Isabelle Hansen rubs coconut oil on Max on Wednesday, July 5, 2023. The oil moisturizes and smooths the pig’s hide.

MT. VERNON — Eleven-year-old Isabella Hansen is finding her pig-raising groove.

The Dayville 4-H Community Club member is raising her very first swine for the upcoming Grant County Fair after a couple years of raising sheep in Montana prior to her family’s move to Grant County.

Isabella described raising her inaugural 4-H pig, Max, as an easier task than the sheep she’d raised previously.

“A sheep is a lot harder. You have to train them to walk with a halter. A pig you just hit with a stick,” she said.

The decision to raise a pig this year was secondary to Isabella’s first preference, which was a steer. As it turned out, no steer was available, but there was a ready supply of pigs within Isabella’s own family, according to her mother, Amanda Hansen.

“Her grandma was having a bunch of piglets,” Hansen said.

Because her grandmother has raised pigs, caring for the animal in preparation for sale at the fair hasn’t been filled with any surprises for Isabella. Max’s weight of just under 200 pounds serves to validate those claims.

Hansen said it takes about six or seven months to raise a swine from piglet to a point where it is ready to be shown and sold at fair.

Knowing where your food comes from

Most people know that the fate of the pig is to become bacon or pork chops, but few outside of 4-H or farming give much thought to the sort of care for the animal that people like Isabella put into raising them.

“She’s giving him the best life, better than a feedlot or how they raise pigs in a regular market situation,” Hansen said. “He’s happy and stress-free, and the animals you raise yourself for meat taste much better.”

Christal Culley, an Oregon State University Extension Service educator who coordinates the 4-H program in Grant County, said about 200 youths ranging in age from 5 to 18 sign up for 4-H programs each year.

The Grant County Fair is the major event for young 4-H members to showcase their hard work throughout the year, Culley added.

This year’s fair is scheduled for Aug. 9-12.

Raising animals for 4-H is a family affair for the Hansens. Isabella’s father and brothers have raised steers and pigs for the program in the past. Hansen also participated in 4-H but didn’t raise animals, although she was happy her children expressed a desire to do so.

“I was all for it,” she said.

“We’re also a hunting family, and so we know the process. I think it’s really good to let kids know where their food comes from, raise the meat and have one bad day that they won’t remember,” she said.

“Their meat does taste like joy,” she added.

I think it’s really good to let kids know where their food comes from, raise the meat and have one bad day that they won’t remember.”

— Amanda Hansen