MONROE - Ten-year-old Lily Brewer, of Albany, comes from a five-generation tradition of showing swine at the Green County Fair. Her great-great-grandfather Bill Brewer even went on to the State Fair in 1929 and won a pocket watch that's still in the family.
So Lily knows the rules of keeping pigs cool in hot weather: spray them down with water and keep the barn fans on full blast.
Altogether, Lily and her brother Hunter and cousins Collin Brewer and Sidney and Madelyn Peach had nine pigs in the Junior Swine Show Wednesday, July 17, as the five-day county fair kicked off at the fairgrounds in Monroe. The Peach sisters live in Oregon, just north of the Green-Dane county border, but participate in the Jolly Mixers 4-H Club in Albany to honor their family's tradition of showing at the Green County Fair.
The swine show was scheduled to begin at 8 a.m., but got pushed up to 7 a.m. to beat the worst heat of the day. Muggy weather, with temps in the 90s, is forecasted to last through Friday.
The hog barn was as crowded Wednesday as it will get all week - 168 pigs were signed up to participate in the show, according to UW-Extension ag agent Mark Mayer. Of these, half will stay on for the livestock auction Saturday.
The other 84 will be sold at market price to Tyson Foods and trucked out Thursday morning to their slaughter, Mayer said.
Either way, they'll all be meat soon.
Tess Nafzger, 10, is struggling to come to terms with that macabre detail, because this means "her Joey," as her dad refers to her 252-pound pig, will be meat soon, too.
Tess and her brother Connor, 12, are city dwellers in Monroe but have been raising their pigs since March at a farm outside town.
"We're pretend farmers," joked their dad, Rick Nafzger. Connor and Tess said they were proud of their pigs' muscle tone but they were worried the animals wouldn't make weight. Like many others participating in the swine show, the siblings have been adding cake mix to the pigs' feed to fatten them up.
Being away from home is stressful for the pigs.
"It would stress anybody out," said 16-year-old Gabby Boss, who was showing her 311-pound Scout (named after the character from "To Kill a Mockingbird"). She shared a stall with her 13-year-old brother Owen, who was busy shaving the legs of a pig he named Si, after the star of A&E's "Duck Dynasty." (The reality show inspired at least a few pig names at this year's fair, and the Clarence Bridge Pioneers 4-H out of Brodhead even themed their entries this year as a "Hog Dynasty.")
Keeping pigs happy in a full hog barn kept the junior farmers busy in the early-morning hours before the show began. The pigs were brought in two days earlier and kept at least two to a stall.
Most flopped out in their bedding like beached whales, trying to stay cool by not exerting themselves too much. Fed, washed, shaved and fanned, they grunted in contentment.
Kade Allen, 18, Juda, was sitting in a stall hand-feeding marshmallows to his pig Bandito, and indulging the animal to gulps straight from a bottle of Powerade.
"He won't eat anything else. He's picky," Allen said, pulling pieces like taffy from the melting bag of marshmallows. The Juda High School student has been showing pigs at county fairs since he was eight, and in his opinion, Bandito is just "OK."
Still, Bandito got the full pamper package.
Allen had been with the pig almost all night, until 2 a.m., then returned a few hours later at dawn. Besides the treats, he also planned to mix ice into Bandito's bedding to help him cool off.
So Lily knows the rules of keeping pigs cool in hot weather: spray them down with water and keep the barn fans on full blast.
Altogether, Lily and her brother Hunter and cousins Collin Brewer and Sidney and Madelyn Peach had nine pigs in the Junior Swine Show Wednesday, July 17, as the five-day county fair kicked off at the fairgrounds in Monroe. The Peach sisters live in Oregon, just north of the Green-Dane county border, but participate in the Jolly Mixers 4-H Club in Albany to honor their family's tradition of showing at the Green County Fair.
The swine show was scheduled to begin at 8 a.m., but got pushed up to 7 a.m. to beat the worst heat of the day. Muggy weather, with temps in the 90s, is forecasted to last through Friday.
The hog barn was as crowded Wednesday as it will get all week - 168 pigs were signed up to participate in the show, according to UW-Extension ag agent Mark Mayer. Of these, half will stay on for the livestock auction Saturday.
The other 84 will be sold at market price to Tyson Foods and trucked out Thursday morning to their slaughter, Mayer said.
Either way, they'll all be meat soon.
Tess Nafzger, 10, is struggling to come to terms with that macabre detail, because this means "her Joey," as her dad refers to her 252-pound pig, will be meat soon, too.
Tess and her brother Connor, 12, are city dwellers in Monroe but have been raising their pigs since March at a farm outside town.
"We're pretend farmers," joked their dad, Rick Nafzger. Connor and Tess said they were proud of their pigs' muscle tone but they were worried the animals wouldn't make weight. Like many others participating in the swine show, the siblings have been adding cake mix to the pigs' feed to fatten them up.
Being away from home is stressful for the pigs.
"It would stress anybody out," said 16-year-old Gabby Boss, who was showing her 311-pound Scout (named after the character from "To Kill a Mockingbird"). She shared a stall with her 13-year-old brother Owen, who was busy shaving the legs of a pig he named Si, after the star of A&E's "Duck Dynasty." (The reality show inspired at least a few pig names at this year's fair, and the Clarence Bridge Pioneers 4-H out of Brodhead even themed their entries this year as a "Hog Dynasty.")
Keeping pigs happy in a full hog barn kept the junior farmers busy in the early-morning hours before the show began. The pigs were brought in two days earlier and kept at least two to a stall.
Most flopped out in their bedding like beached whales, trying to stay cool by not exerting themselves too much. Fed, washed, shaved and fanned, they grunted in contentment.
Kade Allen, 18, Juda, was sitting in a stall hand-feeding marshmallows to his pig Bandito, and indulging the animal to gulps straight from a bottle of Powerade.
"He won't eat anything else. He's picky," Allen said, pulling pieces like taffy from the melting bag of marshmallows. The Juda High School student has been showing pigs at county fairs since he was eight, and in his opinion, Bandito is just "OK."
Still, Bandito got the full pamper package.
Allen had been with the pig almost all night, until 2 a.m., then returned a few hours later at dawn. Besides the treats, he also planned to mix ice into Bandito's bedding to help him cool off.