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breeder of the year - 2022 BREEDER OF THE YEAR
breeder of the year - 2021
BREEDER OF THE YEAR
breeder of the year - 2020
BREEDER OF THE YEAR
breeder of the year - 2019
Learn a little more about the Breeder of the Year, Ottenwalter Showpigs!
Ottenwalter Show Pigs is located in Colusa, California about an hour north of Sacramento in the heart of rice country. We have 330 sows comprised of primarily crosses but also including Yorks, Chesterds, Durocs, Landraces, Spots, and Berks. We market over 2500 show pigs per year across the United States and have a staff of 11 employees.
Our goals are to be the very best we can be. That being said, our focus sometimes changes on a daily basis and based on the season. In the spring we are busy selling pigs and farrowing litters. Late spring and summer finds us helping kids get their projects ready for summer shows and we make an effort to attend many of the bigger shows here in California and nationally throughout the year. Fall finds us breeding and selling pigs in the southwest, and we are always busy farrowing during winter and prepping for nect year's sales.
2019 was a tremendous year for us and it was gratifying to get some big stuff done! It started out with us breeding the Grand and Reserve Overall at Denver, then in March, Madilyn Norvell's barrow bred by us was named Grand Overall at OYE, an honor that meant a lot to us and was very humbling. Over the summer we bred the Grand Champion Barrow at the Missouri State Fair, the Reserve Grand Champion Barrow at the California State Fair, the Reserve 4-H Barrow at the California State Fair, the Grand Champion Gilt at the California State Fair, the Champion Division 2 Barrow at the Indiana State Fair, and the Champion Market Gilt at the Nebraska State Fair. The fall brought Jack Goodwin's Grand Overall Barrow at Phoenix, Shelby Nissen's Grand Purebred Barrow at Phoenix, Brantley Platt's Champion Middlewight at NAILE, and the Champion Overall Purebred Barrow at NJSA Western Regional, in addition to the Champion and Reserve Cross Barrows and Champion Cross Gilt at Western Regional.
We like to think what separates us is the ridiculous amount of time we put into doing everything right. I spend hours planning matings and considering different options while trying to think outside of the box. Then we spend hours sorting our pigs in preparation for sales. We've been building our program for a long time and we try our best to continue to look to the future.
We place a lot of emphasis on linebreeding and building our herd from genetics that we are familiar with and that we know what they'll do. That being said, we look to our own stuff a majority of the time and outcrosses when we feel necessary.
Taking time to do it right. We may have 100 things going on on a Monday morning, but if I'm behind and we need to start breeding, I'll sit down in the office and pull sow cards and think about each sow and what she needs to be bred to. I refuse to breed sows on a whim, our pigs are always much better when we can plan as many matings as possible. They're also much better when we've seen the sires we are using and are familiar with what they can do. Every set we get fooled by a new boar, heck even our own boars fool us. We try to learn as much as we can about an animal before running his genetics through our sow herd and that's all we can do.
Listen and learn. We try our best to be good at those things. When we have the opportunity to travel we try to see as many boars as we can and learn as much as we can about them. Not only do we pay attention to the stock, but also to how other breeders market their pigs, how they set up their show barn, and anything else we can learn in our travels. This industry is so challenging and full of room for different ideas, opinions, and so many different approaches find success. You can always learn something from someone.
Disclaimer: Thepigplanet.com strives to bring you accurate, timely show results, sale highlights and event information. In order for this service to be available, we rely on a number of people and offices to assist with compiling information. While we intend to only publish the facts, in some rare cases there may be some inaccuracies. If this does occur, please notify us and we will correct the error upon proper notification. |
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