FFA Student Banks on Piggies

Jordie’s Show Pigs

Written by Cyd Hoefle
Photos Contributed by Jordan Grindheim

Seven years ago, Jordan Grindheim would never have believed that one day she would be raising pigs to sell to 4-H and FFA kids. 

Jordan started showing pigs when she was 9, purchasing them from a breeder and finishing them in time for the county fair. By age 14, she decided to try raising a few on her own. She bought two gilts and had them artificially inseminated, and when they produced 21 piglets between them, Jordan was in business.

One of the most satisfying things for me is hearing from one of my buyers how they have done at the fair and their hopes for the future.

- Jordan Grindheim

“That’s what started it for me,” she said. “That first year I sold all of them but a couple. It was fun and I wanted to keep going.”

In March of this year, at her seventh-annual piglet sale, Jordan sold 50 show pigs to 4-H and FFA members across the state. Her reputation over the years has spread and she has repeat customers who depend on getting their show pigs from her every year. 

A high school graduate from Roy, from a class of four, Jordan has always been a visionary. 

“I’ve always been a goal setter,” she said. “I view them like a ladder, one step at a time until you get to the top. I’m always asking myself, ‘What do I have to do to make that happen?’”

In high school, Jordan used her show pig projects for her Supervised Agricultural Experience in FFA. Through it, she earned her American degree, an honorable degree that demonstrates outstanding leadership abilities and community involvement. 

Jordan attended Northwest College in Powell, Wyoming, where she earned associate degrees in ag business, veterinary assistant and ag production. Even with a tremendous academic workload, she still made the 200-mile trek home as many weekends as possible during her college career, especially during farrowing season.

Once the birthing starts, piglets come about every half hour. I really like for them to do it as naturally as possible, but it can get to be a long night waiting some of them out.

- Jordan Grindheim

“I’ve had to rely on my parents a lot,” she said. “I couldn’t do this without them.”

The family ranch, which sits outside of Roy at the base of the Judith Mountains, is a commercial cow-calf operation run by her parents, Shawn and Tammy. Along with the pigs, Jordan also has a growing herd of cows. 

Jordan loves studying genetics and pores over the national boar catalogs after each farrowing season to shop for semen from boars she wants to introduce into her herd. She artificially inseminates nearly all of the sows because it’s far more cost effective and she can synchronize the births. Her pig barn holds six sows farrowing at the same time. So, Jordan, who with her mother does all the artificial insemination, tries to spread out the birthing to accommodate the facility and to keep them from being spread too thin.

“Once the birthing starts, piglets come about every half hour,” Jordan explained. “I really like for them to do it as naturally as possible, but it can get to be a long night waiting some of them out.”

As show hogs, Jordan looks for interesting patterns and colors for her pigs. She loves calico and bright colors and breeds her sows to produce them. She judges a hog from the ground up, starting with their feet and legs, ensuring that when they get to full weight, at about 200 pounds, they can adequately carry it. Her pigs have done well at county fairs, and have placed in champion and reserve champion positions. Jordan claims that when she sells a pig to a young 4-H’er she also sells her expertise.

“I like to offer my experience to the kids,” she said. “One of the most satisfying things for me is hearing from one of my buyers how they have done at the fair and their hopes for the future.”  

At 21, Jordan is well on her way to making her mark in the show pig world and has high aspirations to one day raise a boar that makes the national boar stud farms for semen collection. 

“That would culminate it for me,” she said. “I would really love that!”

I’ve always been a goal setter. I view them like a ladder, one step at a time until you get to the top. I’m always asking myself, ‘What do I have to do to make that happen?’

- Jordan Grindheim