The Hundred Dollar Gilt

In 1990 my children were 13, 10 and 8 years old. I really wanted one of them to win the county fair market hog championship.



So I bought a beautiful female pig from Art Meranda near Georgetown. She was half Hampshire and half Duroc, some call a Karate cross pig, the knockout kick of crossbred pigs.



The oldest boy got to show her because we knew he would go to college first. A few extra dollars never hurts in college.

I wish he could write this blog from his perspective. We worked so hard but we had so much fun with six pigs. You could tag in in two pigs for each child. There wasn't a bad pig in the bunch and they all placed.

Tom Farrer, the swine judge from Indiana, fell in love with that pig from the first time she walked out the gate. That is very important in swine judging and in life, that first impression.

When we unloaded her from the trailer, one of our competitors saw her and said where in the hell did you find that pig? Brown County, I answered.

Brown County is an Appalachian County that some people in Clinton County wanted no part of. Yet a part of those counties border each other.

The hundred dollar gilt was judged Reserve Champion of 900 pigs in the show. That show was so big and so popular that one local grocer bid $2700 for her. I put that check in a capital investment that grew to $27,000 by the time the money was used for college.

Never be afraid of spending a hundred dollars on a pig or anything you need want to invest in. Groceries are one thing but hundred dollar pigs are another.

That brings up a new blog, what it costs to raise a pig.

I hope I get a chance to write it, it is almost time to plant corn.

Ed Winkle