By CELESTE BAUMGARTNER

Ohio Correspondent

OXFORD, Ohio — Matt Butterfield’s 280-pound market barrow was this year’s Grand Champion at the Ohio State Fair. Repeat was the pig’s name, so called because his pig Hollywood was the Grand Champion at the 2017 fair.

It was only the second time that’s happened; the last time was in 1974-75.

At $48,000, Repeat was also the highest-priced champion at the Sale of Champions, an honor that honor usually goes to the market beef winner. This year’s top beef brought in $41,500.

The Butterfields bought Hollywood and Repeat from Moyer Show Pigs. The two pigs had different sires but many similarities. Butterfield and his dad, Mark, looked for structure when they bought their pigs.

“They change in everything, but their structure stays pretty true to how they look when you first see them,” Butterfield said. “We knew we needed to find one that was close to the one from last year because the judges said that the genetics from last year’s pig might be the future of what the market is looking for. We did our best to find one that was similar.”

The Butterfields bought several show pigs from Moyer’s. They were joking that maybe Matt would win again when his grandmother, Patricia Butterfield, suggested naming one of the pigs Repeat. They pinned the name on the one for which they had the highest hopes.

But, Butterfield didn’t make too much of the name before the competition, for fear of seeming overconfident.

Showing livestock is a family affair. His sister, Lauren, shows sheep. Mark is the expert on feed. Mom Nicole is also involved. Butterfield, a senior at Talawanda High School, said he enjoys showing because the entire clan works at it.

Mark helps his kids decide what their animal’s final targeted weight should be. For the pigs, that final weight is relative to their size and structure, he said. A small-framed barrow could never weigh 280 pounds.

They want the animal to grow at a certain rate of gain, he said. If they grow too fast, it causes structural issues. They adjust the protein, fat and lysine levels relative to how the barrow is developing.

“At the beginning, when we buy them in March, we weigh them every week. We’re adjusting the feed every three weeks maybe,” Mark said. “Once we get close to fair, we’re adjusting the feed maybe every two to three days.

“We chart them and graph their average daily gain. Starting in late June, we weigh them every day. We monitor their growth rate, their rate of gain and compare that to what we’re targeting.”

With Repeat, the timing worked beautifully. The judges liked him because he was square in his stance and tall at the point of shoulder, Butterfield said. He was wide and big-bodied with a lot of muscle and definition.

“He walked really smooth,” he said. “We always try to keep their head up when they walk; it keeps their back defined. The way he presented himself, when he turned he didn’t crumble in on his shoulder. He was smooth.”

The family didn’t notice until they got home that Rusty Coe donated the Grand Champion’s trophy; he won the back-to-back championships in 1974-75.

Will Butterfield try for another win? “Anybody would want to,” he said. “We have fun with it. It is a family thing. It teaches you a lot, and your family is together, so that is what matters most to me about it. And it’s fun.”