For 4-H members Sarah Espey and Morgan Sirianni, both from East Huntingdon, the past several months of feeding, washing, grooming and tending to their market hogs culminated in the judging of their pigs Sunday at the Westmoreland Fair.
"This is all worth it," Espey, 15, said of showing the animals.
"The showing is the fun," Sirianni, 14, added as they awaited results at the market hogs barn at the fairgrounds in Mt. Pleasant Township.
Sunday was judgment day at the Westmoreland Fair for hundreds of llamas, horses, dairy goats, rabbits, lambs, hogs and cattle, as well as for the Espey, Sirianni and fellow 4-H members and families, who have owned and cared for the animals.
As 4-H members paraded their market hogs around a pen outside a barn, Don Hunter, an animal judge and livestock consultant from Grove City, judged the hogs to see how close they were to meeting industry standards for weight and condition. A hog that is too lean does not produce good-tasting pork, Hunter said. Too much fat on the hog means extra fat that has to be sliced off at the dinner table or at the slaughterhouse, and no one wants to pay for that, Hunter said.
"The pork industry is very concerned that the consumer has a positive experience with the pork. If they eat pork and have a bad experience, they won't eat it for a month," said Hunter, who raises Dorsey ewes on his farm.
In addition to Hunter eyeing the hogs for which one would produce the best pork, "carcass sonograms" are conducted on the pigs that are destined to be sold and slaughtered.
The test, for which some pigs squealed and squirmed in a wooden pen more so than others, are done to determine which pigs would provide -- to put it bluntly -- the best meal for the pork lovers. The ultrasound can determine the best ratio between fat and lean, which gives the buyer information on size of the pork chop and backfat they are buying, said Lynn Korns, co-owner of Identical Genetics of Loyalhanna, the ultra-sound company she co-owns with her sister, Lacy Holchin.
Judging by Hunter and the sonogram tests will help determine which of the hogs lying in pens at the fairgrounds will bring the owners the most money. The pigs deemed to be the grand champion carcass and reserve champion carcass and grand champion market hog and reserve market hog are the most coveted, for they will be sold on Saturday and command the most money per pound.
A champion pig can command between $7 per pound and $10 per pound, while a "regular hog," can get the owner between $1.50 per pound to $3 per pound, said Joe Espey, Sarah's father and the operator of a meatpacking business.
Without a designation as a winner, "you're lucky to break even," said Beth Espey, Joe's wife.
The hog farmers need their animals to command as high as price as possible because commercial hog producers have been operating "in the red zone" for the past year, Hunter said. The rise in the price of diesel fuel to run the equipment, feed to keep the hogs fat, and costs of maintenance and repairs are eating into whatever profits farmers can make, he said.
"What they get for their hogs is nowhere near enough to balance the high costs of production," Hunter said. That's forced some hog farmers to go out of business, he said.
The fair continues through Saturday at the fairgrounds.
