Summer’s one of the best times of the year, not only because the weather’s nicer, but it’s also show season…especially for swine shows. I realize that we have about four or five months before spring, but farmers are already getting things in order so that 4-H and FFA kids can buy their animals when the time is right. That’s why I stopped out by Mikayla Wehrle at Wehrle Farms LLC in New London, WI.
Wehrle explained that they have about 25 sows at the moment. She said they started raising pigs because one of their neighbors said they should try showing pigs when they were little. Both her and her brother tried showing and in her words, “it was kind of a disaster…” So after that, Wehrle kept working at it and realized her love for showing once she beat her brother in the ring. She also started to win state fair shows and saved the money so she could buy her first sow, farrowing crates, and other equipment to start breeding pigs.
Listen to the Full Interview with Mikayla Wehrle Here
The farm just got done with their busy breeding season so they have pigs to sell this spring for county and national shows. The farm breeds with a boar and also does some artificial insemination. Wehrle said that have to start this now because a sow’s gestation period is three months, three weeks, three days, and it’s pretty spot on. She talked about how last year was a struggle when it came to selling show pigs because of what was going on, but she’s more worried about this coming year. “It was tough, early on there was a lot of people that just bought them anyway with the hope that there would be something for the kids to show. A bunch of county fairs were able to do some kind of show and sale, even if it was meager. It’s hard. I’m more concerned about this spring. I think people are gonna be more gun-shy and I think kids who couldn’t participate in sales aren’t gonna have any seed money to start up again,” Wehrle said.
She mentioned how they normally sell the show pigs to county fair kids when they’re about 75 lbs, but they put a lot of time into them before customers buy them. “We oil them and we clean them. I mean they’re pretty spotless…” Wehrle said. She talked about how at the end of the day, show pigs are pretty high maintenance when you’re preparing them for the fair. She said that before the fair they oil them everyday because pigs don’t have sweat glans so their skin’s automatically pretty dry unless you use oil. They also wash them every day, walk them twice a day, and them clip them about three or four times prior to the show. Bottom line, these pigs are more than prepared for show day. “When you like really get into the whole ‘show pig’ thing, it’s pretty intense,” Wehrle explained.
She said one good thing about being a part of the hog industry is that the majority of farmers are willing to help you out. Wehrle said that if you’re interested in raising pigs, talk to someone who has experience with pigs and see what they say. She said they’d most likely be more than happy to help someone get involved in the industry. “The important part is probably finding people to help, finding people who can kind of guide you in the right direction,” she went on to say, “the nice thing about pigs is that you can start with just two or three. You don’t need to have forty to get going.”
Wehrle realizes that she’s not going to make a huge amount of money showing her pigs at the fair, but it’s what she loves to do. She especially enjoys the family aspect of the farm. She said that during fair season, every day she gets to spend two or three hours with her cousin and the neighbor kid who also shows their pigs and it means a lot to her. “As a family, it’s amazing to us to be able to spend that much time doing a project where the boys are learning something and working hard toward something…I wouldn’t give any of that time back for anything in the world,” Wehrle said.
She does a great job of explaining how the job never stops. She’s busy year round making sure that kids have the animals they want for show season. Yes, Wehrle may not make a ton of money doing this, but there’s more to it than that. The memories you make and the lessons you learn while preparing your animals for the fair are priceless. Check out the video from the farm visit!
