A simple template that fits snugly over the hams of feeders when they’re ready for slaughter helps hog feeders in the German Rhineland hit optimum carcass conformation without the hassle of routine weighing
by NORMAN DUNN
Last year, hog feeder Fritz Hagmann-Thomas achieved an average carcass weight for over 1,500 animals sent to slaughter of 95.2 kilograms with only 12 per cent of his hogs sliding over the 100-kilogram mark. He told the local farming paper, the Westfalen-Lippe Landwirtschaftliches Wochenblatt, that his target had been 95 kilograms and that he’d achieved his almost identical average without any regular weighing of his slaughter hogs.