CARDINGTON, Ohio – In late January, a pair of pregnant sows gave birth to 29 piglets in the Ag Shop at Cardington-Lincoln High School. The sows and piglets spent the next three weeks being tended to by students in the schools’ Advance Livestock Management class.

This was all part of Erin Wollett’s “Pig Project.” Wollett, an agriculture instructor and FFA adviser at Cardington-Lincoln High School, grew up on a hog farm and wanted to give her students some hands-on experience.

“We learn about a lot of management techniques, and so I thought how cool it would be to have this hands-on opportunity for students to put what they learn into practice,” Wollett said.

Students enrolled in the class participated in virtual “farrowing watch” shifts as well as processing the piglets in class for beginning-of-life care, including ear notching (identification), docking tails, administering iron injections, and castrating the piglets.

The project spanned nearly six weeks, with the sows moving in one week before their due date and staying until the piglets were weaned, 21 days after birth.

This is the second rendition of the Pig Project. The initial effort in 2023 was a big success.

“The number of people that latched on to it blew me away,” Wollett said. “Our elementary wanted to partner with us on stuff, we had folks from the public coming down during basketball games because we would have the shop open – there was just so much community buy-in to that project.”

The idea of doing the project every other year makes sense for several reasons. “I teach that curriculum every other year, so it’s aligned with that, she said. “And we didn’t want the excitement to fizzle if we did it every year – every other year keeps the excitement alive, and we have so many people that pour into it and donate to that project that we didn’t want to exhaust those resources either.”

Wollett partnered with several community and industry leaders on developing the project, including the Ohio Pork Council, Hord Farms, Dawson Farms, Tom Blankenship, Cardington FFA Alumni, and Morrow County Pork Producers.

Doug Dawson, a multi-generation hog farmer in Delaware, Ohio, donated the pregnant sows. They were delivered a few weeks before they gave birth.

The birthing center/housing facility came from the Ohio Pork Council and Hord Farms. “This is the same display that is used at the Ohio State Fair for their sow display for the general public,” Wollett said. “The pigs have 24/7 access to water through this facility, which is truly the ‘Ritz’ of pig housing facilities.”

Upperclassmen students applied to be “barn managers,” and eight students were selected. These managers were the resident experts and “on-call staff” to take care of the needs of the sows and piglets.

“We had 17 kids that applied to be a barn manager this year, and we chose eight,” Wollett said. Two barn managers who participated in the 2023 project came back and conducted the interviews. “Because they knew what it took,” she said. “They knew what the experience was like, and they had a little more insight on how to pick people that would be well suited for that role.”

The students who were selected as barn managers completed official, industry-level Pork Quality Assurance Certification Training with an education specialist from Ohio Pork Council, so they were educated on proper handling and management techniques.

From day one, barn managers had access to the shop to feed, clean, and do all the daily tasks required in a hog operation. “And then the day that they gave birth, those students reported to make sure the pigs were healthy, they were catching them, they were wiping them off, they were making sure they were eating, all those things that you needed to do for the beginning of life care,” Wollett said.

The school’s media class took an interest in the project and created “Pig TV,” a 24/7 live broadcast of the pigs on Pirate News Network (PNN). “It’s on YouTube Live,” Wollett said. “The public and school community could observe the project as a public education outreach.”

The live stream allowed for virtual field trips as well as in-person visits. “Our elementary school sent me pictures where it’s just projected all day that they can just kind of watch the piglets,” Wollett said. “In addition, signs were posted on the shop’s door indicating if the pigs were currently accepting visitors. This was intended to manage the company they got throughout the day and control any foot traffic through the shop, helping to ensure biosecurity.”

The focus of the project goes beyond the endearing nature of showing baby farm animals. “A lot of our processing has been livestreamed too, and that’s the second side of this project,” Wollett said. “One is to provide those learning experiences in class, but two is the opportunity for us to provide a transparent view of the production side of the swine industry. I feel like we’re helping advocate for the industry and educating folks who may not know where things are coming from before they get to the grocery store.”

After the pigs are weaned, the sows are sent to another school partner, Hoffman’s Meats, where students get hands-on experience in meat processing. “Some of the kids will get to go over and help process down the sows, and we’ll do some different projects with the sausage that we get,” Wollett said.

After weaning‌, the pigs are transferred to the farm of another school partner, a retired hog farmer. “He lives just outside of town, about seven minutes from the high school,” Wollett said. “The barn managers will continue to go out there and take care of them for about a month.”

After that, Morrow County 4-H and FFA members will be able to apply to obtain a piglet free of cost to raise as a project to be shown at the 2025 Morrow County Fair. “This should give a large-animal opportunity to students who may not have had the means to obtain one in the past,” Wollett said.