Hollister – San Benito High School senior and Future Farmers of America club member Karen Flickinger knows her pigs love cake mix.
It’s one of the feeds she uses to fatten them up for the San Benito County Fair auction every September. She uses profit she receives from the auction for a college fund.
On Wednesday, the San Benito County Fair held its swine judging in preparation for its livestock auction to be held Saturday.
But this year, one of her two pigs – which she bought at 30 pounds each about four months ago – didn’t make weight. It could cost Flickinger hundreds of dollars as she waits to find a buyer.
Her two pigs, Shrek and Nemo, weighed 220 and 176 pounds.
“I think it’s just that we got it too late and it was too small,” Flickinger said.
The minimum weight for the auction is 215 pounds.
And Flickinger wasn’t the only one, said Kelly Bianchi, San Benito High School’s FFA adviser.
Twelve other FFA raised pigs and 11 from 4-H did not make weight this year, Bianchi said. On average, two or three pigs don’t make weight every county fair, Bianchi said.
It may be weather or genetics this year, but it’s back to the high school’s FFA barn for Nemo to bulk up.
“The kids will have to put in a little more money to get them up to an ideal butcher weight,” Bianchi said.
Once the pig is up to par, Flickinger and her family will have to search out an independent buyer, while hoping to break even on the 17-year-old’s efforts.
Dorothy Flickinger, Karen’s mother, said it could be hard to find a buyer.
“For us it is because we’re not from this area,” Flickinger said.
The Flickingers moved to Hollister 13 years ago from Fremont.
Ali Blake, a 16-year-old junior at San Benito High School, didn’t make weight this year with her one pig, Bobo. Bobo came in at 184 pounds.
“It’s really disappointing,” Blake said. “I bought it all myself.”
Bianchi said FFA and 4-H members can make up to $300 in profit per pig from the auction.
Students either invest the money in a project for the next year or place the profit in a college fund, Bianchi said. Independent buyers often pay less and are hard to find, she said.
The Flickingers remain hopeful.
“We’re trying our best,” Dorothy Flickinger said.