Fondness of pigs leads to show ring success

     Why does 14-year-old Brady Hayen spend an average of an hour a day getting pigs ready for the show ring?

     “I just kind of like pigs,” he said. “They’re just fun to have. They’re real friendly compared to some other livestock.”

     The Monticello Middle School eighth-grader also enjoys the success he has had. At this past summer’s Great Jones County Fair, one of Brady’s entries was Champion Purchased Market Hog, along with winning the Champion Purchased Gilt and Champion Middleweight Purchased Gilt divisions.

     Then, in August, showing at the Iowa State Fair for the first time, one of Brady’s pigs finished 10^th in a division of 24.

     “They pen the top half of how many are in (the division),” Brady said. “I think they did 12 for ours, out of 24. Then the judge brings them back out and chooses who is first, second and all that.”

     “A lot of guys have been to the state fair and never had a pen,” said Brady’s father, Mike. “And he did it in his first year. If you get a pen at the state fair, you’re doing just fine.”

     This is only Brady’s third year in 4-H. He got started showing pigs with help from Tim Fellinger of Hopkinton.

     “I just always wanted to show something, and Tim Fellinger is big into it,” Brady said. “So we asked him about it, and he got me all set up. He knows so much about it that we didn’t know. He helped us pick out some of the best ones. He knows what he’s doing.”

     Mike agreed.

     “Tim is Brady’s mentor. He’s been a friend of the family; we grew up together. We both feed pigs, we raise pigs on our farms, but it’s a different perspective. I never showed pigs. He’s real passionate about it.”

     Brady had never finished higher than as a reserve champion in a class prior to this year.

     “The first year was kind of overwhelming for him,” Mike said. “You don’t know what to expect.”

     The difference this year?

     “We had better quality of pigs, and I spent a lot more time with them,” Brady explained. “I started training them two months (earlier than) I did last year, three or four months before the fair.”

     The work, he said, includes “keeping their pens clean, getting them walked twice a day, usually, washing them almost every day when it comes closer to the fair, and just keeping them clean, with the bedding and all that.”

     Mike added, “Everything he got was on his own. He has really grown up, responsibility-wise. It has taught him a lot, because it’s his project. He takes care of them.

     “Everybody said ‘Good job,’ and I was like, ‘I didn’t have anything to do with it. That’s Brady.’ ”

     Brady showed three pigs at the county fair and two at the state fair. He hopes to have six to eight pigs to work with next year. In addition to the fairs, the Hayens hope to take pigs to jackpot shows that take place across the region.

     “I enjoy it. I just like going and getting the experience at the fairs,” he said. “I have fun just meeting new people.”

     “Brady has met a lot of people that he wouldn’t have met,” his father said. “It’s fun. I actually enjoy it just about as much as he does. It’s even more gratifying for me when he does the work and he’s responsible for it.

     “He loves it.”