About
Ludwig Racing Pigeons
I first started with roller pigeons when I was about 12 year years old growing up in Hastings, Minnesota. At age 15 I moved to Ohio and found other interests.
About 16 years later in 1999, I started back with pigeons, however this time I discovered the sport of racing pigeons. In 2000, I raced young birds for my very first time. I didn’t know much about selection, health, motivation tricks, but I trained them hard and the birds came pretty good. My best placing my first season was 4th. Out of about 20 pairs I bred, only 2 bred anything good for me.
My family of birds were originally developed from a combination of Janssen, Jan Aarden, an old 1992 Huskyn Van Reil cock that breed 4 youngsters before he went infertile. All 4 were great racers. 2 sons placed 1st twice each, the other son breed some great racers and a daughter breed a 1st place winner.
The winter after my first young bird season in 2000, I did a lot of research about strains, training, health, widowhood etc… and was focused on winning the following season. I had a good season in 2001. One of my first pairs were an unknown pair of Blue Bars. I was told they were Van Loons. They were medium to small in size, buoyant and handled tight. This pair is what I call the “Federation Pair”. In 2003, 2004 and 2005 my first birds back from the FED 400 were always bred from this pair. The Fed 400 is one of the largest old bird races in our Ohio area. with an average of about 2000 birds in the race, I took 57th in 2002, 31st in 2003, 11th and 14th in 2004. All 4 birds were off my “FED Pair” This pair has bred numorous 1st place wins and are grandparents and great grandparents to many more 1st place winners also. This pair has bred outstanding birds and is one of my original foundation pairs that I am still cross into every bird I own. These are speed birds that I can always count on to be at the top of the sheet on a slight headwind or tail wind day, however it was not as easy as it sounds, they had problems on tough weather days, so I needed something tougher to cross into this speed line. So instead of buying a tough strain, I searched for tough birds in my own loft that were coming on smash races. The birds that were consistently clocking on tough days week after week for two seasons would be added to the breeding loft to cross with my 1st place winners. These tough bird racers, were Jansen, HVR, Houben and Jan Arden. I crossed these strains into my Federation blood and other 1st place winners.
I have purchased many birds in the first 6 years and can count only a few that made a great impact on my current strain. I purchased a direct son of Witpen Van Bommel(Netherlands 3×1st) and an inbred Keizer/Mercx cock. Both were purchased from Rick Mardis. These cocks bred youngsters that stuck around and when I mix them with my old speed bloodline, I achieve awesome results.
I have confidence that my current strain can compete with the worlds best in one loft races.
Since I already have a proven family of racers going, I try not to introduce many unknowns into my loft. However, I did purchase one pair direct from Gerard Koopman. Koopman has achieved awesome results worldwide. Koopman is a name that is known all over the world and his birds are wanted by many. I purchased the pair before Gerard won 2nd in the south African Million Dollar Race. I also imported two super cocks from the famous loft of Dirk Van Dyck of Belgium. Dirk is known all over the world for his famous “Kannibaal”. Many winners all over the world have been bred from the Dirk Van Dyck bloodlines. I am breeding from a direct grandson of “Rambo”. “Rambo” is the father of “Kannibaal”. I am also breeding from a direct son of “Het Orleanske” 1st Provinciaal Orleans 10,034 birds. “Het Orleanske” is also down from “Rambo”. Both cocks were bred by Dirk Van Dyck and are the same bloodlines as the famous “Kannibaal” and “Den Bourges” I also am breeding from three other imports that are inbred “Kannibaal” and “Kleine Dirk”, super birds! These birds are from the loft of Jan Lotterman and Patrick Kuiper of the Netherlands.