She was a white Yorkshire-cross pig from Cache County, Utah, named "Brows" for the unusual brown crescent markings that arched above her eyes, like some accidental Groucho Marx tribute.
Brows had done well in local Future Farmers of America stock shows, well enough that her owner, 16-year-old Megan Birchell, was willing to miss a little school to drive the 296-pound prize winner to the Northern International Livestock Exposition Jr. Fed Market Swine Show.
“She’s done really well,” Birchell said, as she waited with Brows for a turn at the pig wash. “As she’s gained weight, she’s done a little better. I raised her mom, and then I got the first pick of the litter. She’s the best one.”
The contest was won by another Utah teen, Haygen Kogaines, of Spanish Fork.
The drive to Billings was nine and a half hours for Birchell, but this was no ordinary pig show. The five days of stock shows and rodeo that highlight the NILE bring the best animals from all over the West. Brows would have to beat out competition from as far away as Colorado. The child who won out would have some contest money for his college fund, maybe even a scholarship if he attracted enough interest.
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Ahead of Brows and Birchell at the wash, Brooke Howard was finishing off her 260-pound Hampshire named Annabelle with a little Mane and Tail conditioner, just to soften up the swine’s wiry coat a bit. Birchell had two pigs to show. The other one, a male named Donkey, had a nasty habit of walking the show pen perimeter in competition looking for a way out. There’s nothing worse than trying to guide a pig in front of a judge when all the animal wants to do is head home.
Howard put a clean Annabelle back in a pen and immediately walked Donkey to the arena to work out the kinks.
“He has his moments,” she said, guiding Donkey across the arena with little effort, until he spotted the gate.
Travel can throw a swine off her game. They might choose not to eat, or maybe just object to the taste of chlorinated city water.
With a half hour before the show was to start, 14-year-old Karlie Snell, of Worden, was spinning like a top. She had judging exercises to do on three different livestock competitions as part of her FFA program. She also had to change out of her Montana blue FFA jacket and into her show clothes: a turquoise blouse and jeans with pasted gems on the seams and pockets. Her mom, Valarie Snell, was managing accessories both for Karlie and the girl’s Hampshire cross gilt, Daisy. Valarie Snell offered a hand to shake and then thought better of it after realizing she’d been handling Daisy quite a bit. The things a mom will do to keep a blond-haired, blue-eyed teen on the high road.
“If I can keep her showing hogs, I can keep her away from boys,” Valarie Snell said. “She’s pretty cute, but of course I’m biased.”
Karlie Snell doesn’t just show pigs; she raises her own show stock, using artificial insemination to bring out the traits she wants in the animals she shows. Many children simply go shopping for a show pig at the beginning of every year, feed it up and get it ready for the FFA circuit.
Snell is carefully breeding broad shoulders into her animals so they don’t have muscular features in the back that taper to nothing definitive in the front. She’s also breeding in bigger bone structure, so each animal's health doesn’t deteriorate as they put on weight.
“I love pigs, and I love their personalities,” Karlie Snell said. “They’re really sweet, and they’re actually a lot like dogs. They’re pretty affectionate.”
A few of Snell's pigs have turned out to be runners, a little too amped up for the show ring. So the daughter and mother take their swine out to a hayfield and walk them until they’re calm and ring ready.
A calm pig is the only pig to have at the biggest event of the year.