Hello everyone…I am home from judging San Antonio and I’m finally getting a chance to update you all on how things are going. My family and I had a great time in San Antonio. The show was very impressive. It was such an honor to be asked to judge that quality of animals for the youth of Texas. I must say my wife and I were amazed with the participation. To see such a large number of youth involved in such a great activity was wonderful. Thank you to everyone who participated and to all of the staff.

My wife and I have been trying to rent our home in town so that we can move to our other home that is on the farm property. When I got home from San Antonio we found a family that was interested. This past weekend we spent getting the new house ready for us and packing up the current home. We are very eager to raise our boys in the country. This is going to be a big transition for us…but a very happy one!

Speaking of “BOYS”…..yes we are having another boy!!! We have decided to name him Kaden Kenneth Watje. We are expecting Kaden to arrive in July-somewhere between the CA State Fair and our local County Fair.

This past weekend was the start of jackpot season here in California. I was impressed to see the amount of kids and quality of hogs out there. Saturday was the Pork Spectacular which is put on by our CA Pork Producers Association. A few kids showed hogs there, and we ended up with the Reserve Progress exhibited by Maddi Kiser and Champion Market Hog exhibited by Lindsay Tasos. Lindsay also won Showmanship at this event.

Sunday was the Fresno State Red Wave Jackpot where we had Champion Market Barrow (also exhibited by Lindsay Tasos). Our nephews also participated in the Red Wave. This year Aaron has a steer and Kyle has a lamb. Kyle has the Champion Prospect Lamb and Aaron won showmanship again with his steer. Keep up the good work boys!!

Overall it was a great weekend. Congrats to all the kids who participated and good luck at the upcoming shows.

This week we will be getting ready for San Antonio. I will be judging the Berkshire, Spot, Poland China, Dark Crossbred and the Yorkshire show. I fly out on Saturday morning with my wife and Trent. They will fly home on Tuesday and I will be home later that week. It was such an honor to be asked to judge this show. I am really looking forward to seeing the quality of animals there.

As most of you know we recently hosted our 13th Annual “Kick Off Sale.” The sale consisted of 70 sheep and 80 hogs. Overall the sale was a huge success. Mark Johnson and Kent Bennigton flew out and put together some very educational Lamb and Hog show clinics. Everyone who participated in these clinics was very impressed. We would like to thank Mark, Kent and Honor Show Chow Feeds for all of their support towards our sale.

After our sale we had everyone over for some food and football. It was so nice to get to spend some time with our friends and family that had worked so hard to help us with our sale. Thanks again!!

Hi Everyone,

Our Annual Kick off Sale is coming up this Saturday. It is going to be a hectic week getting things ready. We clipped our sale hogs yesterday and the set sure does look good. Tomorrow my Dad and I will set the sale order and tag the pigs. On Friday we will finish setting up for the sale and haul the pigs to the Fairgrounds. I hope to see all of you on Saturday. The educational clinic is going to be great! Below is the sale and clinic information. If you have any more questions feel free to call me at 209.604.2082 or email at wdswinefarm@yahoo.com.

13th Annual

W-D KICK OFF SALE

Stanislaus County Fairgrounds, Turlock CA

January 16, 2010

HONOR SHOW FEED IS PUTTING ON TWO MANAGEMENT & NUTRITION CLINICS IN ADDITION TO OUR ANNUAL SALE:

Lamb Clinic-9 am (Mark Johnson)

Hog Clinic-9:45 am (Kent Bennignton)

W-D KICK OFF SALE INFORMATION:

Preview-9 am

Lamb Sale-11 am

Hog Sale-1 pm

Each pig sold goes home with 1 bag of Honor Show Chow PRELUDE 409

Top 40 lambs sold go home with 1 bag of Honor Show Chow Showlamb Grower DX

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We had a great time celebrating with friends this year. I had just got home from Fall Classic in Oklahoma so we were not up for another long drive. It was nice to be able to stay home and relax.

We hauled our online sale pigs to Fall Classic – everyone seemed to be very happy with their hogs. We also showed a crossbred boar at Fall Classic that was 4th in class. Lean Value purchased the boar.

We also recently found out that we are going to be having another baby. The baby is due July 2010. I am sure I will update you with any exciting information along the way. Stacey can’t wait to find out if it is a boy or a girl. I think we have a few more weeks before we will know that information.

Our Christmas tree is up and the house is decorated…the inside of the house. I don’t do lights outside. My house is too tall in some areas and it makes me nervous to get up there. Stacey is very disappointed about this and says I have to get over it when our kids are bigger!

Well our Online Sale is over. We were very happy with how the sale went. We averaged 732 on 14 hogs. We will be hauling most of these to Fall Classic for people to pick up. Thank you to everyone who bid and/or purchased a hog. If you have any quesitons along the way, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

I will be leaving for Fall Classic next Monday. This week will be busy getting things ready, clipping, health papers, etc. Thank goodness my Dad will be able to take care of the farm for this trip.

Trent had his second Halloween this year. Last year his Grandma Visscher made his costume…he was a chicken. It was a little big last year so we tried it on him this year..it fit! So Trent was a chicken again this year.

This past weekend my wife and I took pictures of 21 hogs for our 2nd Annual Online Sale. The sale will be on November 4th from 8am-8pm EST. The sale is hosted by showpig.com. Check it out and give us a call or email me if you have any questions about the hogs. All the hogs are fed the Honor Show Chow PRELUDE 409. The feed works extremely well and I am very happy with it.

We are very exited the Rams got the first win of the season. Hopefully this is the start of something great. GO RAMS!!

I am taking a few hours off tomorrow to do a little fishing. Bringing dinner home to the family, wish me luck…haha.

I can’t believe it is already almost November. This has been one busy year for us, and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down. The sale in Texas went well, and this week I will be clipping and taking pictures of approximately 15-20 hogs for our annual online sale with showpig.com. Be sure to check it out on Wednesday, November 4th. Pictures will be available to view a few days prior. If you have any questions on the hogs, please don’t hesitate to email or call me wdswinefarm@yahoo.com or 209.604.2082.

My son is still going to the farm with me every day. He is only 16 months but he loves it! He sits in the wheelbarrow and tries to help me throw feed. Then we go to the farrowing house where he usually plays with the babies. When I collect the boars he stands right next me and watches. After we are done working at our Modesto Farm we head to Turlock to check on things there. We have been taking our pigs for Fall Classic out to practice showing. Trent usually walks behind the pigs with his little whip and does a great job showing. However, this past week he just throws his whip down and goes off to play somewhere…we will have to work on that!

For the past two years we have been trying to get permits to move our farm from Modesto to Turlock, where we purchased some property. Between the Water Board and County, this has been one stressful and complicated mess. We had a public hearing a few weeks ago with the County and finally our project was approved. Hopefully we will be moving our farrowing houses early next year.

Three in a row! W-D had the Grand Champion Hogs at Madera County Fair, Tulare County Fair and Santa Cruz County Fair. Lindsay Tasos had the Grand Champion Hog at Madera County Fair and Bryce had the Champion and Reserve Champion FFA and the Grand Champion overall at Tulare County Fair. All of these hogs were fed the Honor Show Chow program that I helped them with. I personally went down to the show to check on these pigs and a few others to be sure the pigs were fed correctly before show and looked their best. The kids did an amazing job and they should be very proud. All of the other hogs we sold there were also fed Honor Show Chow and were in the top end of their classes.

I am almost ready to start my solo trip to Texas. It’s a long drive alone but I will stop each night and take my time getting there. I am planning to leave on Wednesday morning after I do my chores. The Gilt Sale is Friday night at 6 and the Sale is Saturday at 11. Stacey will once again be home to work and then also to take care of feeding the farm, chores and Trent. She can’t wait for my Dad’s knee to heal so she can start making more trips with me.

Football season has started and I couldn’t be happier. Unfortunately I am a Rams fan so I will probably have a rough season. I had to attach a picture of Trent getting ready for the first game.

I will let you all know how the sale goes. If your in Tyler, Texas be sure to stop by.

Our State Fair is finally over and we had another successful year. My daughter had Reserve Grand Champion during the Junior Show and W-D had the Champion Barrow and Champion Gilt (shown by Maddi Kiser) at the Open Show. Lexy had the Grand Champion Hog in 2007 and 2008, so we were very proud of her to be in the final drive again this year.

The Stanislaus County Fair was also in August. Our good friend Brad Mendes exhibited the Grand Champion this year with one of our hogs. He has been fortunate enough to have Grand Champion Steer and Lamb, so his goal this year was to get it done with the hogs. We are so happy for him. What an accomplishment! Our nephews also showed there. Aaron Kerlee was Reserve Champion to Brad and Kyle Kerlee was Reserve Champion 4-H. W-D had 3 of the 4 in the final drive!! Pictures are posted on the website.

Just when you think things are about to slow down…think again!! The next few weeks I will be getting hogs ready to take to Texas for the Breeders Best sale. I have made the trip the last two years and it is a great sale. Great people, runs smoothly, and really good hogs. If you are in that area you should stop by. The Premier Gilt Sale is September 25th at 6 pm and the Sale is September 26th at 11am. Feel free to email me for more information on the hogs or the sale.