In this blog and the last, we’re talking about two key components that will create a good foundation for training your hogs for showmanship. These critical points will determine how quickly you progress with training your show pigs. They’ll drastically increase your success through training and accomplishing your goals. The first critical point is separating your hogs. The second is hand feeding. In this blog we will talk about the second one and why it is so important.

Critical Point Two: 

Now that you’ve decided to separate your hogs, you need to feed them twice a day instead of letting them self-feed. If you skip this, you’re handicapping your own progress. Even though this system is used and proven specifically for feeding market hogs, it’s also going to deeply affect showmanship. This is one of the most important ways you can observe your hogs. When you feed your pig what he needs twice a day, instead of pouring a week’s ration in front of him, you’re gaining incredible observation opportunities. If you want to raise a healthy hog for the show ring, you need to observe him twice a day. You need to be able to calculate exactly what he’s eating. This makes hand feeding very important.

Although the above is certainly true, self-feeding is still what many showmen do. It’s an option for non-competitive showmen. You need to hand feed in order to get to know your pigs or interested in feeding them properly for the market classes. It’s impossible to gauge a pig’s feed, see if he’s off feed or properly raise a show pig using a self-feeder. Self-feeding is not an option for showmen wanting to be competitive. 

You can build your entire training foundation once these two points, from this blog post and the last, have been established. This is not just a tip you can pick and choose on. It is a key for success in the show ring. This information is also critical for sheep, market goats, dairy goats, and show cattle. You really need to feed well to do well. This section comes from my book Show Your Way to the Top. You can get the book or my flashcard series at mastershowmanship.com/shop