There may be life off the ranch, but any Fremont County farmer or rancher will tell you – The #aglife is “the good life!” #Aglife is a County 10 series, brought to you by Wyoming Community Bank, that pulls the curtain back on farm and ranch life in Fremont County.
The game has changed from a couple of generations ago. The change from today’s show ring to that of the ring 4H and FFA members’ parents showed just a couple of decades ago is also vastly different.
“We have a daily regimen, washing and conditioning skin care excellence,” Joe Bridges said. “Feed is important.
Bridges is the owner of 307 Genetics from Powell. He raises and sells show pigs to youngsters in Montana, Idaho, South Dakota and Wyoming. He had five of his pigs in the show ring at the Fremont County Fairgrounds on Wednesday afternoon.
Bridges is a 1991 graduate of Rocky Mountain High School. He grew up on his parent’s farm in Deaver, just across the line in Park County, but attended school in Big Horn County as most Deaver kids do.
“I went to Big Horn County for school, but I came back to Park County,” Bridges joked.
Bridges worked for 22-and-a-half years for Simplot in Powell, retiring just a couple of weeks ago.
He has 4H and FFA students showing hogs he produced across the region.
“I have one girl who works her hogs every day for an hour to an hour-and-a-half,” Bridges said.
His operation on 38 acres near Powell has 12 sows that produce an average of seven piglets per litter.
“We put between 50 and 70 into the sale every year,” Bridges said.
To the casual observer, hogs, sheep, goats, and cattle don’t change much from year to year, but in the competition ring, animal size, shape, characteristics, and judging criteria evolve constantly.
In the 1970s and 80s, a hog weighing over 240 pounds was considered over-finished and was docked by the judge at the county fair. The ideal weight in those days was 225 pounds. Now, to be competitive, a hog must weigh over 260 pounds, and many top 300. In previous years, it was all about length, so more bacon could be processed; that has changed.
“They’re looking for wider hogs, a boxy style. We want them long on the front end, from the front shoulder forward,” Bridges said. “Trends in the show industry change all the time.”
Hogs used to be the easiest animal to show at the fair. A 4H or FFA member would pick out two or three good-looking weanlings and raise them to market weight, taking the best to the fair. That too, has changed.
Few people have the facilities to raise hogs year-round just to have their children show them at the county fair in late July or early August.
307 genetics features all cross hogs, sometimes called exotics.
In the fairs of yesterday there were classes for specific breeds such as Hampshires or Durocs, with a grand and reserve champion determined from the breed winners. Now, though it’s divided into divisions by showmen, the hogs all compete against each other.
Bridges hogs are a rainbow of colors, both solid and two-tone.
A hog can look like a black and white Hampshire, but it’s just random genes, since the sow it came from could be solid white.
“Color is everything under the sun,” Bridges said. “We have spotted, white, blue and calico.”
Some competitors prefer colors and patterns, and Bridges tries to oblige by breeding to produce those patterns, but it’s not always consistent.
He started 307 Genetics 21 years ago and soon expanded into selling high end feed.
“We’ve become a dealer for ADM, most people know them as Moorman’s Feed,” Bridges said. We sold feed for 15 years. The last 10 we were official dealers. The other nearest official dealer is in Torrington, with another one in Saratoga.
Joe is the current president of the Wyoming Pork Producers.
Wyoming produces a surprising number of hogs each year.
“We produce well over a million hogs each year,” Bridges said. “Most of those are in the Southeast corner of the state.”
Two sisters were in the show ring with hogs farrowed by 307 Genetics on Wednesday, Morgan and Halie Adams.
Hogs grow fast; as an example, Halie’s hog, born around the first of the year, weighed 267 pounds when she registered for the fair.
Skin, condition, weight, complexion, muscle density, length, and width, there is a lot more to showing hogs at the fair than in previous generations, and good genetics will always help.