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Every member in FFA or Pals, has to have a supervised, agricultural experience, which
is part of the curriculum in our program. Students can choose to raise a hog, a steer,
a lamb, or do their horse, as their supervised agricultural experience. When a student chooses
to raise a pig for their supervised agricultural experience, they must first talk to other
members, and decide where they'd like to purchase their hog from. From purchasing a hog, students
tend to spend anywhere from a hundred to two hundred and fifty dollars, for their market
animal. These market animals, are what we would like to call, of superior quality. These
hogs tend to express more muscle, finish at a hundred and fifty days, and hang a higher
carcass at the rail. Most of these hogs in the show circuit in our area, tend to be Blue
Butts, or Hampshire hogs. The Blue Butt is a cross between the Yorkshire and the Hampshire
hog. The Blue Butt tends to finish out at the rate of a Yorkshire, and with the muscling
of a Hampshire, but not be as lean, and unpalatable as a Hampshire carcass. The Hampshire hog,
in my opinion, is a very well balanced hog, but for palatability and marbling, you tend
to lean more towards the Blue Butt, because you get a more desirable carcass.