MARYSVILLE, Ohio – The Ohio Pork Council (OPC) and OH-Pigs hosted another successful Junior Swine Day at Marysville High School in March. This year’s event featured multiple learning sessions on relevant topics for youths and families who participated. Topics included Showmanship, Quality Assurance, OH-PIGS Program, Biosecurity, Pig Care, Animal Selection and Feed/Nutrition.

“We always try to offer a comprehensive set of topics that will help Ohio youth be successful both in and out of the show ring,” said Kayli Mitchell, OPC education director. “This means knowing the basics of biosecurity and pig care to more in-depth things such as understanding diseases like flu with Dr. Bowman’s Swientist demonstrations that focus on the importance of reducing transmission with proper washing and disinfection techniques.”

A colleague, Dr. Jacqueline Nolting, assisted OSU’s Dr. Andy Bowman with the Swientist programming. Other experts on hand for the event included Dr. Todd Price, who spoke on swine health; Gus Mitchem on animal selection; Brian Hines, of Lindner Feeds, on swine nutrition; OH-PIGS Director Kelly Morgan on showmanship; and Mitchell on Quality Assurance.

“You can see from our schedule that we had some of the leading experts in the show-pig industry hosting sessions this year,” Mitchell said. “We see the value in giving back to the show pig families by offering children the opportunity to advance their knowledge and time to connect with us as the pork industry – and to get more skills to use in the show ring and, of course, in the barn.”

Mitchell focused on education and bridging the gap between show-pig families and the pork industry when creating the Junior Swine Day agenda. She worked with Morgan to provide families a full day of learning.

“I work closely with Kelly,” Mitchell said. “She has so many connections in the show-pig industry and knows key speakers, who not only give good presentations and knowledge to our youth, but are located in Ohio or the surrounding area and continue to serve as resources. The speakers are familiar faces often seen around our OH-Pigs Show Circuit or county fairs.”

Junior Swine Day was open to interested youth ages 5 to 18 or 19, usually when they start aging out of showing pigs. Parents were also welcome. “Almost all of the time, we have parents or guardians join us to take notes and listen in on the sessions,” Mitchell said. “This year, we had about 80 youth and their parents. In total, I think we had around 150 or so – that’s a good number.”

Union County, northwest of Columbus, has hosted the event since its inception in 2022. “We try our hardest to keep it central in Union County because that’s a central location for our show pig families,” Mitchell said. “It’s central to the state, as well.”

The event attracted a large number of new people as well as many families who traveled more than two and a half hours to attend. “Obviously, they see some value in the program we’re putting on,” Mitchell said. “That was exciting for us to have a record number of people joining us outside of the community that we usually touch base with.”

Eric Kennel and his son Corbin traveled nearly 100 miles from Preble County for the event.

“We see the value in taking our children to events like the Junior Swine Day to provide them the opportunity to work with leading industry professionals and to continue to provide opportunities for our children to learn and network in the Ohio pork industry,” Eric said.

Corbin, a youth participant and swine showman, appreciated the offerings. “I enjoy coming to the OH-Pigs Junior Swine Day to learn more about my project and practices that I can implement daily in the barn with my show pigs,” he said. “This year, I learned nutrition and showmanship skills that I can practice at home to do better in the showring.”

Junior Swine Day is open to anyone from beginner to senior-level pig showmen. OH-Pigs membership is not required.

Opening weekend for the OH-Pigs summer show circuit was April 12 in Fulton County; it ends June 7-8 in Ashland County. The stops in between are Perry, Marion, Highland, Darke, Pickaway and Clark Counties.