Newcastle Genetics is a family-run pig breeding and show pig operation in Oklahoma led by Andy Forehand. The operation focuses on breeding structurally correct and competitive show pigs. Andy's son Taylor now helps manage day-to-day operations like finishing and marketing pigs. Their goal is to breed pigs that will help 4-H and FFA members succeed in shows while staying true to producing high quality stock.

1. Helping
With the showing component of livestock production, it is
easy to get swept away in the competitive atmosphere and
the hunger to win. But the true industry leaders are those
whose goal is to sell a show barrow or gilt to a 4-H or FFA
member, and hope it has some form of positive impact.
Andy Forehand and his family’s operation, Newcastle
Genetics, has fit this mold since 1995, when the family
moved from Texas to Oklahoma and started raising pigs.
By Rachel Dotson
succeed
FEATURE

2. DIGILINK
Visit the Newcastle Genetics website to learn more
about the operation in Elgin, Oklahoma.
Taylor Fort drives their class winner at the 2014
Summer Type Confrence. A Cut Above purchased
the boar for $60,000.
L
ong before Newcastle Genetics
took roots in the red dirt soil
of Elgin, Oklahoma, Andy
grew up on a ranch in New Mexico, an
area surrounded by cattlemen. However,
Andy found enjoyment and passion
within the swine industry and showing
pigs. Currently, this 125-sow operation
has produced winning barrows and
well-known crossbred boars such as Su-
per Monster and Outta Hand. Newcas-
tle Genetics presently has seven boars on
hand they use and also sell semen on.
“We are a confinement opera-
tion and for the most part we farrow
around 15 to 20 sows per month. In
August we will have farrowed about
40 sows. We don’t farrow in May
and June and use those two months
to take a break,” Andy laughs.
If you ask Andy how the operation,
functions, he’ll laugh and say his son,
Taylor, does all the work, and he just
watches. As an operation that farrows
10 months out of the year, it is all
hands on deck for the family members.
Each member plays an important role
with Newcastle Genetics. Andy takes
responsibility for the breeding and
looks after the sows, while Taylor is in
charge of the finishing hogs, nursery
as well as maintenance and marketing.
The farrowing sector of the operation
is maintained by Andy’s wife, Zoe, and
their daughter, Emily. Their son, Ory,
helps on the family operation and can
been seen in the show ring exhibiting
pigs from Newcastle Genetics. Ory
had the Reserve Champion Duroc
Barrow at the 2015 Tulsa State Fair.
As a total confinement operation,
structure and skeletal correctness are
held to a high standard when gilts are
being selected to be part of the breed-
ing program at Newcastle Genetics.
“Of course we want to produce hogs
that are really well balanced with a lot of
eye appeal, it still takes a pretty one to
win,” Andy says. “We want to produce
a hog that is sound, functional and wor-
thy of being exhibited. We want kids
to come here and get an animal that is
of some value to them, and one they
can actually show and be successful.”
Andy believes that over the years they
have been able to find the right balance
of maintaining correct skeletal design,
while adding enough muscle shape to
be competitive in the show ring. He
says they aren’t necessarily breeding
hogs to have the most wow factor;
they breed hogs to make good hogs.
“In the years I have been here help-
ing my dad raise pigs, obviously trends
are always changing, but to me there are
two that never go out of style, which
are balance and soundness,” Taylor says.
“If you can get hogs that are very sound
and proportional in how they are put
together, then it makes things pretty
easy to have success down the road.”
Once it is time to sell the pigs, Taylor
utilizes a variety of platforms to market
showpigs or breeding gilts to customers.
“We do a bit of everything. We try
to sell off the farm, through online sales,
and we hit up some live sales too,” Tay-
lor says. “This allows us to get them out
in front of a different audience or group
of people and build relationships.”
If there are any challenges Taylor
faces with his responsibility of market-
ing, it is making sure they have the
right type of pigs available at the right
time for certain customers to purchase.
“We have different groups of hogs
targeting different shows. When we
try to sell hogs for early spring, or ones
that were born in December or Janu-
ary, we don’t have a very big market
for those down here,” Taylor says. “So
most of those pigs that time of year
we have to picture and sell in online
sales, and try to establish contacts
with people 15 hours away from us.”
Currently, Taylor is working on
selling Newcastle’s fall pig crop, which
will mainly go to Texas and Oklahoma.
“It’s a challenge, I guess, to be
able to sell pigs across the coun-
try but it allows you to have more
contacts that way,” Taylor says.
As Taylor concentrates on overcom-
ing barriers such as distance when
building strong clientele relation-
ships, Andy finds challenges in hiring
help to assist on the operation.
“For the most part, our family is con-
fined to the farm all the time. It is very
difficult to find people to help anymore,
especially down here where this is more
cattle and farming area,” Andy says.

3. With a family-run operation, Andy
hopes his kids learn good work ethic
through the challenges that can be faced
when raising livestock, whether it’s
staying productive during the Okla-
homa summer months when tempera-
tures reach more than 100 degrees or
working through times of difficulty.
“You can get a battle of PRRS or
disease that goes through your herd;
it’s difficult on the hogs, difficult on
the people and difficult financially.
You have to be able to overcome it
and work through it,” Andy says. “I
always tell my kids if you continue
to work hard and overcome adversity
you will always have a place, there
will be something for you to do.”
But, the positive times outweigh
the negatives for Andy and his family,
and Andy’s favorite part of running
Newcastle Genetics is his time spent on
the operation with his wife and kids.
“This is where Taylor and I differ. I
love the days of working on the farm. I
enjoy breeding the sows and the genetics
side of it,” Andy says. “I went to gradu-
ate school and actually studied beef cat-
tle breeding genetics. I enjoy breeding
livestock period, no matter what kind
it is. The effort it takes to try to make
them better and improve your own herd
to make progress is the part I enjoy.”
Taylor enjoys the networking
side of being involved in the show
industry and building relation-
ships with people and customers.
“Being able to see these pigs at
eight or nine weeks old, then to see
the transformation of those pigs
and to see how those kids work
with those hogs are the things I
always look back on,” Taylor says.
One thing this father and son do
agree on is the person who has had a
big influence on them in the industry,
Jerry McLemore. McLemore is someone
Andy noticed always produce hogs that
bred on, in which Andy made sure to
emulate into his own breeding program.
“I would have to agree with my dad
quite a bit. I guess one of the things I
have learned from Jerry, and a lot of
people would agree with me on this,
Jerry doesn’t sugar coat anything,”
Taylor says. “He will tell you exactly
what he thinks about your hogs, or
his hogs. He isn’t trying to offend you;
he is just very honest in his opinion.
If you are trying to make your hogs
better, you need that honesty.”
As Newcastle Genetics looks toward
the future, Andy and Taylor hope to
stabilize around their current number
of sows, and continue to improve and
focus more on their purebred sows.
While Andy dedicates his time to
the operation, he also buys and sells
stocker and feeder cattle, which keeps
him busy, at times. He has handed the
operation reigns over to Taylor, who
recently graduated from Texas Tech
University. Andy continues to sup-
port his son, Taylor as he carries on
the integrity of Newcastle Genetics.
“The reason we are in business and
the business we are in is because we
have customers. We try to produce a
product that will be successful for our
customers, whether it’s with breeding
animals or show animals,” Andy says.
“We want them to have success.”
“Being able to see these pigs at eight or nine
weeks old, then to see the transformation of
those pigs and to see how those kids work
with those hogs are the things I always look
back on.” — Taylor Fort
Ory Forehand
carries on the
Forehand passion
for the livestock
industry and 4-H.
Atomic was raised by
Newcastle Genetics
and shown at the
2014 Summer Type
Confrence. A Cut
About purchased the
boar for $60,000.
FEATURE