Special Report

Swine Show success for Illinois siblings

The Caldwell family of Elmwood, Illinois took home a number of awards from the Junior National Swine Show at the World Pork Expo last week in Iowa.  Maddie Caldwell has competed at the Expo six of the seven years she’s been showing pigs and tells Brownfield it’s exciting to compete at this level, “This is the biggest as well as the first show of the season that we usually have. We’ll go on to show at CPS and Louisville within the next month.” Caldwell won for Reserve overall Duroc and Reserve overall Yorkshire.  Her “baby” – as she calls her – is Darla, the Duroc, “Her and I have gotten along pretty well throughout this year. I tend to lean more toward the Duroc breed because they’re red-colored as well as my hair so we kind of have a little connection, I think.”

She says these shows can be a mini-vacation for the pigs when they’re not in the ring, “At home they really don’t get any breaks. We walk them quite a bit a day, trying to get around 40 minutes before we come to this show, for them to build up their endurance. They get rinsed quite a few times a day (here) to keep them cool because they don’t have sweat glands. We try to just keep them comfortable here at these shows because they’re working pretty hard out in that ring,
sometimes can be out there for quite some time.”

Caldwell says she and her younger sister Olivia and younger brother Cole got third overall and fifth overall in the Grand Drive.

The World Pork Expo show is one of 19 sponsored by the National Swine Registry (NSR) and the National Junior Swine Association (NJSA).

For SHOW results click HERE

Interview with Maddie Caldwell (3:00 mp3)