Bo-- I lurve piggy pics!!!
Those are all boars... breeders, uncut. Legally you can only show gilts or barrows. Gilt's are females who have never Farrowed, or had a litter, Barrows are neutered males. Females that have had litters are called sows.But pretty much.. you can make any pig look SOMEWHAT like that.
Price point equals quaity.. as with all things..
With pigs... it's mostly genetics.. but it's also the feed..for the smaller shows.. we pay around $250 for a pig, because the auction money isn't that good, and theirs alot less competition. For the state fair coming up, we paid around $500 for a pig, and the auction money is pretty good. For example, my son was number 39 in an auction of 40 pigs.. he got $3200. With auctions, if your not grand or reserve champ.. you wanna go in directly after.. or towards the end. The middle is suckage. The buyers are enthustiastic in the beginning, lackluster in the middle, and by the end they have been plied with so much free beer by the livestock committee, they get stupid with their money.
I just paid a deposit on a Houston pig... that pig will run us around $1000, but the payout is DRAMATICALLY different..but here's the catch.. there's 40 places in Houston... first place is GUARANTEED $55,000... yes... FIFTY FIVE THOUSAND!!!..so you can imagine what the other places can get ya auction wise. We call that the big show.The catch? 40 places..500 pigs competing, if not more. It's a terminal show.. meaning the pigs don't leave the grounds except on a meat truck once they are there. So you walk down this long aisle to the judge.. he watches you...the aisle tee's off in 2 directions. You either get pointed to the show ring to compete and possibly get culled there, or win. Or you get pointed straight to the meat truck, and you get market price. A friend of ours paid $900 for her pig. It went straight on the meat truck. She got $72.48 for Big Tuna...suckage.
Squishy pigs (we call those feeder pigs) are fed slop, or just feed feed..show pigs get fed feed with special meds, proteins, or fats.. and their are so many different feeds formulated for the type of body your pig has. For instance, Christian's last pig needed more cover (the shoulder meat) so he got 256 Moormons feed which is a high fat sow feed, mixed with 18%, which has a high protein, and a shot glass of veggie oil per feeding, and an egg each feeding. So he got 256 for bulk, 18% to make the bulk firm, veggie oil is used as *liquid fat* and the egg is for a shiney coat and supple hide.
Here is somethin that will BLOW your mind..3 days before a show, you pull them back.. ration the water, ration the feed..and you can seriously make a pig lose as much as 30lbs OVERNIGHT. Like body builders, makes their muscle pop, then we baby oil them down.....
They also lose alot of weight in transit.. we rolled into the state fair with a pig that was 10lbs over limit.. we drove to Winnie and back 15 miles each way.. so 30 miles..
When we got back in line and reweighed.. the pig was 8lbs under the limit..so he was 285 when we got there, and he came in at 267.8..
Wish I could drive around.. poop and pee and lose that kinda weight..