4-H'ers put on a swine show

Pigs once again dominated the animal kingdom of the 4-H fair with six groups and nearly 40 swine in the barn.

After some two hours of judging and in front of a crowd of more than 75 people, Mikiah Cook of the South Side Sparks nabbed the coveted grand champion ribbon in the senior category, followed by Josie Uski of the Hot Springs Future Farmers of America (FFA) taking the reserve champion.

The swine competition was divided into three classes, but with a high number of pigs, each class was divided into smaller groups for Chad Booth, a Sanders County first-time judge from Post Falls, Idaho. With each group, Booth picked the best and returned them to the arena for the final selection. Booth has been a judge for numerous years and raised pigs as a 4-Her in Idaho. He also taught high school animal science in California. The swine competition is one of the toughest for the kids as far as controlling their animals and requires volunteers with boards to separate feisty swine.

Kassidy Dana of the Trout Creek Mavericks was grand champion in the junior class and Matthew Thurston of the South Side Sparks took the reserve championship. The swine competition is the only contest with a novice class. Grady Dana of the Trout Creek Mavericks took the grand while Annie Turner of the South Side Sparks took reserve.

The South Side Sparks had 15 participants, followed by the Whitepine Happy Workers with seven, Mavericks with four, Hot Springs Wranglers with one, and the Hot Springs FFA with four.