Former 4-H’er says raising pigs taught life lessons

WASHINGTON — The Brinning family is an established name in swine showmanship. With titles at county fairs, state fairs and far away competitions, the reputation associated with Brinning Genetics is respectable, to say the least.

Like many 4-H kids, Morgan Brinning was working with animals as soon as she could walk, and left for college excited about staying involved through a career in agriculture. A few semesters and one grueling engineering class later, she discovered that wasn’t the path for her.

With a bachelor’s in Kinesiology now under her belt, Brinning is attending in grad school for physical therapy at the University of Iowa. While she was initially skeptical about switching from a career with animals to one with people, she said she knew she’d made the right call.

"I just appreciated that they were helping so many different people of different ages,“ she said. ”I got a job at (a) clinic in Washington and I loved it, I loved my classes at Iowa State, it’s all science and physiology and a lot of anatomy, but I’ve never thought of anything different.“

Brinning remains involved in the pork industry, amid her studies. Summers feature time at pig sales and attending shows wherever she can find them. While she continued to show at state fairs through FFA — where participants can be up to 21 years old — she walked the ring for the last time in August of 2021 before aging out.

It was a high note to end on — Brinning was admitted to the field of champions — but that didn’t make it easy to say goodbye.

“When it’s part of your lifestyle and part of your entire family’s lifestyle and it’s something that you can’t do any longer, obviously it’s sad,” she said. “I miss it every day, I miss the people that are in it, I miss all the hard work and the preparation that it takes.”

Stepping away from the ring doesn’t undo the lessons learned from all those years raising pigs, however. Brinning said the years of work left her with a number of portable skills.

Communication is chief among them.

“I’ve learned throughout my time at Iowa State and here at Iowa that it’s so important to be able to talk to any type of person,” she said. “When you’re showing pigs and you’re at all these shows or any type of agricultural event, you have to be able to talk to anyone … They make you answer questions on the spot, they make you describe certain aspects of your pig that maybe you’re unfamiliar with, so it really is a confidence booster.”

More specifically, the experience of meeting others from diverse backgrounds prepared Brinning for the culture shock that eventually accompanied the move out of Washington.

“In high school, I always thought my opinion was right, and there really wasn’t another way to look at a situation,” she said. “But I think from showing pigs, I’ve met so many different people from different parts of the country with so many different perspectives, and I’ve learned to apply that.”

One abstract, but still important take-away was the work ethic.

”If I’m not walking my pig every day, if I’m not washing my pig twice a day, if I’m not getting their skin into prime skin (with) oil, lotions, if I’m not giving them the correct feed rations, they’re not going to perform the way I want them to,“ Brinning said. ”If I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it 100%, and I have showing pigs to thank.“

While Brinning focused almost exclusively on raising pigs throughout her 4-H and FFA career she said the take-aways were similar for her peers raising other livestock.

"I think a lot of the traits and life lessons all transfer from one species to the other,“ she said. ”The preparation’s different, cattle are a little more intense, but I don’t think there’s much specific to pigs.“

Brinning has continued to put those skills to work in her adult life as an advocate for ag education. The campaign was inspired by her freshman sorority, where none of her peers had heard of showing pigs.

“That was the start of, ‘Oh, these people truly don’t know what this is,’” she said. “I kind of had to take a step back and … start from scratch. That’s what’s kind of helped me also in Iowa City, because no one knows anything about livestock. Or they think they do, there could be some right, some wrong. But my job is now to explain why we do what we do, the importance, and how we’re treating these animal fairly.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com