Nick Sabo/Mount Vernon News
Cooper Freeman and his dad, Drew Freeman, brush down a hog before the start of Thursday’s swine show. The show was the finale of the 2020 Knox County Fair.
MOUNT VERNON — A good hog starts with its feet.
Looking at the hogs in the ring during the Junior Fair swine show Thursday at the Knox County Fair, it was easy for the practiced eye of judge Jamie May to see hams, pork loin and even bacon in the structure of each animal. But when looking at an animal, he starts at the hooves and goes up.
“I look at the feet and legs,” May said. “If they can’t walk, they can’t get up to their market weight.”
An underweight animal can be picked out at the breeder’s when purchasing a hog for a fair project, May said. If problems continue with the hog’s weight, it may be time to see a veterinarian.
After the feet, the next thing a judge looks at is the muscle and fat.
“You look for the right muscle/fat combo,” May said. “We’re trying to get the best product for the consumer. Also, there is still the display of the animal — this is still a pig show.”
The swine show was the last for this year’s fair. A few food buggies within a stone’s throw from the swine barn were open, offering food to lines only two or three people deep; a few lambs still on the grounds from the previous day’s sale bleated as they were loaded up for the trip home.
The quiet was welcome to Dakota’s parents, Chuck and Jodi Ricketts. Dakota and his sister, Massie, 10, who is also a member of Trailblazers 4-H Club, had three projects between them, making for a long fair week, Jodi said.
“I told them we weren’t going to be in three barns this year — then the whole COVID thing happened,” Jodi said. “From a parent’s standpoint, it’s nice that we don’t have the whole hectic fair. It’s been a little calmer, because we don’t have to be here feeding hogs all week.”
Down the aisle from the Ricketts, Orissa Humes, 14, with Redbrush 4-H club, was getting her hog ready to march in the ring. Humes has been training the hog to walk with its head raised.
“To show off its muscle to the judge, you have to teach them a certain walk with their head up,” Orissa said. “You just have to take them out and go until they learn.”
Addison Crouch, 18, with East Knox FFA, was showing a hog project for her ninth year in a row. She usually gets two hog projects and takes the better of the pair to the fair. However, with the epidemic, she wasn’t sure there would be a fair at all.
Though there was no showmanship class this year, Crouch noted that it still helps to know how to handle a hog in the ring.
“When you have them outside, you still look at them like a judge would,” Crouch said. “But I guess having no showmanship gave us extra time to focus on their looks.”
