The State Fair

A month into school and things have been busy, especially for the Payson FFA Chapter, from the Opening Social and the Parent Travel Meeting to State Fair just a few weeks ago.  

We first  wanted to thank all of the parents and members who attended the Parent Travel Meeting.  Without you and your votes the FFA Chapter would not be able to travel to different activities such as  the FFA State Convention.  

Now to the more exciting news.  As many of you readers may know the Payson FFA members have the opportunity to show market hogs at the state fair.  Hailey Olson writes about her experience:

“This year the Payson FFA Chapter went to the 2014 State Fair Stock Show to show our pigs.  It was a lot of work, a lot of time, and a lot of fun!  Everyone who had pigs, the first day, Thursday the 11th, had to get up early and be at the pig pens ready to go by 5:00a.m. to load the pigs and get up to Salt Lake City in order to get pens and be on time to the weigh in."

“We loaded up, packing ourselves into a suburban headed to Salt Lake. Taylor, Seneca, and I didn’t think to take or wash our stinky boots off, so the smell of fresh pig poop was our sweet fragrant smel the whole way up.  I crashed almost as soon as I hit the seat; I was so tired!"

"We got unloaded and headed over toreserve pens.  It took probably an hour before the pigs showed up, we then unloaded them and began to weigh-in. We had to reorganize them into different pens so they wouldn’t fight.  We ended up getting done around 10:30a.m.  By the time we fed, and got everything figured out, it was time to wash.  Then before we knew it, it was time to show."

“The hog show started at 5:30 beginning with showmanship and then market; so the pigs had to have some endurance.  Our chapter did so well!  We all did pretty well in showmanship and we also did really well in market. In fact,  Michelle Bobo ended up with overall Grand Champion and Courtney Houston got reserve!!"

“The next day, Friday the 12th, was our field trip during which,  the FFA members who did not have pigs could come.  Everyone expected to go up and ride rides and eat food etc., but they didn't even open 'till 1:00p.m. and we had to leave at 1:15 p.m.! Actually, a few things were open, so we did pig out a bit, but there was hardly anyone there so we were trying to find something to do.  We went to this duck game where you choose ducks and on the bottom of the ducks was written a size: S, M,  and L.  Well, we started to pick up the ducks and see the sizes and I am not kidding you, the majority were smalls, only a couple were mediums and there were like no larges!  So Seneca slashed a mark on the duck's head for a medium and I got the one with a black mark on its head! So the next day we won our prizes!"

“The next day, Saturday the 13th, was the sale.  It was a long day and we all did well in our sales!  It was a lot of fun and we actually learned a lot and made some good memories!”

A big thanks to Hailey for sharing her experience!

The chapter took up around 25 pigs.  Out of those 25 all but four won blue ribbons for the market class and a few even made it back to the star class.  Among them was Michelle Bobo and her pig, weighing in at  284 pounds.  Her pig was not only one of the biggest that the chapter had brought, but in the entire show.  As Hailey wrote before, showmanship for hogs didn’t start until 5:30p.m. on Thursday and the market started afterwards. As a result, many of the pigs were very tired and a little grumpy.  For a number of the exhibitors, it was a fight to even get their pigs to the arena.  Michelle’s seemed fine until about the last few minutes of the star showmanship class when the pig decided to lay down in the middle of the arena!  Michelle began laughing and was still laughing as the judge placed the class and talked about each of the exhibitors.  

Despite her pig's sudden urge to take a nap in the show ring, Michelle's pig won Grand Champion later that night. She received $3,000 for it! Courtney Houston as mentioned earlier, won Reserve receiving $2,800 for her hog.  Congratulations to both of them on their showmanship and their hogs!

Aside from livestock our chapter did quite well with our crops, with 108 kids participating, we were able to earn over $1,500 for the number of crops we took up. Taylerlynne Spainhiemer, Austin Madsen, and Jamie Siggard worked together to break the standing chapter record of 64 crops winning $224! Good job to everyone!

-Payson FFA Reporter