Neal student pockets $553.50 for his grand champion
Coleman, left, and Landis leave with their ribbons after pig auction.
W.S. Neal Elementary School student Cameron Coleman not only left the Escambia County 4-H Swine Show and Sale with ribbons pinned to his chest, he also walked away with a $553.50 check when his Best of Show pig was sold at auction.
Home-schooled student Ben Landis took the reserve champion ribbon.
Back on Dec. 4, 29 students paid $75 each to pick up their pigs that weighed in the neighborhood of 40 to 50 pounds. Last Friday, 23 students took their pigs to the show and sale at the Double AA Auction, Inc., arena on Ag Drive in Brewton – a stones throw from the Escambia County Extension Office, which sponsors the event.
Anthony Wiggins, county extension coordinator, said the goal of the project is to teach students to raise food and learn the responsibility of raising livestock. Another goal is for the students to at least break even or make money when their pig goes on the auction block.
Wiggins and past extension coordinators have stressed that this is not a pet project, but a food project, with the students knowing going into it that their pigs will be slaughtered and turned into ham, bacon and pork chops.
The average sale price at Friday's auction was $381.89 for each pig sold. Coleman's grand champion pig sold for $2.05 a pound.
"We want them to learn something about raising pigs, but we also want them to hopefully make money at the auction," Wiggins said a few weeks ago as the show and sale approached.
Wiggins also said all the money raised at the auction goes back to the students who participated in the program.
