Browning Chief

Ringold Lady Dora Garners Extra Star First Sow Ever To Raise Nine Champion Litters

America's champion production sow, the most prolific purebred sow in the country, has added still another star to her crown.

One hundred and five pigs raised to weaning age is the remarkable new record of this queen of the hog world, the first and only sow of any breed to raise nine production star litters.

To qualify for production registry, conducted by the purebred associations, a sow must raise a litter of at least 8 pigs to a minimum weight of 320 pounds within 56 days of birth. The pigs must be approved breed type, free from fault or defect, and at least half of them must be eligible for registration.

The sow gains a star in her breed production registry books each time she repeats the performance.

The champion, Ringold Lady Dora, No. 753,056, a Hampshire owned by Meadowlark Farms, Inc. of Sullivan, Indiana, has repeated that performance nine times. Her first qualifying litter was farrowed September 6, 1944. Since then she has farrowed and raised spring and fall litters without a single interruption, and has raised an average of 9.5 pigs per litter. She has farrowed a total of 129 pigs and has raised 105 of them herself.

Her ninth star litter, farrowed this past fall, consisted of 10 pigs, nine of them eligible for registration. They had a litter weight of 369 pounds at the 56-day weaning age.

During that period her breeding and feeding was watched carefully. She was fed a ration consisting of corn, oats, a pelletized dairy product, some meat scrap or tankage, a little bran, and alfalfa pasture or alfalfa meal prior to each farrowing.

Queen of the hog world, Ringold Lady Dora, first and only sow to raise nine litters to qualify for breed production registry honors, is shown accompanied by latest litter which weighed 369 pounds at the 56-day weaning date.