My oldest daughter is now a member of our local FFA chapter. This weekend she will be showing a pig as a member of the FFA at a state-wide hog show.

She's been stopping by the FFA barn at least once a week since about mid November to work with the pig, clean its stall, and to do her part with chores in the barn.

DW and I have seen this as an opportunity to learn about responsibility, learn more about the raising hogs, to interact with some of the older members, and to all-around have a good time with good people.

DW met with the FFA advisor/local agri-science teacher on a completely different topic yesterday. The FFA advisor mentioned to her that, oh yeah, the kids get to keep the hog that they show. The FFA chapter bought the hog, housed the hog, and bought the feed for the hog. Our family gets to keep the hog, and pay only the fee to slaughter and process the hog into the different cuts and sausages. That sounds good to me!

I'm not sure about the cost of processing. We had an extra fair hog processed about a year and a half ago, and I don't remember what we paid. And, it really depends on how much you have processed into, for example, sausage as opposed to fresh cuts, or how much of it you have smoked. We'll have more processed into sausage this time, because we use more sausage than we do fresh pork butt, for example.

But, it seems that we paid right around $200 last time, so maybe $250 this time? So that will be right around 175 pounds of meat for around $250.

And, DD1 still gets an outstanding educational experience!