COVINGTON, Ind. — When Aubrey Rennick, 15, left for the World Pork Expo in Des Moines last month, she thought her Duroc gilt Zoë might have a shot at placing third in her class. But not only did she win her class, she also won her division, overall Champion for her breed and the 2012 National Junior Champion title for the National Junior Swine Assoc. (NJSA).

“It’s the biggest national show in the world, so it’s a pretty big deal,” Rennick said. “There were over 2,000 pigs there.”

Before this year’s Expo at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, Aubrey had showed Zoë twice and placed second and third in her class. So when Zoë nabbed the Champion Duroc Gilt and Champion Overall NJSA Purebred Gilt, it blew her and her dad away.

“I think everybody heard me yell when she won,” said Tom Rennick. “It was unbelievable – it totally beat our expectations.”

Aside from ribbons, Aubrey Rennick walked away with two banners, a clock, a jacket, $1,000 in prize money and a one-year lease of a 7-by-20-foot pig trailer.

Rennick and her sister, Hadley, 14, keep their show pigs at their dad’s farm in rural Covington, Ind. The facilities, as well as their skills, have come a long way since they first started showing pigs about five years ago.

”When we first started out we didn’t have very good pigs and didn’t know what we were doing, showmanship-wise and feed-wise. But as we got help, we progressed,” Rennick said.

Her dad puts it more bluntly: ”We started out as dumb as can be the first year. It was just a matter of going to shows, listening to people and learning from your mistakes and their mistakes.”

Tom credited Zoë’s breeder, Nathan Weisinger with Weisinger Farms in Iowa, and local feed supplier Chad Day with ShowRite Feeds, for a large part of their recent success. “Chad has helped us tremendously with our feed program,” he said.

Aside from good genetics and a spot-on feed program, the pigs need consistent training in order to succeed in the show ring. “They have to be walked a little bit once a day when they’re little and twice a day as they get older,” Rennick said.

”There’s a lot of work that goes on in the barn that people don’t see. You’re cleaning the pens, washing and working with the animals, clipping hair,” her dad added. ”There’s so much luck involved in trying to get the pig in prime condition the day of the show.

“And then it comes down to one man’s – the judge’s – opinion. You can go in with the same pig the next day with a different judge and get a different result.”

So far, the judges who have seen Zoë have noted she’s square and sound-looking, and that she walks well compared with other Durocs. “Her only fault is that her knees bend in a little bit. She’s a bit bow-legged,” Rennick said, adding the animal also has a stubborn streak. ”She has her lazy days. I’m pretty sure she knows she won, she’s acting like it now.”

Rennick won the swine show at the Fountain County Fair in 2011 (and Hadley won in 2010), but Zoë won’t be there to help her defend the title this year, since she was born in December and will be too old to participate. Instead, she’ll go back to Weisinger Farms to be bred. Along with other winners, she’ll also be featured in advertisements for ShowRite Feeds in national publications.

“They’ve done a good job,” said Day, about the Rennick family’s show pig operation. “Nobody knows anything when they start out, it’s all about your willingness to learn.”

Next year, the Rennick sisters will get to pick new pigs from Zoë’s litter for another show season. And by the sound of it, there will be many more shows to come.

”You meet so many different people when you go to national shows, and there are lots of things to do,” Rennick said. “I’ll probably continue until I’m 21. By the time I’m done I’d like to have done well at the State Fair.”