Oroville FFA student project grows into successful business

KB Show Hogz provided many of the hogs for the county fair

By Gazette-Tribune • October 11, 2022 1:30 am
Submitted photo Oroville FFA member Kane Booker has grown his FFA Student Project into a thriving new business KB Show Hogz.
Submitted photo Oroville FFA member Kane Booker has grown his FFA Student Project into a thriving new business KB Show Hogz.

Submitted photo Oroville FFA member Kane Booker has grown his FFA Student Project into a thriving new business KB Show Hogz.

Submitted photo Oroville FFA member Kane Booker has grown his FFA Student Project into a thriving new business KB Show Hogz.

OROVILLE – Oroville High School FFA had a great showing this year at the Okanogan County Fair. We had ten students showing swine from the chapter and 15 overall from the school.

This has stemmed from the efforts of one student’s project that has grown to supply close to 10 percent of the hogs shown at the fair. Kane Booker and his business, KB Show Hogz, not only provided many of the hogs for the fair, they also took top honors in almost every market class and the Grand Champion came from his barn.

Kane, with the help of his parents Ed and Daphne Booker, started showing hogs at the fair in 2017, but they were frustrated with the limited availability of quality swine in our area. They have since built a swine barn with farrowing crates to produce their own quality hogs here in Okanogan County using artificial insemination. During the 2020 COVID pandemic Kane continued to grow this part of his business and this was the first year he had a grand champion hog from his breeding program, as well as reserve grand champion.

The business has grown this year and had 15 hogs shown in the fair that came from his barn. This year the KB Show Hogz swine were often the top three in most market classes with two receiving callbacks to the final round. During the final market class of the call backs Ali Nicholson from Tonasket was awarded the Grand Champion market hog. This hog was at the top end of the weight class for market swine and had been held on weight for over a month prior to the fair. She was able to hold his weight and keep him looking fresh going into the market class at the fair with the help and counsel from KB Show Hogz.

The future is looking bright for this FFA student’s project. After such a strong showing at the fair and great local support from the community, the Oroville hogs sold well in the auction. KB Show Hogz stock is in high demand and is nearly sold out for 2023. If all goes well, he will more than double the number of exhibitors showing his hogs in the 2023 Okanogan County Fair and has also sold stock for both the Franklin County Fair and Chelan County Fair.