Staying cool at the fair

With temperatures reaching into the high 90s, four Pleasant View 4-H youngsters decided to help the hogs be a little more comfortable on the second day of the 60th annual Porterville Fair.

Jose Andrade, Jasmine Wynn, Audra Dee Andrade and Chance Lewis walked around the hog pens misting the hogs, and occasionally each other, with water from spray bottles.

“We’re wetting our pigs down so that they don’t get over-heated,” Jose Andrade, 13, said. “If they get too hot, they will start breathing fast and they can also get dehydrated.”

Lewis said another option he liked to use was to place a wet towel on the hog.
“It helps because they don’t have sweat glands,” Lewis, 11, said.

As they continued on their mercy mission, other FFA and 4-H pupils were busy preparing their animals for the show ring.

Lindsay High School FFA Advisor Pam Brem, who also serves as a 4-H leader, advised a few FFA members on the best way to brush the goats.

“The market goats will be evaluated on their carcass — depth and width of muscle and quality of fat,” Brem said. “One of the things we do is brush the hair in certain directions to make it appear wider, thicker and deeper.”

Joanna Gonzalez of Lindsay High School FFA said she was especially excited about showing her market goat.

“This is my first year in FFA,” Gonzalez, 15, said. “No one in my family has ever done this. I am the first one to try it. I’m into trying new things and I’ve seen friends do it and it seemed pretty interesting.”

Gonzalez said she got her market goat, “Chris,” in February.

“Four of us have market goats. We keep them at school. It takes a lot of team effort to take care of them,” Gonzalez said. “It was a lot of responsibility. I had to be there on time everyday to feed him. But we take turns, two of us each week, and we take care of all of them.”

Gonzalez kissed her goat as he stood on the table and admitted that she had gotten attached to Chris and that saying goodbye was going to be difficult.

A few aisles down, 11-year-old Codi Shelton from Prairie Center 4-H, used a blow dryer on “Rosa,” her 150-pound white-and-brown goat in an attempt to make her fluffier, she said.

While Shelton prepared to show her goat, another Prairie Center 4-H member — 9-year-old Jade Church — exited the fair’s newest show ring with his Black Angus steer.

Jade, weighing only 66 pounds, looked small compared to the 1,251-pound Black Angus steer he led expertly around the ring. The steer won Reserve Black Angus.

“Getting him used to the halter was the most challenging,” Jade said. “He just didn’t like it. It takes a little practice and eventually [the steer] doesn’t mind it.”

-- Contact Esther Avila at 784-5000, Ext. 1047 or eavila@portervillerecorder.com.