This little piggy...
Kathleen Woodford Mineral Independent | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 7 years, 6 months AGO
MSU Extension agent Dave Brink puts an identification tattoo on a pig’s ear. Black ink is applied and then the number is pressed into the skin.
4-H member Jonna Warnken’s pig weighed a whopping 110 pounds at Sunday’s 4-H pig weigh-in. (Kathleen Woodford/Mineral Independent)
A 4-H pig gets lifted onto the scale to be weighed during the first weigh-in for members. Pigs were born between January and February and will be auctioned off during the Mineral County Fair in August. (Kathleen Woodford/Mineral Independent)
Baylee and John Pruitt brought their pigs “Thunder” and “Snow” to the 4-H weigh-in last Sunday at the Superior fairgrounds.
4H pigs were tagged and tattooed with an identification number and weighed last Sunday in Superior. (Kathleen Woodford/Mineral Independent).
Mineral County 4-H members showed up on a drizzly Sunday afternoon to get their pigs weighed and tagged for this year’s summer fair.
They met in the barn at the fairgrounds in Superior where Dave Brink with the MSU Extension office and other 4-H members first put the squealing pigs on the scales. They then placed them in a wheelbarrow and put a tag on one ear and then tattooed an identification number in the other ear. The number on the tag and tattoo are the same, just in case the tag falls off. Neither procedures hurts the pigs, it’s similar to a person getting their ears pierced.
Fifteen pigs have been entered in this year’s county fair, which takes place the first part of August. St. Regis Camo Critters and the Superior Rustlers have participating members. The pigs, born between mid-January and the first part of February, varied in weight from 43 to 110 pounds. The weight variation depends on when the piglets were born, the breed and what they’re being fed. By fair time they will average 250 pounds and be auctioned off for market.
Brother and sister, Baylee and John Pruitt ,who are in the 7th and 5th grade in St. Regis, brought in their Hampshire and Berkshire mix pigs, “Thunder” and “Snow.” They weighed in at about 58 pounds. The money raised from the pigs will go into their college fund.