Pig Squeal teaches hog management, marketing to youth

For the last three and a half months, two Franklin County boys have gone hog wild with an annual 4-H program.

Actually, it might be more accurate to say they have gone hog tame, as they have worked to raise to pigs for Pig Squeal to show and auction at the end of April.

Photo by Alison James
Logan Spencer is competing in Pig Squeal for the first time this year. He named his pigs Breakfast and Lunch.

Logan Spencer, a sixth grader at Red Bay, and Rhett Jackson, a sixth grader at Phil Campbell have each been working to grow their pigs and prepare for the showmanship challenge as participants in Pig Squeal. April 29, the young hog-raisers will find out how well they have done.

This is year is the first for Logan, who was eager to embrace the challenge because his family has raised pigs in the past. Growing the pigs has been a fairly straightforward process.

“We haven’t had any problems with them,” Logan said. “You have to clean out the pigpen, make sure they have enough feed and fill their water up.”

Parents Charles and Misty Spencer were on board with his participation from the start.

“I love that he’s active and he’s learning how we get our food to the table. It doesn’t just come from the supermarket; it comes from the farm,” Charles said.

Rhett is participating for the second year. A positive experience last year drove him to sign up again. “It was fun, getting ready for the show and going that day, showing them and getting awards,” Rhett said.

He enjoys “watching them as they’re young and watching them grow.” Taking care of the pigs is a daily responsibility.

“They can’t have too much food, and they’ve always got to have water because they don’t sweat,” Rhett explained. “And you need to keep their pen clean because whenever they get really heavy, if they’re walking on mud all the time, it might hurt their feet.”

The responsibility aspect is part of the program parents Steven and Chasity Jackson value. In addition to morning chores, “Eeery afternoon he fills up their water again and cleans out their pen, and in the winter we have to come over here extra early because if it was really cold, you have to bust ice to make sure they would have water,” Chasity explained.

Although Logan and Rhett have both enjoyed getting raise their pigs, neither have any misconception about the ultimate purpose behind pig-raising. As Logan put it, “I like pigs. They taste good.” Although participants are warned against naming their pigs, Rhett affectionately refers to his animals and Sausage and Biscuit. Logan’s pigs are named Breakfast and Lunch.

“His first piece of sausage last year, he said, ‘I feel a little weird about this,’ but he got over it pretty quick,” Chasity said.

Of their two pigs, participants choose one pig to show and auction, and they can get to keep the other. For each Franklin County family, both pigs will likely wind up butchered – at the show and auction April 29, processing will be available on-site for purchased pigs.

“It’s a great program for the kids because they can learn so much about livestock, and 4-H maintains good quality pigs for the kids to have,” Charles added. “All of them have an equal chance of winning.”

Participants will be judged on their showmanship abilities, including how they walk the pig and their knowledge about production and caretaking.

“They might ask them about what kind of feed they’re using, or they might ask them about the parts of the pig or the different cuts of meat that come from it,” Chasity explained.

The 4-H Pig Squeal Show and Auction will begin at 10 a.m. April 29 at the Muscle Shoals fairgrounds.

“We are so happy they chose to participate,” said Extension Director Katernia Cole-Coffey. “This is going to really open up future doors for them concerning agriculture.”

And despite the straightforward nature of raising the pigs, Cole-Coffey said Pig Squeal is no easy feat.

“It takes a lot of work,” she said. “They’re cute when they’re on that piece of paper we pass out … but when you actually get them, you have to do a lot of work to take care of the pigs.” She said Logan, Rhett and their families are “really to be commended.”