OXFORD, Ohio — The glamour fell away quickly as Mark and David Korb of Korb Farms were back grinding feed just days after their boar, Leaps and Bounds, sold for $350,000.

 

That was a new world record for the highest-selling Champion Yorkshire Boar, and the second-highest-selling pig ever. “It doesn’t take long to come down,” said Mark Korb, adding, “the response has been phenomenal. People have been genuinely happy for us. It has been fun.”

Leaps and Bounds sold at the National Swine Registry’s (NSR) Summer Type Conference sale in Louisville after being named the Champion Yorkshire Boar.

Upper Hand Genetics of Huntington, Ind., bought the champ. Mark and David, father and son, knew they had a good thing going even before Leaps and Bounds was on the ground.

“From the time we bred the sow I knew that was our best shot at a boar for the summer,” said David. “There were two other boars in the litter, and we kept all three of them intact. I was more impressed with the littermates’ sisters and the depth of the quality of the litter as a whole. It was probably the best litter of pigs we’ve ever farrowed.”

Added Mark: “They were very consistent all the way, top to bottom. Leaps and Bounds was best, but No. 6 was very good also. I told Dad (Hank Korb, who started the farm) a couple of times if one of these boars doesn’t turn out, one of these three sisters is going to be the real deal.”

David liked that Leaps and Bounds was a good example of the Yorkshire breed and had the good points but none of the faults, plus he had extras. The breed is struggling right now, he said, because producers have leaned toward turning out heavy-boned, heavy-muscled pigs, but they’ve lost structural integrity; they’ve lost their ability to travel on their rear legs.

“Even though he is pedigreed, he still had all that bone, he had all that mass and he still had the real pretty look that we’re going to right now, but yet his hind leg was still square, clean – he was able to go and drive,” David explained.

Upper Hand Genetics liked the pig a great deal, although Travis Platt – who owns the operation with Sam Scher – admitted he was getting “close to the end” in the bidding.

“Leaps and Bounds is a kind of a breed outlier – good everywhere with the extras for the Yorkshire breed,” he said. “He was the one everyone was looking for.”

Leaps and Bounds was not just a lucky break for Korb Farms. It has consistently produced champions, including All Eyes, the $90,000 Grand Champion Hampshire Boar at the 2015 World Pork Expo, and Real Deal, the 2016 Crossbred Champion at the Indiana State Fair.

Mark credits David with their consistency. David studies pedigrees and pays attention to what is going on and where trends are heading in the industry. “He has a fantastic eye, and I don’t think that comes along very often,” his father said. “He works very hard at it.”

Korb Farms run about 70 sows: Hampshires, Landrace, Yorkshires, Durocs and crossbreds. They raise show pigs and breeding stock. Mark and David are the faces of the operation, and they have help from Mark’s brothers, Jim and Hank. A neighbor, Bob Mahlerwein, picks up semen for them. Neighbors Carroll Scott and Madelyn Harrison also help out.