and expect
reserve crossbred on tail weighed another SO.
246 pounds with .7 backfat, a 7.4 “When you spend that kind of
lomeye, and 60.54 percent lean, money, you hope maybe you can
The goal of the Strauss farm is to w fo (KILE) one time to pay for the
raise hogs for showing and selling boar," said Rick. “There’s a lot of
some of their top animals to 4-H competition up there, there’s a lot
members. They raise the rest for 0 f other good hogs.”
their finish operation, and also sell Ri C k said that beginning this
individual hogs for butchering, year, they’re going to twice a year
(Recently, they butchered a bar- farrowing, once in April and then
row from their first inbred litter, in September-October. The April
which measured over a 9-inch pigs will be used for local fairs and
loineye.) . the better barrows for KILE. The
To do this, selecting the right ones in the fall will be finished,
crossbred sow and mating it to the Ri c k said he learns a lot about
prize boar is key. breeding stock by reading a lot of
“You can’t take an average- r magazines, but mostly by attend
muscled boar and use him on an fog KILE,
average-muscled sow and get a pig “If you see what the pigs look
that’s really heavy muscled and like on foot, and then you see them
lean for what the packer wants," on rail, and you see a lot of pigs
HFSREPUCMGSOYBEUHEUUDCOfiN
TO imOVE HIS PROfTT... SHOULD YOU?
This dairyman just took a delivery of brewers wet grain from the Miracle Feeds divi
sion of Furst-McNess. When he put a sharp pencil to it, he found that each ton of
Miracle brewers wet grains could replace 230 pounds of 48 percent soybean meal
(0 $250/ton) and 195 pounds of shelled com (0 $9O/ton) making brewers wet grain
worth over $35.00/ton in his ration. With the average price of brewers wet grains
running at approximately $25.00-$27.00/ton (depending on distance from foe brew
ery) this dairyman has realized that brewers wet grains is an excellent buy versus
soybean meal and shelled com.
And, foe dairyman found Miracle brewers wet grain also enhanced his cows' pro
duction since it is an excellent source of bypass protein and helps make up for some
poor quality forage he is forced to feed this year. It also improved foe palatability of
his total ration. Brewers wet grains also contains 9% fat making it an excellent source
for this important nutrient.
Say you're already feeding brewers grains? Maybe you should consider switching to
Miracle, where you can get free computerized ration balancing plus forage testing to
get foe most out of your feeding program. Just call toll-free 800-888-0230.
MIRACLE FEEDS, INC
W Batavia, NY 14020
Stive, left, and Rick Strauat finish about ISO hogs a ysar, but also rails many show
hogs on thsir farm. Photo by Andy Andrmn
like that over a period of time, you
have a lot better idea of what you
have," be said.
Rick said by raising your own
hogs, you learn a lot more. The
ASA Pleased With Approval Of Ink Act
ST. LOUIS, Mb. —The Ameri
can Soybean Association (ASA)
is pleased die Senate passed the
Vegetable Ink Printing Act of
1993 by unanimous consent, and
is hopeful the House of Represen
tatives will act on the legislation
next year.
“U.S. soybean farmers have
worked many months for this vic
tory in the Senate,” said ASA
president and South Dakota soy
bean farmer Larry Diedrich. “We
appreciate the leadership of Sena-
brothers have been showing pigs
since 1974. "Anybody that’s been
around pigs for 20 years, raising
your own pigs, you should have
learned something," he said.
tots Christopher Bond (R-MO)
and Paul Wellstonc (D-MN) who
served as original co-sponsors of
this legislation and helped to get it
passed so swiftly in die Senate.”
The bill requires federal gov
ernment agencies and their con
tractors to use the maximum
amount of vegetable oil ink that is
technologically feasible, provided
printing costs are cost-competitive
with printing using petroleum
based inks. Lawmakers consulted
with ASA to determine minimum
percentages of vegetable oil
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"That’s the show where you
learn something." said Mrs.
Strauss. “Anybody who wants to
learn about hogs, that’s the place to
__ it
go-
required for use in various print
ing applications.
"We are pleased Senators have
recognized the value of soy ink,
and look forward to similar action
by the House of Representatives
after Congress returns in Janu
ary,” Diedrich said. “Soy ink is
easier on the environment and has
several advantages over
petroleum-based inks in the print
ing process. And expanding soyoil
use helps improve soybean pro
ducer profits.”