Published: September 25, 2009 11:24 am      

FFA members preparing for show at State Fair

Roscoe the pig has tunnel vision.

When it comes time to eat, that’s all there is.

Pete Black, Cleburne High sophomore and FFA member, hopes he can parlay Roscoe’s appetite into a fat paycheck at this year’s State Fair of Texas in Dallas.

Black will also enter two pens of three chickens.

Being big is not a matter of genes or luck in Roscoe’s case.

He was raised to shake the ground.

“It depends on what class you want to be in,” Black said. “If you’re in the lightweight class, you have more pigs, and you probably don’t have a chance to win the whole show because the pig is so little. If you’ve got a big pig, you have a chance to win [best of show].”

Remarkably, Roscoe is still growing.

“The Dallas show is in two weeks, and he’ll be about 280 then,” Black said. “He’ll be one of the biggest pigs there. It’s all about feeding. I give him high protein feed and keep him on the same pace all the time so he won’t look too slim or fat.

“I also walk him about to exercise him so he’ll know how to heel-walk for the judge. We don’t want him running around the pen and making everybody look dumb.”

The day Roscoe goes to Dallas will be the day Roscoe says “ciao” — that’s pig Latin for goodbye — to Johnson County.

“This is a terminal show, which means they keep the pig,” Black said. “We’ll go with a full trailer and come back with an empty one. If Roscoe doesn’t make sale, I won’t get as much money for it as I’d like, but that’s the way it is.”

Black is also in the chicken-showing business.

“I started with 75 chickens and worked my way down to 17,” he said. “We culled the small chickens so the good chickens would get all the feed they need to win.”

He said he’ll decide on the day of the show which six chickens will be entered.

It’s all about breast size, he said.

“You feel the breasts to see how big and bulky they are. The breasts should be the same width all the way down.”

As a freshman, Black entered shows in Dallas, Fort Worth, Cleburne, Houston, San Antonio and Austin.

“I didn’t do too bad,” he said. “I made sale at Austin and then made sale at county.”

Black will likely diversify at this year’s county show.

“I’ll have a goat, chickens, turkey, pig, and I might get a lamb,” he said. “I like pigs best. I’ve been raised around them my whole life. Some people think pigs are nasty, but they’re probably the cleanest animal there is. It depends on the facility. If you have a good facility, your pig will be perfect.”

A number of other Cleburne FFA’ers will exhibit projects in Dallas — Joleigh Patterson with chickens, and ag mechanics students Rusty Doyal, Dakota Mizell, Tyler Bomar, Bubba Oakes, Dalton Turner and Wes Muncy.

“We’ve got three projects going to Dallas,” said vocational ag teacher Mark McClure. “We’ve got a cowboy grill. It will have a trailer jack to raise and lower the cooking surface. It can also be used as a fire pit. Rusty and Dakota are working on that. We also have a big welding trailer. It has a gasoline-powered welder, cutting torch system, saw, vice and a big toolbox. Tyler and Bubba are working on that. We also have a round deer blind built with a new piece of equipment that bends round circles. Dalton and Wes are doing that.

“Two of the projects were begun at the start of school. They have to be completed by Oct. 5. You have to be at the fair on the fifth. They show on the sixth. The welding trailer project was started last year. Most of the projects entered in the fair will have been started after last year’s fair. A lot of this stuff is so big and takes so much time that there’s not enough time to do it in September and October.”

Bomar and Oakes are ag show veterans, having exhibited at Cleburne last year.

“And Tyler showed at the fair last year in ag mechanics,” McClure said. “We built a big pull-behind barbecue pit. The rest of the students have been in my ag mechanics classes, but this is the first time they’ve built a project to show. They’re judged on their craftsmanship. Judges will look at the quality of the welds and the finish, and the students have to compile a book that shows their project at various stages.

“It’s a lot more than mechanics. They’re judged on communication skills.”