FFA Vice President and sophomore Kathleen Dykes stands with her pig Big Red after winning multiple awards at the Ring of Dreams pig show at the Jackson County Agricultural Facility on Nov. 27, 2021. Dykes started showing pigs at the beginning of the 2021-22 school year and enjoys multiple different aspects of attending shows. “I like being able to hang out with people that I’ve met through showing pigs and through friends that I have that also show pigs,” Dykes said. “(Pig shows are) really fun to do because you get to show people what you started from day one with and show them how much effort and how much time you spent with the animal and worked with the animal to get to where the pig is now.” Photo courtesy of Kathleen Dykes
FFA Vice President and sophomore Kathleen Dykes will attend her second national pig show with her pig Big Red from Jan. 18 to 23 in Perry, Georgia.
FFA Vice President and sophomore Kathleen Dykes and her pig Big Red are attending the National Junior Swine Association (NJSA) Southeast Regional pig show in Perry, Georgia from Jan. 18 to 23.
Dykes started showing pigs at the beginning of the 2021-22 school year with the help of FFA adviser and career, technical and agriculture education department teacher Levi Carr. At the competition, Dykes and Big Red will compete against approximately 1500 pigs from across the country.
FFA Vice President and sophomore Kathleen Dykes walks her previous show pig Ginger during the showmanship round of the Madison County Agriculture Fair on Sept. 21, 2021 in Madison County. Dykes used winter break as a time to prepare her current pig Big Red for her upcoming competitions. “I work with the pig for almost an hour a day. But I know over Christmas break it was a big time for me to get outside and work with the pig. I got him out three times a day, which is a lot,” Dykes said. “And I’ve got him (on a) different feed ration. Depending on how good the pig looks you give them certain types of food to give them more muscle or more fat, and my pig looks a lot better than it did before.” Photo by Levi Carr
“There are two components to a pig show. One we call showmanship and the second we call weight class. Showmanship is where Kathleen is walking around this arena with her pig, Big Red. Kathleen is the one being judged on how she handles Big Red, and how well Big Red’s personality is,” Carr said. “Now weight class is totally different (because the pig itself is being judged). It’s broken down into divisions, obviously by what we call weight. So (the) pig weighs in (and) they’ve tried to put them close together in weight (with other pigs). They also break them down by breed.”
According to Carr, Dykes has been excelling in the weight class component of pig shows, but on a national stage at the NJSA Southeast Regional pig show, Dykes hopes to challenge herself to perform better.
“I would definitely say that I push myself to do better (for a national show) because (competing is) a bigger deal for nationals,” Dykes said. “Although any pig show is a big deal, to me this is the biggest one and the one that matters for the whole season, which is basically why I’m showing.”
“I would definitely say that I push myself to do better (for a national show) because (competing is) a bigger deal for nationals.”
— Kathleen Dykes,
FFA Vice President and sophomore
Although pig shows focus on competing and performance, Carr believes they have greater significance and are also about improvements to commercial farming through genetic advancements.
“We cannot continue to (feed America) on the same scale and (produce) the exact same animal that we are today. In the show world, we replicate those (genetic) advancements because, on the commercial side of farming, we are not converting feed,” Carr said. “In the show world, that is everything, as well as how we make them look far as trying to make sure that we have our body fat and muscle shape to an ideal amount.”
