SAN BENITO — Trixie lies in restless slumber in her cage, her pink Yorkshire coat moving slowly with her breathing.
Her owner, Luke Sosa, wears a face bright with optimism and excitement for the hog he’s showing at the Tip-O-Tex FFA District Livestock Show at the Sonny Brazil Agricultural Science Complex.
“This is my first time,” says Luke, 9, a third-grader at Pittman Elementary and member of Raymondville FFA.
“I have been seeing everybody showing so I decided I wanted to,” Luke says. “I have been walking her, feeding her two pounds a day.”
Students from throughout Cameron and Willacy counties have gathered under the tall pavilion Thursday to put their hogs to the test. It’s a prospect show, says Avery Fohn, vice president of Area 10 FFA.
“It’s basically to get ready for the big show in Mercedes,” says Avery, who is also a senior at Harlingen High School.
“Today we have hogs,” she says, “and tomorrow we have cattle, lambs and goats.”
Many FFA and ag science students spend months preparing for the Lower Rio Grande Livestock Show in Mercedes in March. This and other prospect shows give students the chance to hone their showing skills – and that of their animals, says Kristen Rike, FFA director.
“It gets them time make the changes they need before the Mercedes show,” she says. “We have students from twelve different schools in Cameron and Willacy counties.”
The sounds of shuffling feet and wood shavings and grunts mingle with the smells of manure and sweat and anticipation. There is the clanging of metal bleachers, the chatter of kids and parents and grandparents, the earthy frustrations of hogs.
Camryn Resendiz, 15, sprays a fine mist toward her dark cross hog, which points its nose eagerly through the bars. Now she fills a blue bucket with water before pouring in a powder to expand the hog’s rib area.
“I have been watering her and feeding her to help her gain weight and make her look fuller,” says Camryn, a sophomore at Harlingen High School South.
This is Camryn’s first year showing a hog and her second year in FFA; last year she showed rabbits. She placed number seven out of 17 or eighteen contestants. While she enjoyed the rabbits and her success, she realized she needed a greater challenge.
“It took up less time out of my day, and I didn’t put so much time and effort,” she says. “But with my hog I’m always with her.”
Such an intense regimen has compelled her to exercise a greater discipline than she had before raising her hog.
“I guess it teaches us hard work,” Camryn says. “It’s made me more responsible.”
Her father, Aldo Resendiz, concurs, and adds an additional benefit.
“We’re spending some time together doing this,” he says.
To see more, view Brownsville Herald photojournalist Denise Cathey’s full photo gallery here:
Photo Gallery: Students show hogs at Tip-O-Tex Livestock Show
