Seven years ago, Pedrett took three Ottenwalter boars to the Indiana State Fair and the Indiana Crossbred Classic, a venue he believes offers great value for good genetics. They sold those three boars that year for a combined $203,000 and that trip started the desire to produce and market boars in a much bigger way.
Pedrett says he’s learned that when he sees a good boar pig in a litter, he refers to the sow’s phenotype and past performance.
“We currently don’t keep a male unless we really like the sow,” he says. “My mentality is that if something does not have a possibility as a herd sire for us in our program then we just cut them to be barrows.”
Pedrett makes his first selection decisions when the pigs are 12-to-14-days-old, an age when castration causes less stress on the animal. Upon exiting the nursery stage, boar prospects are separated from their littermates, moved to the show barn, put into pens and fed in groups of three or four. Pedrett gives them a ration of 18 or 20-percent protein until they are about 100 pounds, then switches to a 16 or 14-percent protein feed to let them grow mellow. He says he wants boars to grow slowly and not be pushed like some show pigs. Over time Pedrett can sort the ones that should become barrows, and by the time they reach 120-140 pounds he will move a percentage out of the pen to be cut and sold.
Two-to-three months before the big show or sale day, Pedrett puts boars on "wet" feed with steamed rolled oats, beet pulp and a fat product. As show day nears, he adjusts the protein and supplement levels of their diets in an effort to increase appetite and bloom.
He also spends considerable time taking photos and video to market the Ottenwalter boars . He says phone or in-person conversations are also vital to help sell boars.
“It’s a full time job taking pictures and promoting our genetics just by itself,” he says. “If the weather is good I’ll also take photos of the sows that raised our boar entries before we load them in the farrowing crate so I can show them to prospective boar buyers. When we take our boars to Indiana it’s handy to have a photo of the mom to show to people. Before Indy, we put an ad on the Jumbotron on Showpig.com to help generate excitement and interest before our arrival.”
The Ottenwalter operation focuses on World Pork Expo as a market for boars as well. They farrow in November to produce the right-age boars for the big event and also farrow heavily in January to produce the Indiana State Fair sized boars. Many times he’ll feed 12 to 15 boars and as they grow he’ll cull to six or seven. And sometimes, he only has one that makes it as an entry.
“Over time, I’ve learned to not get too excited about something that looks great at a small size because so many things can happen,” he says. “We keep the best-looking boar pigs out of a litter but they also have to be from a sow we really believe in and want to perpetuate."
Pedrett says it’s easy to get excited about the genetics, particularly on the sow side because they contribute more to the overall quality of the litter. When it comes to keeping one boar pig over another he always refers back to sow lines he’s worked with and really knows the genetics rather than a sow he doesn’t know as much about.
"When you have 250 sows no matter how you slice it, some are better than others,” he says. “But we do select boars out of sows we're the most familiar with and confident in.”
When Pedrett selects boar pigs he also cares about their size and knows it’s hard to pick one that will make a great stud boar when they’re still little. Picking out boars at such a young age means Pedrett is right only about half the time. He also considers their frame when he puts them in pens together.
“At the end of the day and no matter how many boars we wind up with, we still don’t know what happens when we go to the sale,” Pedrett says. “How much they sell for depends on the number of people circled around your pen and their opinion, not yours, of the boar.”
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