Hog Heaven is a family affair

By MIKE JAMES - The Independent

COALTON August 15, 2007 01:37 am

— The owner of the grand champion hog at the Boyd County Fair hopes to be a pig farmer one day.
And who is this strapping youth with the ambition to be a pork producer?
Actually, it’s this diminutive little blond girl over here, Baylee Henderson. She’s 9 and loves pigs the way other little girls love ponies.
It all started when she was maybe 2 years old and saw the animated film “Charlotte’s Web.” She loved Wilbur and admired the big blue ribbon he won.
Before too long, her bedroom was decorated in a pig motif, said her mother, Penny Barber, and four years ago she raised a pig and entered it in the fair.
She named it Willie, after a character in a book. The book was about a boy who turned into a pig.
Baylee’s pig won first place in that fair. But she didn’t want to sell it. “I cried when I sold it and I wanted to do it again,” she said.
She’s entered every year since then and named her pigs Willie II, Willie III and Willie IV.
Oh, and once her two sisters and her brother saw her ribbon, and the bucks she brought home from the auction, they all wanted pigs of their own.
So by now it’s a family affair, with Nik Barber, 14; Haley Barber, 9; and Tanner Henderson, 8, all in the show ring with their hogs.
Haley’s is named Willeata Hog. “Get it? Willeata?” demands Tanner, whose own pig bears the ironic moniker Have Mercy.
Their mother coaches them from outside the show ring and gets to help wash the pigs before the show.
Baylee plans to use the proceeds from selling Willie IV to buy a female pig and start breeding piglets.
Pigs and goats were featured on Tuesday at the fair; steers, sheep, chickens and rabbits will enter the ring on Thursday, and the auction will follow that show.
It’s the first year the fair has had separate livestock shows, a sign of its continued growth, said livestock chairman John McGlone.
Last year there were about 30 animals in all categories. This year’s entries numbered about 70, including horses.
That means three barns filled to capacity with livestock, he said. “We could use another barn.”
Still more encouraging, he said, is the youth of some of the competitors, many of which are dwarfed by their animals.
To McGlone, that means the ranks of exhibitors are being augmented by children who will be showing livestock for many years to come.
This year, the fair board allowed youngsters who wanted to show animals, but who couldn’t keep their stock at home because of zoning or other issues, to board them at the fairgrounds, McGlone said.
The rules to do so were strict; owners had to tend to their animals every day, which meant frequent trips to the fairgrounds. “It teaches a different kind of responsibility,” he said. And it shows just how badly children want to be part of the fair, he believes.
The growth in 4-H livestock competition augers well for agriculture in the county, said Boyd agricultural extension agent Lyndall Harned. “I think it’s in good hands.”

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