3 girls sell 4-H hogs for 10 times the market price

8/21/2003

Three Fulton County girls sold their 4-H hogs for about 10 times market price in an Ohio State Fair breed championship sale last week.

Aimee Genter, 17, a senior at Pettisville High School who lives on a German Township farm, sold her champion Duroc hog for $1,600 to the Buckeye Barrow Boosters, a group of show hog breeders. The price on the open market for such hogs was about $120. Her hog was fourth in the overall youth show of 845 hogs.

Taylor Creager, 12, a seventh grader at Burr Road Middle School who lives on a York Township farm, sold her champion Chester White hog for $1,200 to a coalition of the barrow boosters, Nationwide Insurance, and Huffman Market in Columbus. Her hog was third in the overall show.

Last year one of her hogs was named grand champion hog and sold to Meijer, Inc., for $20,000. But it was disqualified last month and she never received any money from the sale because inspectors found a small amount of testicular tissue in the carcass. She and her father have contested the disqualification in Franklin County Common Pleas Court.

Taylor's sister Bailey Creager, 9, a fourth grader at Wauseon's Elm Street Elementary School, sold her champion Hampshire for $1,150 to the barrow boosters.

Bailey had this year's grand champion at the state fair and like her sister, sold it for $20,000 to Meijer, Inc. Fair rules call for Bailey to receive $8,000 from that sale; the remainder is retained by the fair to use as cash awards for winners of other contests.

The Creager and the Genter families, both of whom raise hogs, have made Fulton County a powerhouse in the Ohio State Fair market hog competitions with numerous top prizes in recent years.