CARDINGTON, Ohio — The newest student at Cardington-Lincoln High School is short and pink in the face. She only weighs a few pounds but she is already finding her spark. She’s not shy about getting out of her seat and trotting around the classroom in the middle of lessons when she’s not sleeping.
Her name is Tiny and she is a piglet. You can find her studying alongside her peer and caretaker Kayden Burchett during class.
“It’s exhausting,” Burchett, an FFA member, said. “She’s on her own little schedule now. She just yells and I wake up.”
Tiny was the runt of her litter, one of 29 piglets born on Jan. 22 to sows Harriett and Dolly from Dawson Farms in Delaware County. The pigs are part of Cardington-Lincoln High School’s FFA-led pig farrowing project, which is in its second year.
Hands-on
The annual farrowing project lasts five to six weeks, from the time the moms move into the nursery set up for them in the high school’s Agriculture Education shop one week before their due dates, and ending with the weaning of their piglets 21 days later.
The pork council and Hord Farms in Crawford County provided the holding facility for the pigs, which is the same system utilized for the Ohio State Fair’s sow display.
Upperclassmen applied to be “barn managers” in December, and eight were chosen to undergo industry-level Pork Quality Assurance Certification Training with an Ohio Pork Council specialist who taught them correct animal handling and management practices.
Throughout the project, the students worked as resident experts and on-call staff to care for the sows and piglets around the clock, adhering to a strict schedule.
“Every week, everybody has a different job,” said Ava Davis, one of the student barn managers.
Their days on campus typically start around 7 a.m. behind the fence that cordons off the birthing center and housing facility where the pigs stay. “We’re always feeding, cleaning and doing whatever they need throughout the day.”
When Cardington’s basketball team, the Pirates, played their home game the night the pigs were born, some 150 to 200 well-wishers stopped by the nursery to see the babies. But in general, the public is kept at a distance for biosecurity reasons. The doors of the Agriculture Education room are locked whenever there is no barn manager present or while school is out.
The farrowing project provided junior and senior students enrolled in the Advanced Livestock Management class with numerous project-based learning opportunities. They also had virtual farrowing watch shifts thanks to a security system provided by a local family that allows for a 24-hour live broadcast of the pigs, giving students and the general public a close-up view so they can monitor them.
The livestream has maintained a loyal audience online since the beginning. It has also served as the basis for virtual field trips enjoyed by younger students, with barn managers providing guided tours and demonstrations.
In the time students have been in the classroom and on-site, they’ve integrated veterinary skills into their educational experiences, from providing vaccinations to ear notching and tail docking.
“A great lesson in life.”
Barn managers have tended to the sows diligently, monitoring their well-being and later the birthing process well into the night. The school was observing a snow day owing to inclement weather when a student watching the livestream contacted FFA advisor and agriculture education instructor Erin Wollett, who organized the project, to report that one of the sows appeared to be in labor. Another caller minutes later confirmed the first piglet had been born.
Wollett and the student barn managers rallied swiftly, braving the snow and cold, and arrived to find the first piglet, which had been born to Harriet at 10:30 a.m. Jan. 22. They were with the sows all day; the last piglet was born sometime after 3:30 a.m. the following morning, delivered in good health by Dolly.
“We were here that whole time,” Wollett said. “And by the time (the students) left, it was 4:15 a.m. I left around 4:45, and they were all back by 6:30 before first period.”
Barn managers fed the newborn piglets colostrum, a nutrient-rich formula, for the first 24 hours of their life before they started nursing. The students then introduced the piglets to solid foods, weaning them and preparing them for the next stage of their lives on a local farm.
For barn managers, their education doesn’t end there: They will continue seeing to the piglets’ care after they are relocated. The piglets will later be given away for free to county 4-H and FFA members to raise and show at the 2025 Morrow County Fair, earning them an opportunity to learn about and handle a large animal that they otherwise might not have had.
As for Harriett and Dolly? Soon they will be sausage links.
“We have a slaughterhouse in town that’s local. So we’re partnering with them so that they’ll go (there),” Wollett said. “Some of our kids will get to go over and actually help process the sows. And then, full-circle moment, we’re going to have an alumni pancake breakfast at the end of March where the sows will be featured.”
All of the work the students have performed will help them to develop transferable skills that are valuable in life or any vocation, Wollett said.
“You know, someday you might have a family, and your kid is up all night, and you’ve got to still go to work the next morning. So (there’s) a great lesson in life (here) for that,” Wollett said.
Moreover, the industry exposure is priceless. For some alumni, the project has already led them toward career opportunities and other prospects.
“We find this really exciting, too, because, I mean, it’s great for the kids to get hands-on learning, but commercial hog production in general isn’t a super transparent industry all the time,” Wollett said. “You can’t just go walking through a commercial hog farm.”
The response from students has been enthusiastic — bearing witness to the miracle of life — even after the squeamish saw the castration demonstration.
“I had a student the first year that we did this, and I think it was a 2 a.m. intrusive thought, but he said, ‘You know, if I had the choice to watch a beautiful sunset or watch this, I think I’d pick this 10 times out of 10,’” Wollett said.
Barn manager Christopher Kinsey, a junior student, agrees. For him, the farrowing project gave him a sense of responsibility.
“It’s like, wake up, morning feedings, make sure they’re clean, make sure they’re healthy, because that’s a life you’re taking care of. That priority comes first,” he said.
