JOHN PRYOR  - HAMPSTEAD CLUB

Some of this year's youngsters	A Ponderosa Janssen cock - 5th Cocks Special and clock bird Topar Open 1998. Mated to 16th Springhust bred by K. Brumfield of Murray Bridge.	The wing of the 1992 Alice Springs winner. Also had four Association placings before that win.
1993 2nd Alice Springs. Van Roy x John Pryor No. 1 cock. Now mated to 16th Marla 1998.		Some of John's secrets (common salt always available).
The Matriach of John's loft. 1993 Morunda South Australian Association . winner - has now bred multiple Association placings.	Blue bar hen achieved first place Coleambally No. 2 SAHPA 1997 now mated to the No. 2 cock (has bred 14 Association placings).	Blue Bar pied cock - sire of 1st Association Coleambally No. 2 1997.
The hen in this pic is 1st Association Moulamein SAD Derby 1997 mated to a cock from Frank Fullop of Canberra.	John with the 1995 Temora SAHPA winner (by 2 hours).	Probably the only red in John's loft. 1st Moree 1989 SAHPA. Bred by Con Moukas.
The Alice Springs 1998 1st SAHPA winner now mated to 1st SAHPA Moree 1998.	John showing the important underwing feathers and their shape.	First SAHPA Association Coleambally No. 2 1997
Second place SAHPA Coleambally No. 2 in 1997.	Three that John is breeding from this year.

1990 SEASON: 9th SAHPA Aggregate Points gaining 104 points against 475 members entering 54,121 birds in 12 races.

Season highlight: 1st, 2nd and 4th from Alice Springs 1321 kms, 130 owners sent 412 birds and the winning velocity was 1000.837 mpm. In this race John had the only 2 birds home on the second day at 52 seconds apart.

1991 SEASON: 2nd SAHPA Aggregate Points gaining 156 points against 470 members entering 51134 birds in 13 races.

Season highlight: 1st SAHPA Emmdale 10 Bird Special 632 kms, 318 owners sent 2599 birds and the winning velocity was 951.599 mpm.

1992 SEASON: 5th SAHPA Aggregate Points gaining 106 points against 464 members entering 58671 birds in 11 races.

Season highlight: 1st Alice Springs 1321 kms, 149 owners sent 441 birds and John had the only bird home on the second day with a velocity of 918.801 mpm.

1993 SEASON: 1st SAHPA Aggregate Points gaining 121 points against 454 members entering 52416 birds in 14 races.

Season highlight: 1st SAHPA Morundah 701 kms, 241 owners sent 3032 birds and the winning velocity was 882.165 mpm. This bird was the only bird clocked before darkness fell and has proven her worth as a breeder of stock birds and race birds at all distances.

1994 SEASON: 2nd SAHPA Aggregate Points gaining 160 points against 465 members entering 44370 birds in 15 races.

1995 SEASON: 1st SAHPA Aggregate Points gaining 279 points against 444 members entering 46627 birds in 16 races. The 279 points John gained was the first time any member had gained more than 200 points and exceeded the SAHPA previous highest points score of 191 which John attained in the 1988 Season.

Season highlight: 1st SAHPA Temora 817 kms, 196 owners sent 1713 birds and the winning velocity was 1035.073 mpm. This bird was clocked approximately one hour after sunset winning by over two hours in front of the next bird.

1996 SEASON: 1st SAHPA Aggregate Points gaining 191 points against 444 members entering 43024 birds in 14 races.

1997 SEASON: 1st SAHPA Aggregate Points gaining 164 points against 420 members entering 45963 birds in 14 races.
Season highlights:

1998 SEASON: 1stSAHPA Aggregate points gaining 192 points against 426 members entering 44,029 birds in 14 races.
Season highlight: 1st Alice Springs 1321 kms, 129 owners sent 507 birds and the winning velocity was 951.219 mpm. This was a smash race with only 2 birds home on the second day and only 14 birds home after four days.

John Pryor is a household name throughout Australia when it comes to pigeon racing, especially here in South Australia.  John has undoubtedly been our champion flyer in the past decade and a half and I would think Australia wide most regarded him as the best flyer in our country.  John was the measuring stick of our SAHPA competition, every flyer aimed to beat or even emulate John’s remarkable feats.

As well as being our top flyer.  John was highly regarded as one of our top pigeon administrators. In 1995 John was made a life member of the SAHPA, John was a past General Secretary for a period of six years, Clock Chairman, On the Transport Unit Committee in 1972 which arranged and designed the current day transporter of the SAHPA which has been an enormous asset to the SAHPA for many years, Race Secretary and a founding member of the Long Distance Committee, Committee of Management in the SAHPA and as a representative for SA with the Australian Pigeon Fanciers Association. Pigeon racing was everything to John and a love of a lifetime which stemmed from his father the late Keith Pryor.  Keith himself was also a champion flyer in his own day. Even when John was a small baby if he was grizzly his mother used to put him in front of his dad’s loft and it would immediately stop his crying.

Within this issue of the SAHPA journal we will look at John’s remarkable performances, the birds which have made him such a success and even feature an interview held in December 1998 in Queensland in which John discussed many of his theories and secrets on pigeon racing.  Many of us have been fortunate enough to know John and have received honest advice and knowledge about our mutual love of pigeon racing, his death is a great loss to our sport, he was a true champion.  We dedicate this issue to John.  Our deepest sympathy to John’s wife Ruth, his children Neroli, Janelle and Andrew and his 10 grandchildren.

Good luck with the remainder of the breeding season. A reminder to all interstate and country subscribers that subscriptions are now overdue.

Tim Fawcett

John Pryor and Allen Goodger

The modern day success of the Pryor loft can be partly attributed to another former fellow Hampstead Club member the legendary Allen Goodger.  In 1980 John Pryor introduced his most successful cross into his own family of pigeons a Goodger cock from the late Colin Elliot’s sale and had immediate success.  His 1984 Alice Springs winner is a grand daughter of this cock and the dam of John’s No 1 stock hen SA 83 39313 BBH (dam of 3 SAHPA winners) was also a grand daughter.  Almost every Goodger based bird introduced has been successful and contributed to form John’s family of winning pigeons.

In 1983 John was fortunate enough to have gifted to him a young Goodger cock being a son of Lots 53 & 60 of Allen Goodger’s sale.  This cock was SA 82 11829 BCC, rated by John as his No 1 Stock Cock.  11829 has been an outstanding producer of around 27 SAHPA placed birds, including 1st SAHPA Benalla(who in turn produced 1st SAHPA Emmdale).  He also produced 1st SAHPA Alice Springs 1990(who in turn is the grand dam of 2 SAHPA winners from Temora in 1995 & Coleambally No 2 1997).  In all 7, top 5 SAHPA placed birds came from this cock, who is still alive and still producing at 17 years of age.  His traditional mate was the No 1 hen SA 83 39313 BBH who has bred 3 SAHPA winners.  Even most recently a son off this pairing produced John’s outstanding BBPH which won 1st SAHPA Cooberpedy, clocked at 10:37 pm being the only bird home on the day.

The 1986 breeding season was also a key factor in the modern day Pryor dynasty.  John was fortunate to have on loan from the birds purchaser, Mr Con  Moukas a champion Goodger hen SA 76 51397 BCPH, bred by Allen Goodger.  51397 was  Borrowed to specially mate to 11829 the No 1 Cock.  From this mating a number of champion Producers immediately surfaced.  For John, SA 8624469 BBC has been an outstanding producer of 17 SAHPA places, including 1st SAHPA Morundah & 6th SAHPA Mt Willoughby.  The Morundah winner was regarded by John as his current top hen.  24469 BBC was particularly successful when mated to SA 90 13649 BCH bred by A Richardson and purchased by John at the SAHPA sires produce auction.

Another son SA 87 17175 BCPC 6th SAHPA Mt Willoughby was an immediate success producing 1st SAHPA Emmdale, this cock was sold To the Netherlands in 1991 and produced a National position and is in the background of the 4th National Bergerac 1999 which was a great thrill for John.  Another success from the 1986 pairing was SA 86 24405 BBPC who has been an outstanding breeder for Con Moukas producing his 1st SAHPA Cobar and numerous other high placings, he is the Grandsire of at least 3 other SAHPA winners for Con also.  Another brother 1062 BCPC has been a sensational producer for Grant Paterson of Hampstead Club producing at Least 7 SAHPA places, with his at least 7 of his children producing SAHPA places also.

SA 88 22298 BBPC, a grandson of 24469 BBC has been the mate to John’s 1st SAHPA Morundah (SA 91 16453 BBH) in recent times. The Son’s of this pairing have been outstanding producers also.  In Coleambally No 2 1997, three brothers off the pair bred 1st, 2nd & 3rd SAHPA with all three birds landing together. The winner SA 94 05275 BCH was clocked first by John as she was his pool bird and going for bird of the year in the Hampstead  Club if she won, having earlier won from Hattah inThe fastest velocity in SA. This hen has also proven her worth already by producing 1st SAHPA Hamilton Special in 1999 for John, again highlighting John’s closeknit family and their amazing achievements.

John Pryor achieved success at the highest level of open competition in the SAHPA for a number of years.  From his initial SAHPA Aggregate Points win in 1970 when he tied for the Aggregate with another famous name the late Allen Goodger, John won the SAHPA Aggregate on no less than 7 occasions in total, competing against over 400 members on each occasion.

Although John won the points on 7 occasions, his ultra consistency as our champion flyer is most noteworthy.  John was placed in the top five on numerous occasions and was runner up twice in the 1990’s, being a 2nd in 1991 & 1994.  His points wins were achieved in 1969, 1988 which at the time was an all time record of 191 pts, 1993, 1995 (John broke his all time record by gaining 279 points, eclipsing his next rival by a massive 111 points), 1996, 1997 and 1998.  Even in the past 1999 season John was still rewriting the record books by winning 3 SAHPA events, being only the second time in the 100 plus year history of the SAHPA that a member has won 3 races in the one season.  The highlight for John in 1999 was undoubtedly winning 2 SAHPA races in one weekend.

John won in total 16 SAHPA events, these being:
1984 Alice Springs  1321 km Vel. 988.147
1985 Booroorban Derby 561 km  1166. 196
1985 Morundah  701 km  1280.993
1988 Benalla  691 km  1012.682
1989 Moree   1215 km  1040.077 (also 5th, 7th, 8th & 9th)
1990  Alice Springs  1321 km  1000.837 (also 2nd & 4th)
1991 Emmdale (10-bird) 633 km  951.599
1992 Alice Springs  1321 km  918.801 (only bird on 2nd day)
1993  Morundah  701 km  882.165
1995 Temora  817 km  1042.118
1997 Coleambally No 1 663 km  1107.398
1997 Coleambally No2 663 km  1347.242 (also 2nd & 3rd all landed together)
1998 Alice Springs  1321 km  951.219
1999 Cooberpedy  745 km  783.509 (only bird on day @ 10:37 pm)
1999 Hamilton Special 442 km  1453.617
1999 Springhurst  725 km  1314.946

John had a real passion for long distance racing, and definitely had the birds and know how to excel in any race exceeding 500 miles.  Victory in the blue ribbon Alice Springs event on 5 occasions is a glowing tribute to his champion qualities as a master of the pigeon sport.  Numerous other high placings have been achieved by John in long distance events.  Some of the most notable would be 2nd & 3rd from Sydney in 1983, 4th , 5th, 15th & 17th from the 1987 Alice Springs event.  In 1988 2nd place from Canberra and a 3rd from Alice Springs were high achievements.  John’s consistency from all distances and conditions is unparalleled within the modern day SAHPA.  The ability of John’s birds to win tough headwind/slow velocity races was admired by all.  As a member of Adelaide’s Premier Hampstead Club, John also held most official positions over his many dedicated years as a member, his record within this club is unlikely to ever be equalled.

Pigeon flyers come and go over time, but legends like John Pryor will never be forgotten.

Tim Fawcett 

JOHN PRYOR - THE INTERVIEW
As a tribute to John, I have decided to reprint the article written by Peter Mathews of the QPF, for the Australian Racing Pigeon Journal in December, 1998.  Personally I know John found it a good story about his theories etc. The interview was conducted by Peter while John was on Holiday in Brisbane in 1998. Many thanks to Richard Clingan of the Australian Racing Pigeon Journal  (Melbourne) and Peter Mathews and Rob North for this lovely story about John.
.
Interview in the company of P. J. Matthews and Robert North, Peter Preston and John Villany.

Rob: Amazing, bloody amazing is all I can say.  I have never seen anything like it Peter, Steve Thorpe entered seventeen entries in Windorah (600 +) and twenty in the Mornay Fed (700+) and John Pryor went through the performance pedigrees, without ever seeing the birds and picked the clock birds both times.  He looked at their breeding and asked. “What are the ones you have away and what were their last performances like?”  He told Steve that’s the one you will clock in Windorah and this is the one you will clock at Mornay, he picked it on both races on genetics and asking questions. Can you do that, Peter?

Peter:   No Robert I’m flat out picking a strawberry!

Rob: Bloody amazing! You picked it in one John! The genes, the right bird at the right distance and it is so easy.  I believe it’s much harder to win the earlier races and I've said that for a number of years. So much can go wrong a bad trap a mower next door and the race is lost.  With the long ones you can lose a little bit of time but usually if you are ahead it doesn’t matter.  But in the long races the birds with the good genes will always show through.

John Pryor: A long race generally in Australia, has a ratio of 20% old birds and 80% young birds of which by the distance, 60% of the young birds are lost. They have no hope. You’ll find half the old birds in the race results.  Look at your result sheets; ½ will be old birds especially in the hard tough races, not blow homes.  The best result percentage wises are experienced old birds. I predicted John Zylstra’s winner on genetics and publicly told Rob the colour of the winner before the bird came home and without ever laying eyes on it.  Am I right Rob?

Rob: Yes that’s right John!  You know what happened Peter, I bred the one John Zylstra clocked and won the 1200km Fed last Saturday. She is a daughter of the Fed Bird of the Year on the southwest two years earlier.  This hen was second Broken Hill (1220km) Fed and that one was bred from an equal 3rd Fed Mornay (1200 km) with a cross of the Wilcannia Fed winner 1040 km bloodline. The grandsire of John’s bird bred two sisters that were equal second on the Charleville Fed (690km) (both landed together on the drop). Here is an example of what you say John, in locking in of the winning genes.

John Pryor: I like to mate nephew back to aunt or the reverse niece back to uncle for at least three generations from the best pigeons. I do this to keep the family?  That shoots the theorists down for the crossing method doesn’t it.  Will they degenerate by this inbreeding, no!    If you breed 6 or 10 off the best pair you still have to select the best or you are wasting your time.  Hybrid vigour is important; and I out cross after a third cross and bring in anything that conforms to the type; all I look for is a good pigeon.  If it has what I want by handling and background then I’ll try it.

If you were a rose breeder and you wanted to create a strain of roses would you bring in an inferior type or the best similar to your rose.  “Like breeds like”, so when you bring something into your family bring in the same colour and type to keep the family characteristics there otherwise their young ones will be a mish mash of everything. You have to bring in compatible pigeons.  It’s like breeding a small pigeon with a big one, you are going to get small ones and big ones and one’s in between.  If you breed off small ones they can breed small and big birds, conversely big birds can breed small, big or in between birds.

Now if you have a family of small birds and mate with small birds with a family history of small birds then you will get small birds as this is the characteristics of the gene pool that is marked by genetic blueprint for that family.

Performance, performance and only performance.

John Pryor: We handled John Zylstra’s 1200 km Federation winner on the afternoon she arrived home didn’t we Rob? She finished like she never went out of the loft, she finished so well she was flirting with cocks like she was just back from a toss.  She was not distressed at all, every one of the others was distressed but she would go back next week no worries. Peter that was a day and a half fly. It also important to know that usually second day pigeons float home and do not race the same as a first day event.

“Old Hand’s” theory was: “ If a long distance bird flies 500 miles on a Saturday, it should be capable of performing a 100-mile toss before noon on the next day.  If it can’t recover then it is not worth having, setting yourself a standard of acceptability.”

Rob:  Steve Thorpe said to me yesterday that the only bird that appeared fresh on the perch was the cousin to John Zylstra’s Fed winner, the rest were distressed, that she didn’t feel the effort even though she was the fourth pigeon home she was not visibly distressed.

Peter: My friend, Peter Dykstra had a reasonable club and Section one out at Samford.  It is funny that you mentioned your preference for dark colours? Peter clocked an inbred dark chequer Jan Aarden hen and it too, never looked like it went away while the rest were definitely stressed after a marathon effort.

John Pryor: It is not only the fitness level of a bird when it is sent away but also the efficiency level of that bird; structurally it must be a lot better than the others. Its power to weight ratio is better to those of poor structure and wing as it has to carry its body for those hours and finish fresh.

If they haven’t got the wing to do it they won’t finish fresh at that distance.

Rob: John Zylstra’s Fed hen was brilliant in the wing and was exactly as John described it would be without ever seeing the bird until it came home. Her under wing feathering is as long as her back wing. You know Peter if John was a betting man, he would have bet whatever he had in his pocket that the hen had the wing to do the job.

Peter: My friend Bill Cowell (Bilco) was first to ever publish this observation which is to hold the bird head towards you and put your thumbs on each side of the bird parallel to the sides, the wing joint is normally dead center of your thumb.  The closer this bone knuckle is positioned to the bird, the better the distance potential? This book is titled “Pigeon Gas” and is available from “Old Hand” Pigeon Supplies, Devon UK and can be ordered through the Editor of “The Journal” if requested.

John Pryor: You keep going on that one but what are you looking for Peter?

Peter:  I thought it has something to do with a short fore wing, the shorter the fore wings the less resistance?

John Pryor: John Ellis, a famous British long distance fancier, spoke to me about this and I believe John is the best long distance flyer in Scotland.  About four years ago he told me about this thumb theory and I cottoned on to it straight away.  We were in a group of people and I told him one of my pet secrets and we both clicked onto the same thing about the wing, the others there did not know what we were on about.
What you are measuring with your thumb is measuring the mass of the pectoral muscles. You take your thumb with you wherever you go. It won’t change wherever you go it stays the same dimension to measure accurately. Don’t forget they are racing two-year-old widowhood cocks over there not yearlings. I have to downgrade a lot of what John Ellis is saying to compensate for the differences in our immature birds to fully developed European race birds.

You line up the edge of the thumb with the outside edge of the pigeon’s wing. (In John Ellis’ case the little bone on the top used to miss the inside of his thumb when the pigeon’s wing was in the tucked position. His bird’s wing was thicker than his thumb.  His matured cocks had to be that way or it was no good to him.  When you have a bird that has nice pectoral muscles you can measure this muscle by the proximity of the wing butt which is closer to the body than those with weak muscle volume. This bone is therefore extended outward more towards the outer wing.

Now, if you measure the width of the back wing and I measure the first feather of the secondary feathers. If you lift this feather out measure from the wing butts back to the top of the secondary as against the wing butt to the end of the wing. The ratio should be 2:1 or better!

If that first measurement is 100 ml when the wing is in a closed position, then from the same front of the wing butt to the wing tip it should be 200 ml or better, hence a 2:1 ratio.

The longer the wing the better for distance and conversely, the shorter the wing, the more it suits a sprint pigeon or a bird you are going to get on a blow home.  It’s rare you clock a pigeon with a long thin wing on a blow home.  Sprint pigeons need the type with wings similar to little doves you see flying around the garden.

Peter:  I am positive you have it wrong as Mr. Ellis got the facts from Bill Cowell (Bilco).  There is no doubt that Bilco was and is the first one to discover this method and publish it.  By the way Bill was “Old Hand” also.  I took the liberty of e-mailing him for his opinion, which is listed below and is very explicit.

Bill Cowell:
From: William Cowell <bilco@btinternet.com>
To: Bron and Pete <bronpete@launch.net.au>
Subject: Re: Wing FACT!
Date: Wednesday, 14 October 1998 22:45

 “Gentlemen, MY - repeat MY - wing theory isn't a theory at all, its a fact. John Ellis and all the others now use it as their long distance selection criteria. It cannot fail. If the bird has it then it can fly the distance, if it hasn't then it can't. No ifs, no buts, no maybes.   Discovered by me in 1954 Published 1981, in "Secret of Selection". Copyright Bill Cowell.”

Rob: I believe some of the pigeons have the ability to find a higher altitude and take advantage of tail winds.  What beats me is that so many distance pigeons have slightly bushy tail feathers.  Very seldom have I seen better types of long distance pigeons with a single tail feather. Some of my observations as a young man were in recognizing the Brisbane’s famous O’Toole Brothers long distance pigeons, all had wide tails and they were exceptional long distance birds.

John Pryor: Most of my better pigeons look like they’re eggy, the distance across the rump is very pronounced.  The under wing feathers have a number of small feathers (in the pit of the wing) which should be long and broad and square and go up to the end of the back wing all good long distance pigeons have this characteristic. Does anybody remember the name of these feathers as we all racked our brains but to know avail? (author: Mr. Editor would you ask Dr. Walker for elaboration on this point please?) The more abundant and the longer and broader of these feathers the better the long distance capabilities. Do you know why?  I’ll tell you because these feathers fill in the gaps in the back wing and further decrease air drag when flying.

Curved wings are what I am after, nothing in nature is straight including any surface of a pigeon and the best birds have this plus a flick at the end of the flights turning sharply down. The wing is like a propeller on an airplane, like an airscrew. If you look down the quills you see the curve along the quill, the best pigeons curve all the way, it is continuous, like a bow no straightness anywhere. The wing from the other angle should have a second curve, again no straightness in the quills. This double action, first one way and then the other, the boomerang curve is nothing more than the principle of the air screw which was the design of the propeller.  The flick on the end I mentioned before is very important.

Do you know about the Velcro in the feathers, can you hear it when I separate this flights, the wear marks they get on the wings after a hard fly is the Velcro of the flights hooking into each other when they fly?  When they take off from the feathers are open on the upstroke and close on the down stroke the better the locking of the feathers the better the pigeon. Only the best have this factor whether they are any distance but definitely for ultra long distance.  A lot of birds with silky feathers have better Velcro for some reason.  You’ll hear it when they are good in this factor; the feather will double back on it self, between 6-7, 7-8,8-9 primaries the feather should grip. They are feathers with hooks on them that lock into each other like my interlocked fingers.

A Brisbane pigeon flyer went to the Janssen Brother’s lofts. The tourist visited the remaining Brother who was intrigued at the Australian's method of looking at the wing. He asked him what he was doing and why?  He was intrigued as he acknowledged that no one had ever shown him that feature in all the years he was in the sport.

 There should be no gaps in the feathers between secondaries and an abundant number of feathers to close all the gaps, which causes drag and turbulence.  The more feathers they have under will negate the drag and buffeting and turbulence.

Looking down the quill like we were looking for that bow we can see birds sitting in your loft with it’s wing closed. You can see a line starting from the butt of the wing curving around and go all the way up.  Most of the Janssens and the better sprint pigeons will start the curve and go straight.  It curves around and when it comes to where the flight feathers start it will go straight.  The best race birds will have that curve go all the way around with no flat leading edges.  The best long distance pigeons (looking down the quill) have the curve all the way (Note the quill is not the front edge of the quill (feather shaft) but the dark area to the center of the feather which is marked by a black line). In nature there are never straight lines, sharks, dolphins, and no straight lines all aerodynamic to avoid drag.  I have seem some flights curve the other way like a bowie knife effect and I can tell you now they are no good for anything.

John Villany: You know in the four years of being in the sport I have never understood this and you have been the only person to clearly explain the benefits of  the difference in wing types.  I can not pick it up in books. These practical lessons are great!

Rob: Getting back to your theory on the wing, John you went through my birds and I was listening and not saying much. You told me the worst one’s I had were the few imports bearing in mind that some were distant from the winners.  They were chalk and cheese to my old family.  As a matter of fact I have reconsidered the mating system today after seeing John select the cream out of my stock loft on type and wing etc.  The producers in my loft that regularly produce classic pigeons have John’s wing and feather theory characteristics to a tee and the others haven’t.

John Pryor: Rob your best cock is not even mated to your best hen.  So that gives you a bit of an idea that like breeds like.  There are thirteen things that I look for and there are certain things that put a pigeon into a category of sprint, middle, and long distance blood. Every one has got characteristics pertaining to their category no matter what the bloodline.  I told Rob Marshall (a well known avian veterinarian from Sydney) this and told him to view the 800-mile winner. You can see the wing tells you the story.  I may have never seen a champion distance pigeon before but I can pick out the Alice Springs pigeon out of a loft (1320km category) easily purely by the above method.

Rob:  I believe the Mornay Fed winner  (1200km last weekend) was the best wing I had seen but I forgot to check the dam and took a look and the bluntness and broadness of the under wing and the step in the wing. It was all there; she was the same as her dam!

John Pryor: They have to moult their first year to get a decent step all 500 milers will have a pronounced step unless they win it in a ridiculous six-hour blow home and then the middle distance characteristics take over.  Once they fly 8 to 9 hours on the wing you’ll find without question that there will be a pronounced step up and the further you go the more pronounced the step would be, I guarantee it.  If you were breeding pigeons Peter, and you mated it to one that hadn’t the same characteristics then you are wasting your time.  It doesn’t work, you breed some good ones but you reduce your chances down.  If I could say to you, go to the TAB and put your money on a horse that has an 80% chance of winning are you going to back a 20% chance?  Its exactly the same with pigeons, if things start to fall into categories and it is successful time after time and is repetitive as mushrooms coming up after rain, you have got to agree that’s what you have to do?  It works.

Peter:  Are the Studs conning us with the need for a cross?

Rob: No Peter, the fanciers are conning themselves buying pigeons with fancy names and no performances.

John Pryor: They have good and bad pigeons to in their category but you must bring a similar bird into the correct category.  There is going to be differences in survival and some will be lost also. The basket will prove the ultimate test

Rob: Trevor Steed from the Central Cumberland Fed in Sydney would have to be one of the best, if not the best flyer in that Fed over the last 20 years.  He won’t have a pigeon unless it has a decent step up in the wing. It is the one thing that he looks for in the wing of his pigeons.

John Pryor: If that is what he looks for and sticks to that theory he will end up with top long distance pigeons, they will fly the sprints and tail wind days also but shine at distance.

Rob:  I think we are buying fashionable names and not looking for performance, especially current winners.  I remember one day when Rod Hatherly (a chap who raced pigeons in our Federation successfully for many years) went to a sale and he said to me that he was not staying, as there was no performance in the birds at the sale and he was on the mark!  I have never heard of anyone clocking anything bred from those birds from that sale to this day.

John Pryor: We look for the step up in the wing, what is the back wing or secondaries going to look like?  What shape of the secondaries do you think?  I’ll guarantee you that 95% of good long distance pigeons have a square back wing. Not rectangular but square in shape.

A good middle distance cock we saw today had a straight line of secondaries with a rectangular back wing with a cut out going back into the body. The distance from the tip of the secondaries to the back should correlate to the width.
Rectangular shaped birds without the cutback are not as good as those with the cut backs for middle distance.  Curved back wings are useless for racing.

If you look at a sparrow or a fowl you’ll find the back wing width from front to back is much longer than the speed birds that fly (i.e. swifts, swallows). They have very narrow long thin wings with short back wings so that when their flight wings are out there is less resistance to drag.  If you have ever been in an aeroplane the pilot coming in to land extends the wing out and you feel the shudder of the air brakes.  The extra distance across this back wing extension creates drag. Therefore, the faster the plane goes there will be more drag.  This is due to the width of the back wing, (the same with the pigeon, the more the back wing is broader, and the more energy it has to expend to endeavour to keep the pace up with the others).
If there was less drag the pace can be kept up with less expenditure of energy over a longer period.
Feeding

Peter: Can you tell me for the interview why you feed the way you do and what you are trying to achieve?  What makes you beat the carbohydrate loaders?

John Pryor: The number one thing that I know within reason is that the protein content of carbohydrate grains ranges from 4 to 16%, the average is around 12% but it can go much higher.

The same with peas ranging from 20 – 24% depends on variety.  Tic beans can go from 24 – 26%, spotted lupines can go to 38- 40% protein.  The most overlooked thing in grains that most people ignore is the moisture content in the grain they are feeding. The carbohydrates content, the fat content and so it goes on with different things in different grains.  A lot of people feed barley because a lot of flyers know that pigeons don’t like it and think keep their fat content down.  Now if I told you that peas are half the fat content of barley you would call me a blithering idiot. In fact they are half the fat content of barley.  When they rate them out barley comes out at 1.8 fat content whilst peas come out at 0.9% Dunn peas are slightly higher! The same thing goes with carbohydrate content of other grains; most people don’t know the carbohydrate or fat content of food. Surely the first thing we need to do to fly in sprints is to reduce the fat level OK?  You don’t need a lot of fat in sprints do you?  The less fat the speed content improves, with peas, the carbohydrate content is quite high but a lot of flyers have never looked up the percentage.

Now I can tell you the number is around 59.1 for peas. Now when you look at maize it is around 68, therefore the difference between carbohydrates and legumes is negligible.  When you are looking at a difference of 12 it is only 1/12th less than carbohydrate seeds.  I can tell you that if you feed 1½ ounces of carbohydrates and I can do exactly the same on peas (with a less fat content and a high carbohydrate and a high protein) and I feed less in weight than you do to get the same performance.  If you use regular petrol you need more than high-octane petrol to achieve a performance level out of the motor.  Pigeons are exactly the same with a high protein that does exactly the same job. I feed by hand and stop when a couple of birds go to water that’s it. Early in the season I feed once a day and later in the year twice a day and then extreme distance I hopper feed them and take it away when I see they have finished. I never allow feed to remain in front of them all day.

Rob & John Villany: Do you prefer maples or dunn peas?

John Pryor: Dunn peas!  They are not as toxic than maples as they are grown in dryer areas than maples and therefore the moisture content is down as far as you can get it down.  Overseas the feed is cooked in the ovens to reduce the moisture content to kill mould.  It reduces the vitamin content, which is negligible to the danger of allowing moisture near their feed.

Rob: I’m still amazed how many people still feed maple peas in Australia.  I’ve had success with dunn peas but haven’t fed maple peas for years.

John Pryor: Peter as you know the maize, wheat and safflower is grown on both irrigated paddocks and dry paddocks. Which one would you buy and why?

Peter:  After our discussion I would go for the dry paddock to eliminate the mould risk.

John Pryor: Exactly, but most people prefer the good looking grains which are full of moisture and they are in trouble before they start racing with that feed.

My mix is dunn peas and tic beans, plus a small amount of other legumes, except mung beans. They are out as they are the worst of the lot as they have severe toxins under the skin. They are OK sprouted but not natural.  I give a handful of safflower, milo or rice to 25 –30 birds as a trapping mix to get them in. I give them a special mixture of small seeds on the day of the race and when they come home but only a little bit. An hour after they have trapped I fed them a solid mix but again a small amount only.  Then every Sunday night I give a handful of oil seeds for every 20 birds as an ice cream mix. All carbohydrate feeds I buy must be low moisture content.

Keep them on the tooth up to the three and four hundred-mile points and from then on you have to build up the fat levels for the extreme distance. I take about two weeks to do it. You have to get rid of all the old fat and build up new fat for the racing.

I don’t race my birds or risk a bad toss and leave two weeks before the big event. My Alice Springs Federation winner (1320 km) this year was tossed on the Monday night went away on the Tuesday night and was released on the Friday. I felt she needed locking down on Saturday and Sunday.  I feed peas and you have to be a hard toss man, don't toss heavy with carbohydrates, as it won't work. If you were a farmer and are used to doing a lot of hard work you cannot do that work on cake, biscuits and spaghetti, am I wrong or am I right?

Rob:  Absolutely, I have never seen a hard workingman eat that way, they always get into the high protein/carbohydrate diet or they go under.  They won’t survive on cakes, scones and sugars etc. Instant energy doesn’t last. Watch the same kids in the boxing game, they eat wrong and by the fourth and fifth round they die mainly because they live in fast food places and don’t eat fresh fruit and vegetables and pasta and just can’t go the distance.

John Pryor: A lot of sportsmen give themselves a carbohydrate boost before a big event and a lot of long distance athletes regulate their carbohydrate protein and vitamin levels.

After they do a lot of training they taper off and leave the carbohydrate foods and eat more protein but before they compete in the big event they do as Rob says the night before. They load themselves with carbohydrates.

Now what happens is your body is worked on it for a long time and on it then the athletes starve the body of carbohydrate and exist on a protein diet, then switch back to boost before an event?  My birds have a protein diet and I downgrade them the week before their race by not feeding them very much on the Friday so that when they have a Friday afternoon toss they don’t eat or drink much and their body is non functional. So when I toss on a Friday night as I often do, they have that 50-minute fly which drains a lot of fat out of their system.

They come home (and they still get little food) and I basket them up for another fly for two hours on the Saturday.  This drags out the fat and toxins to download them for the following week the same as the Saturday race birds who are dragged down. This is done to get their pinfeathers out and eliminate the toxins

If I let my birds on a Friday morning they would fly for hours as they are in peak fitness. Therefore I leave them in the loft, as they would go bananas in the air. So then I toss them Friday and Saturday with little food and keep them on a saw tooth fitness scale where I can keep them on a level of peak for eight weeks.  That’s why some last three weeks and they are gone.  I control them by peaking them when I wish them to fly.  I do not use any drugs, medications, salts, electrolytes, and only warm water when they come home. The quicker you achieve peak fitness the shorter they will hold that level, the object is to get them fit slowly.

Rob:  There are two sayings in sport “ No pain no gain” and “A slow gain is a sure gain”. I don’t think you have to push them too hard anyway or they are gone by the end of the season.

John Pryor: That’s right, spot on Rob!  But I would have to say the people that live in Adelaide who train them hard are in the top results more often than not Rob? A lazy flyer has lazy pigeons and a person who works them a lot do not have lazy pigeons will succeed.

Rob: Most fanciers don’t know how far to push their birds not knowing when to stop. The line is so fine!

John Pryor: Every one has to know when and why to toss, sometimes I’ll know when to lock them down so as not to get them to go over the edge. You will see some birds flapping around on the floor and then they will tell you they are getting over the stress.
There is only one way to de-stress pigeons and that is to lock the birds down in a preferably darkened loft and always give them a warm bath either in the loft or outside.  Sometimes I put chunky salt in a warm bath a let them lie in it, they relax and they do not even pass droppings as they are sitting there relaxing.  Just leave them; don’t touch them just leave them alone quietly resting, if they are in the loft leave them quiet.  Never disturb them after a bath and never force them to fly and completely relax themselves.  If inside the loft put a big tray on the floor and put a smaller tray inside the large tray to avoid loft spills.  Everything is natural as possible to show natural health.  I don’t even worm as I clean my loft of contaminants and break the cycle naturally, no drugs needed here either.

John Villany: What about the toxicity level of peas?

John Pryor: That’s a very interesting one and I will remind Rob of our conversation about the bloom feathers dropping off into the loft when the birds hit form.  Everybody likes to see that because the toxins are removed from their body through their feathers. When they moult they replace all their feathers so when they have a good moult all the toxins in the body comes out through the blood quills. The scale from the feather contains all the toxins. After the moult the birds have fewer toxins in their body from stress and are at their best health, they always look their best after as moult because the toxins are gone.

We should always drag our birds down once a week by tossing or feeding to force those birds to loose those pinfeathers near the rump to allow toxins to expel.

When we see pinfeathers in the loft we know that within two weeks after the fall of the down (or pinfeathers) we know they will be in form.  Those feathers will only be lost after a hard race or hard toss and then it will happen naturally.

Results : Below are John’s results against some of the hardest competition this decade.

1990 Season: 9th SAHPA Aggregate Points 104 points against 475 members entering 54,121 birds in 12 races.

Season Highlights: 1st 2nd and 4th from Alice Springs 1321 km 130 owners sent 421 birds and the winning velocity was 1000.837 mpm.  In this race John had the only two birds home on the second day 52 seconds apart.

1991 Season: 2nd SAHPA Aggregate Points gaining 156points against 470 members entering 52234 birds in 13 races.
Season Highlight: 1st SAHPA Emmadale 10 bird Special 632 km, 318 owners sent 2599 birds and the winning velocity was 951.599mpm.

1992 Season: 5th SAHPA Aggregate Points gaining 106 points against 464 members entering 58671 birds in 11 races.
Season Highlight: 1st Alice Springs 1321 km 149 owners and John had the only bird home on the second day with a velocity of 918.801 mpm.

1993 Season: 1st SAHPA Aggregate Points gaining 121 points against 454 members entering 52416 birds in 14 races.

Season Highlight: 1st SAHPA Morundah 701 km 241 0wners sent 3032 birds and the winning velocity was 882.165mpm. This bird was the only bird clocked before darkness fell and has proven her worth as a breeder of stock and race birds at all distances.

1994 Season: 2nd SAHPA Aggregate Points gaining 160 points against 465 members entering 44370 birds in 15 races.

1995 Season: 1st SAHPA Aggregate Points gaining 279 points against 444 members entering 46627 birds in 16 races.  The 279 points John gained was the first time any member of the SAHPA had gained more than 200 points and exceeded the SAHPA previous record of 191 which John attained in the 1988 season.

Season Highlights: 1st Temora 817 km,196 owners sent 1713 birds and the winning velocity was 1035.073mpm.  The bird was clocked approximately one hour after sunset winning by over two hours in front of the next bird.

1996 Season: 1st SAHPA Aggregate Points gaining 191 points against 44 members entering 43024 birds in 14 races.

1997 Season: 1st SAHPA Aggregate Points gaining 164 points against 420 members entering 45963 birds in 14 races.

Season Highlights: 1st SAHPA Coleambally No.1 663 kms 226 owners sent 2432 birds and the wining velocity was 1107.398 mpm

1st 2nd and 3rd SAHPA Coleambally No.2 - 663 kms 196 owners sent 2067 birds and the wining velocity was 1347.242 mpm.  These three birds landed together and the interesting connection between these three birds is that their fathers are three full brothers all being son’s of the 1993 Season Morundah winner when she was mated to her nephew.

1998 Season: 1st SAHPA Aggregate Points gaining 192 points from 14 races.

Season Highlight: 1st Alice Springs 1321km 129 owners sent 507 birds with a winning velocity of 951.219 mpm This was a smash race with only two birds home on the second day and 14 birds home after four days.

1st SAHPA Five Bird Series: This series is where you choose between 1 to 5 birds per week and nominate them at $2 per bird for every race of the calendar. Points are allocated over the season.

All the above results are against open competition and do not include club/section results or short /middle distance races.