Gavin Jaro knows swine, and is quite the handyman.
Hence his choice for an FFA Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) was easy: take his pig project to the next level.
He currently has two sows, a York and a Hampshire, and together they just gave birth to 20 piglets.
So far, so good.
But let’s back up a bit. How does the process of raising hogs work? And how did Jaro learn such an art?
For starters, he’s had a great teacher.
“My dad’s raised pigs his whole life,” Jaro said, “so we started doing that when I was younger.”
And since the Jaro family still operates a substantial farming operation in rural Allen County, Gavin has grown up immersed in farm life.
As proof of his future farming chops, Jaro taught his Register reporter a thing or two about raising hogs.
First, he said, “we go to a website, pick an AI [artificial insemination] that we want to do, a boar, and they send the semen.”
Check.
“Eventually the sow has them. We wait a couple weeks. We clip the teeth, give them the iron shots; then we wait a couple more weeks.”
“After that, we start putting water in there, giving ‘em feed, then wean them from the sow. From there, we can separate ‘em completely.”
Jaro then explained how one designates each pig as either a butcher pig or a fair pig, but regardless, they grow up fast. “Especially if you push the feed to ‘em.”
As for the question, why pigs?
“I like raising them,” he said.
Granted, when it comes to swine, the process isn’t always 100% smooth.
For instance, Jaro said that “just yesterday, we were cutting the little baby pigs, castrating them. The ol’ sow, she was getting pretty angry. … We’d gotten out of the pen and we’d been done for a while and she came out and tried to bite us.”
“I think she smelled the blood,” he added. “She wasn’t happy.”
When it comes to showtime at the fair, however, it’s a different story. Pigs get all kinds of smart.
“They usually just run around and try to get away from you,” Jaro laughed.
