War Wagon x Warfare x Split Decision
Stress Negative
Purchased by Genetic Edge

We would like to thank the Tom Moyer Family/Genetic Edge Boar Stud for their private treaty purchase of Battle Field and their confidence in this War Wagon son being a part of their program.

He is a War Wagon x Warfare x Split Decision and we knew from Day 1 that he was special! His Mother is the best gilt we’ve started since War Wagon’s mom. He’s absolutely huge bodied and stout boned. Extra wide with a ton of muscle, but square in his build and soft about his shape. With all this stoutness, he still balances great and almost walks uphill he’s so uniquely tall fronted. As a huge bonus, he’s stress negative which we would’ve never dreamed with this much power.

He is what we envisioned War Wagon producing and are so excited about his future impact!!

So we check the weather around here constantly. Kelton has an app on his phone to tell him what the temp is outside and I am not sure how it still works because he checks it literally every 30 minutes if we are not here at home. Our days (and nights) revolve around adjusting temperatures in our nursery, chip barn, and farrowing house. With that said, when I saw all of the snow pictures from the Panhandle posted on Facebook this morning, I thought it was the perfect time to post a few things that will be sure to help you keep your pigs warm and comfortable during this cold front that is coming in today. Now luckyly for us here is southwest Texas we will not see snow (thank goodness!!!) but it will be down in the low 40s I think, so that is definitely when you have to have your environment warm for your pigs.

- Hang a heat lamp (and not from the ceiling). The most obvious way to help keep your pigs warm is to hang a heat lamp in their pen (maybe even two lamps if you can). However, many times we see that the purpose of the heat lamp has been defeated because of the height that it was hung. It needs to be hung to where when the pig is standing up it is 12-18 inches above their back. At that height they are able to feel the heat from the lamp but it is high enough where they can’t get to it. The most important thing when hanging a heat lamp is to MAKE SURE that it and its cord are secured with a piece of wire, a zip tie, string, anything that will prevent it from falling into the shavings and starting a fire. THAT IS IMPERATIVE!!!!

- Block any wind or draft. We really believe that making sure that there is no wind or cold air draft is just as important if not more important than what the actual air temperature is. We have bought out our local hardware store of the spray foam “good stuff” to fill in any cracks or holes in our barns. Be sure to block as much wind/draft as possible or build a space in their pen where they can lay down where the wind is blocked. You can get a lot done with blue tarps and plywood!

-Build a hut. If you have an open barn/pen but have the ability to build a little “hut” with a low roof on one end where it can have complete solid sides with a small door/opening for them to go in and out of, that will keep them really warm. We did this in our barn in Seguin and it worked great for keeping babies warm in a barn that wasn’t heated.

- Put out straw. Pigs can stay a lot warmer in cold weather if you bust some straw in their pens and they can bury themselves in it. You might go out tomorrow morning and see nothing but little ears sticking up out of the straw, but they will be warm and happy! Just BE SURE that if your pig builds a bed underneath the heat lamp that there isn’t anyway the heat lamp and straw can touch.

These are just a few small things that we suggest to help keep your pigs warm. We like to try and keep the babies here at 75-80 degrees. Obviously, as pigs get bigger they can handle colder temperatures better but we can’t stress how important it is to keep them as warm as possible. They will eat better, convert better and look better when they are comfortable!

Wow- I can’t believe it has been so long since we have had the chance to blog! We have had an EXTREMELY exciting last few weeks and wanted to get you guys caught up on everything!!

BREEDER’S BEST PIG SALE:
This was our first year to consign to this sale and we could not be happier with how our pigs sold! Stu and his crew put on a truly world class event and that was reflected by how well the pigs sold! I can’t remember the exact number of head sold or what they averaged but anyone that was there sitting in the seats can testify that it might have been as strong of a sale to date there at Bullard. It was a exceptionally deep set of pigs and a great time as always! Our four pigs sold for an average of $3,200 with the 15 litter War Wagon barrow being our high seller at $4,500! Thanks SO MUCH to everyone who purchased, bid on, and showed interest in our set- we greatly appreciate it. Another highlight for us was the $6,500 War Wagon sired gilt that Daniel Schley sold! Thanks Dan for believing in War Wagon!!

Dallas State Fair
Mason Livestock and Team Lindner had an incredible showing at Dallas! We bred the Reserve Hamp Barrow, which was a Warfare 15-1 x Superman, congrats to Cierra Dickerson and family! We also had quite a few others in the heat of things, including several barrows in the top end of the Heavy Weight cross class. Congrats to Bailey Elkins for showing the second place barrow in this class, her barrow “Puddin” was a Warfare x 38 Special (Olsen bred sow, littermate to Perfect Storm at Shipley’s). Cierra and Bailey’s barrows got us our first Texas Bred caps for the season, thanks to them for doing such a great job!! We also wanted to give a shout out to Lindsey Jones for winning her division of showmanship at the State Fair Gilt Show the week before!! Great job Lindsey!! Be sure to check out the Team Lindner ad in the next issue of DRIVE to see all of the winning pictures from State Fair!

Camp registration posted on line!
We are gearing up for our Winter Show Pig camps and now have the registration form posted on our website! Be sure and sign up quickly because we have been bombarded with calls, so don’t loose your spot! We have several new things planned for these camps and we are excited to work with new and returning campers!!

Well that is all for now!! The Houston set is coming on strong and hopefully we will have pictures soon to share with you!

Happy pig shopping!!

We know it has been a while since we blogged last, but we can’t explain how busy and hectic it has been around here; however, we wouldn’t want it any other way!! We absolutely could not be more excited about the War Wagon babies that we have on the ground now and especially those that we have seen at other breeders’ farms! The first three War Wagon pigs to be auctioned off averaged $3,275! We are just elated at how the pigs look and anticipate that this is just the beginning of what we will see from his offspring in the 2011-2012 show season! They have been easy and fun to sell, but above all, they look like pigs that will feed!

We have included several pictures of pigs sired by War Wagon, some we raised and others are pictures that have been sent to us by breeders that wanted to share their excitement in what they had as well! We hope people will keep sending pics. We will keep posting pics on the website as we have time of pigs around here. There are several other pigs sired by War Wagon pictured on our For Sale page now, including the $3,775 gilt that sold online last week.

We will be consigning four War Wagon pigs to the Breeder’s Best Pig Sale this weekend in Bullard and those are pictured below. The 15 litter is War Wagon x Super Special and the 18 litter is War Wagon x Big Stick. These two barrows and two gilts are definitely some of the best we have produced and we are excited to offer them. We always look forward to the Breeders Best weekend, but even more this year. Hope to see you there!

18-7 (War Wagon X Big Stick)

18-1 Barrow rearview

18-1 barrow (War Wagon X Big Stick)

15-3 barrow (War Wagon X Super Special)

15-3 barrow (War Wagon x Super Special)

15-7 gilt (War Wagon x Super Special)

Barrow sired by War Wagon, bred by Gary Williams

War Wagon gilt, raised by William Geter

Well the time is here! Many of you may already have bought pigs and have them home but for those of you that still have a little bit of time we think it is really important to thoroughly clean your barn, pig pens and all supplies before you bring your first little shoat home!

Your barn: at the Texas Pork Producers Association meetings this year Dr. Sterle really emphasized how important it is to clean all surfaces in your barns….not just the floors but the walls, ceilings, everything. So I know that sounds like a tall order but if it is something that is possible at your barn, we think powerwashing as many surfaces as possible is best. If you don’t have a powerwasher you can rent them at stores like Home Depot or at least washing everything down with a regular hose is better than nothing. We recommend removing as much dirt, shavings, cob webs, etc before washing, then once it is really clean appearing it is great to go back and sanitize everything. You can use Novasan, Synergize, or even just regular household bleach. However be sure to let your pens dry COMPLETELY before putting pigs in them.

If you have concrete pens:
Basically you can just follow the same cleaning, washing, and sanitizing methods we talked about before.

If you have dirt pens:
We like to clean out the dirt before each new season of pigs. Usually about 3-6 inches deep is a good rule of thumb. Since you can’t sanitize organic matter like dirt, using Ag lime is a great alternative. After you clean all of the old dirt out, put a layer of ag lime, a layer of new, fresh, clean dirt, then more ag lime and till it in. Then finish filling in with the rest of the new clean dirt.

Don’t forget your supplies! Make SURE to clean ALL feeders, waters, brushes, spray bottles, every item that you used last season, especially anything that you took to a show. You don’t want to infect one of your baby pigs with something you picked up at one of the major shows last spring or a jackpot this summer. Diseases/viruses can live on surfaces for months to even years if the conditions are right.

Some of you probably already do most of these things and for some it may sound like overkill, but we can’t stress enough how important we think it is to follow some type of cleaning and disinfectant regime between seasons.

Hope everyone is enjoying this cooler weather and we look forward to seeing you during the fall pig season!

The newest way we have for you to keep up-to-date with us is through mobile updates (basically we send you a text message when we have something new to share)!! Text the word masonlivestock (no spaces) to 772937 (you put this number in the “To” field where you would normally put someones name or phone number) and you will receive text messages from us periodically about our upcoming show pig camps, specials we are having on semen sales, and pigs that we currently have for sale. We promise that we aren’t going to bombard you with tons of these…only when we have something really new to share with you!

For example, we are going to start a new deal this fall where we feature our “New Releases” on the For Sale page on our website – which means we will be posting litters each week as they are available for sale with pig pictures from those litters included. So when we have “New Releases” we will send you a text message letting you know to check them out!!

This is just one example of how we will use mobile updates (i.e. text messages) to keep you in the loop!! I am sure that there are parents wondering if they will see something show up on their next month’s phone bill if their kids sign up and the answer is No! Any message that we send you is absolutely free to you!! If you reply to one of our messages then it will be treated like any normal text message that you would send to someone.

So be sure to text in today!!!

The Crossbred Classic has been established now as THE Crossbred breeding stock event of the swine industry and after participating this year, I can see why. The staff does a phenomenal job putting the show and sale together and breeders across the country brought some really nice crossbred boars and gilts. It was a very humbling experience to line up the boars and be asked my opinion of potentially some of the most influential genetics in the show pig industry, especially with the droves of spectators and some (if not most) of the industry’s most prevalent and well respected breeders sitting ring side. It was a fun day and a lot of very good boars and sires that offered many pieces came through the ring. At the final decision, I ended up using a boar bred by Stohlquist Showpigs as Grand Champion. He is sired by Power to Change on Toxic 28-3 sow. I thought he was a great boar that offered as much genuine width,stoutness and muscle as any boar there without compromising structurally correctness. To me, this boar had a perfect shape to his rib and center body and was as balanced as you could make one, sound and complete, but still “out there” enough to be a great sire. Hi Point Genetics ended up buying the boar and we have already booked semen for this week if that tells you how much I liked this one. Reserve Grand Champion was also the Junior Division Champion. This extremely rugged boar was sired by Big Stick and is mother was a Black Attack. Now this one is huge boned and stout featured, really square designed and had great angles to his joints. A Cut Above Boar Stud purchased him and I think he could make some really nice barrows this next season. He twisted at the ground just a bit and is why he got beat, but he could definitely have an impact. Listed below are some of the other highlights and just quick notes as far as how I saw them. It was a very deep set of boars and what is so cool is there will be several that are heard from that didnt necessarily win or are mentioned here, because breeders know how to use their peices and make the next great generation.

**Reserve Senior-Ottenwalter Showpigs, Big Step x Alias…Great body, square rear leg set, super comfortable and soft ribbed, perfect length of body and bone. Not as powerful as some but enough.
**Reserve Junior-Eddie Robinson, Far N Away x Alias Sixty-Two…Awesome balance and design, very sound and square, great maturity pattern and rib. Not a big boned.
**1st Class 13-Taulman, Ringleader x Epic…Great Chest and level design. Good muscle shape, sound and a little more extension, but plenty of mass. Not as big footed or featured.
**1st Class 12-Triple L, Deep Pockets x Out of Sight…PERFECT skeleton, feet and legs, design and comfort and because of this so balanced. I like what he represents. Not super muscular, but should be used and will correct some issues.
**1st class 11-Ottenwalter, Heatwave x Anonymous…Monster hip and wide pin placement. Really bold up front and great big top. Not as big bodied or mainly as deep.
**1st class 10-Lucky Genetic, County Fare x Lickity Split…Big chest and good design, perfect squarness of blade and top shape. A little shorter neck and smaller foot.
**1st class 9-Flash Farms, Perfect Remedy x High Society…High Seller. Super massive muscle, width and rib. Stout feature and really comfortable. Close to being Reserve Senior for me. Has a little more crest and could be a bit longer/leveller out of hip. Great Boar.
**1st Class 8-Wehmer, Perfect Remedy x Super Monster…Tall, tall fronted, tied with a great chest and good muscle shape. I loved front 2/3rds. Wanted to get a little rigid in rear pasterns, not as just soft and bulky as some of the others.
**1st class 7-Lucky Genetics, Big Finish x Super 8…Way wide and huge body. He was the next pick for me for Junior Division Not as extended or big structured, but I like him a lot. Was the only one to match the Grand overall in terms of width from behind and squareness hock to the ground.
**1st Class 6-Hilty, Wanna Play x Toxic..Predominantly white, super footed and structure, wide up front and sound. Not biggest butted, but could make some great females or white show pigs.
**1st Class 5-Weisinger, Warfare x Duelm….Killer look and profile. Really good muscle shape and super square. You castrate this one and for me he wins most barrow shows. Not as stout or bulky as some, but on the right sow could be great set of show pigs.
**1st Class 3-Thompson, Rectify x Hot Shot…Maybe the absolute stoutest featured and biggest bladed boar. Shorter bodied and boxy. Turned in at the ground some, but again on the right sow. Who knows?
**1st Class 1- Porter, Stick This x Easy Decision…Really stout skull and big boned, very level hip and plenty of width. Not as big top and pinched in ham loin a bit, but a lot smaller and greener than others.
**2nd Class 9, DGS Swine, Super Monster x Big Shot…The only non-class winner I’m going to mention, because I plan on using him and I would be a hypocrit if I didnt. Extremely Big boned, huge feet, square built and super stout skull. Really level and massive. Lil’ weak pastern up front and not as comfortable as the ones that beat him. I like him a lot though.

Back in the airport headed to Indiana for the Crossbred Classic. I haven’t been to this show since Crossbow was named Champion, I don’t even remember what year that was just remember that he won. I’m excited to see the boars and am very humbled to be asked to line them up. Its sure to be agreat event as is every year and I am looking forward to having the ultimate front row seat!

Kelton and I have had a lot of banter on here lately about him being gone to judge in the middle of farrowing and the truth is that it wouldn’t be possible without the help of Reese Hagan, or as Kaden likes to refer to him “Pal”! Reese started working for us last fall when I was pregnant and couldn’t lift bags of feed and giving shots of oxytocin and dex were out of the question. He helped me farrow more than once last year when “morning sickness” would take over in the farrowing house and he got several 911 emergency calls from me when we would have one of our infamous water leaks in the chip barn or pigs out roaming on Bethel Rd!!

Reese grew up in Yoakum, Texas and is actually a cattle guy that we are trying our hardest to convert to a pig guy. He was extremely successful at showing simbrah heifers and raises some of the best there are in the breed right now! We actually met him through our great friends, the Carter family (more about them later). Reese helps us on a daily basis and without him I would be a crazy person and Kelton would be MUCH more behind when he gets home from his trips! The best part about it is he loves Kaden and Kaden adores him (and Codi!).

Now I would be remiss without acknowledging everyone else that makes it possible for us to do what we do. My parents, “B” and “NiNi” are, without question, probably the biggest helpers we have!! They get a lot of calls asking if “they are for rent for the day” because there is no way that I could be of any use at the farm if they didn’t help me with the kids. I am sure they are starting to think that we are slow pays though–ha!! Seriously, there is now way that we could make it through most of our weeks without their help!! Kelton’s parents are also essential to everything that we do! Sara just spent several days down here with me when Kelton was judging Ohio and Larry comes as often as he can when he finds time to escape from the bank. “Papa K”, “MoMo”, “B” and “NiNi” are not only great hands with the kids but they can obviously all hold there own on the farm if we need help there too!! Ashlei and Aaron are a big help too!! We love when they come because that means that Ashlei has usually stopped at Sonic on the way over and shows up bearing lots of goodies for everyone!! Kaden loves playing with Cain more than just about anything and Aaron isn’t afraid to put his work boots on either!! You can always bet that we will have fun and lots of laughs when this crew comes around…thank you guys so much!!!

Lastly, I am sure that when Dempsey and Kay Carter finished raising their three daughters, they figured they were done with the hardwork..haha..then we moved to Montgomery County. I guess Dempsey’s title here could be “Chief Contractor and Head Foreman”. He has be invaluable to helping us turn this place into a hog farm. From helping us build our sow barn, to remodeling our chip barn, to running electricity and water- he can do it all (and all he requires is lots of water and some thinly sliced white bread)!! We have to thank Kay for her patience when Dempsey to spends A LOT of his time here helping us with our construction projects (Kay, I hope he finally got your refrigerator installed!!). Dempsey, Kay, Jessica, Codi, and Kaycie are all GREAT friends of ours and they treat our kids like there own–thank you guys so much!! The Koy family, Glen, Brandi, Shannon, Bubba, Kalli, and Kassi have also been instrumental in our growing process here. Glen and Brandi have been like parents to me since we moved to Willis and we cherish their friendship dearly!! If you need a person who is great with a big tractor- Glen is your man!!

Well- sorry for such a long post–but this is what you get after a pot of coffee when you have been up all night waiting on a gilt to farrow!! Happy Hump day!!!

Well, I probably won’t move to Iowa any time soon, but when I walked outside this morning and it was 64 deg. In mid August and the high is low 80s, I thought man this would be nice! (And not to mention way better on the pigs). Didn’t want to rub anything in for my fellow Texans or my wife and Reese taking care of the farm, but this is awesome. I told the gentleman that drove me out to the grounds the only salvation is if its like this it must be dang miserable in the Winter.