Posted on 01/11/2004 8:57:04 AM PST by the_devils_advocate_666
AP Photo
Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll, center, talks with Pennsylvania Secretary of State Pedro Cortez, left, and Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Jeffrey Miller, after filling in for Gov. Ed Rendell, who is vacationing in Florida, at the opening ceremonies of the 2004 Pennsylvania Farm Show, Saturday in Harrisburg, Pa.
Ken Wetzel from Indiana County, Pa., left, moves his Duroc hog, Sally, this year's winner of the Supreme Champion Swine award, from the judging circle after the award ceremony on the opening day of the Pennsylvania Farm Show, Saturdayin Harrisburg, Pa.
One of Larry Arnold's yorkshire pigs tries to chew the twine that locks him in his bathing pen at the Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg, Pa.
AP Photos
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- Thousands of people packed the Pennsylvania Farm Show complex as the 88th farm show opened Saturday, cheering for rodeo riders, tramping through corridors, petting the animals, climbing on tractors and wolfing down junk food.
But ''Sally,'' the farm show's newly crowned supreme champion swine, was blissfully unaware. The 400-pound, reddish brown Duroc hog lay sound asleep in a bed of hay in her stall, awaiting her turn in the auction in progress just a few hundred feet away.
Sally, who was named on the spot Saturday after a news photographer asked what to call her, was judged as the best example of all swine breeds because she was ''long, lean and free-moving,'' said her owner, Ken Wetzel, who keeps 350 to 400 hogs on his family farm near Punxsutawney in Indiana County.
While larger hog-farming operations are often criticized as smelly and unclean, the hogs and pigs at the farm show appeared to be models of good hygiene.
Hogs ''are just as clean as you keep them,'' Wetzel said. At his farm, there are huts with cement floors where the swine can find shelter in inclement weather.
''They're kept clean and dry and they're fed well,'' said Wetzel, 55, who gets help running the farm from his wife and their two sons. ''It takes time if you want to be a success in anything.''
Wetzel's swine have won the supreme champion ribbon for six of the past eight years, but the prices they fetch are less consistent. Two years ago, he sold one supreme champion for $5,700, but last year's brought only $1,500. At Saturday's auction, Sally went for $2,500, Agriculture Department officials said.
About 500,000 visitors are expected to attend this year's farm show, which runs through Jan. 17.
An estimated 5,000 people were on hand for the opening ceremony as Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll delivered a speech, the Pennsylvania State Police mounted drill team performed precision maneuvers on horseback and Tommy Cash, brother of the late singer Johnny Cash, sang ''God Bless America.''
It was ''Governor's Day'' at the farm show, but Gov. Ed Rendell was vacationing in Florida and not expected to visit the show until next week, so Knoll welcomed the farmers to Harrisburg.
''Each of you contributes to our state's success and we know how hard you work every day to make it happen,'' she said. ''It takes a lot to be a farmer in today's world.''
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Linda Carter is completely unrelated to Free Republic. But if I am going to have to post donation begs until the Freepathon is over, I'm going to occasionally post something I want! And there is only one way you can stop me! |
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...which is which...can't tell the difference.
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