I have a good reason. My daughter is visiting from Arizona for a week. We're spending the time catching up and watching my nephews show their pigs at the fair next week. I'll check in when I can but computer time is going to be limited. You all take care!
Oh the pig thing.....all you vegan/vegetarians may not want to read on. My nephews as well as all three of my kids raised pigs for 4-H. 4-H is a program that was started in rural communities for youth to come together and learn skills that might help them grow into responsible muture adults. You can do almost any kind of 4-H project from sewing, to canning jam, to raising market animals. I was a 4-H pig leader for 5 years as well as a 4-H Adventures leader for 2 years. 4-H adventures was for small children. We learned about community workers, science, and stuff like that. We did stuff like paint with spaghetti. In a animal group, you are basically learning how to raise a good animal to eat. You also learn social skills while raising money for your club or doing community service projects like collecting food for the needy, ect. Now, it may seem kind of cruel. Basically these kids make these pigs (or sheep, cows, turkeys, chickens, or whatever other kind of animal they are raising) pets. They are tame. They pet them. Give them names. All that. The teach them to lead, to turn, to stop, everything the judge wants them to do in a show ring. Basically they are showing the judge the animal. So they are judged on showmanship and then the animal is judged on quality. However, when you think about market animals. Most of them are raised on slab floors in commercial type places. They never get to play in the mud, eat dog bones, (or other favorite treats), or enjoy human companionship. Even if it is for a few short months. A pig grows to full size in about 5 months, not very long. So in this time they are loved by a 4-H kid and then taken to fair. The kids show the pigs at fair and Sunday and then they auction them off. The community members come and bid on them. 4-H is a non-profit organization so most of their purchase can be written off their taxes. So the kids make well above what they would make if they were to sell their animal at market rate. That is something like 50 cents a pound. At our fair, there is a rule that no one can make more than the Grand Champion but the Grand Champion can get something like $10.00 a pound. Most kids make about $4.00 - $4.50 a pound. An adult pig usually weighs between 220 - 270. So do the math. They make alot of money in just a few months. Most of them put it away for college. I usually let my kids spend some on school clothes but the rest went in the bank for college. Yeah, in the first years there were some tears. (mostly from me) :roflmao: I got attached to those pigs too! On Sunday when fair was over, we would leave (and the pigs) and the trucks would come load them and take them to the meat-packing plants. None of the kids were allowed in the barn when the trucks came. Its just too emotional. They all know what happens to them but they liked to make it as painless as possible. The next year everyone is ready to do it again. So how many of you have raised 4-H animals?
I've never raised them myself, but 4-H is real big in this part of Ohio. There's tons of kids who do it, but I would get too attached to watch them be shipped to the meat-packing plant....Plus, I don't have the land or anything. Oh, and I have no interest in it.
