Mr. Hart?

“Yes?”

The pigs are out.

This is the kind of announcement that comes over the intercom at school when you’re an ag science teacher.

He was teaching a class of seventh-graders with one swine showing expert in the group who, when he heard the announcement, immediately put on his swine showmanship superhero cape and said, “I can handle this; I know what to do.”

As they headed out to the barn to survey the situation, the two feeder pigs were showing their athletic prowess and having a great time running around on the playground. With a herd of adolescent boys running after them, the two hogs immediately headed for the barn, but didn’t stop there – they ran past the barn and hightailed it to the woods, with the boys in hot pursuit.

By this time a couple of high school boys, with no more livestock experience than what they picked up by walking through the barns at the county fair, had joined the chase.

One student said he would wait in the barn, and proceeded to stand right in the middle of the doorway. Trying to keep everyone calm and working together as a cohesive group, Mr. Hart yelled out to the boys on the run, “Don’t chase them into the woods! You have to cut through and get in front of them!”

And then he turned around and suggested to the student standing guard at the door, “Maybe you should move; it might be difficult to get the pigs in the door with you standing right in the way.”

After a couple passes through the FFA pasture, and specific directives from their fearless leader, the two escapees were back in their pen and everyone was headed back to class.

Coincidentally, the lesson of the day was humane livestock handling – and it seemed the hogs were all too willing to offer the chance for hands-on experience.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Melissa Hart may write to her in care of this publication.