'My Friends Think I'm Very Weird Because I Have Pigs and Goats'

There’s more to a pig than one day becoming breakfast food, though that didn’t stop Rakhay Burtzlaff from naming her pigs Flapjack, Pancake and Waffles.

Rakhay, 13, a student at Miller Middle School, and her brother Rory, 16, a Lynbrook High School student are members of , which is located at McClellan Ranch Park. Each of them showed their pigs at the —Rory walked away with the third win of his four-year piggy career.

His pig, Choco Chip won in his weight class for having “pretty good meaty length,” Rory says.

“He has defined muscling and definition,” he added.

Raising pigs is hard work and can keep a kid from typical summertime activities such as playing video games.

“A lot of my friends think I’m very weird because I have pigs and goats,” says T.J. Suit, 12, who is home-schooled. “But then they’re like ‘that’s really cool’ because they come out and see (the pigs) and they see they’re not used just for pets.”

T.J. showed his pig, Miss Bacon, so-named to make a connection with a nationally known contest.

"Her name's Miss Bacon, kinda like Miss America type thing, but instead of America, she's Miss Bacon," he says.

For Rakhay, she only has Flapjack this year. Waffles was her first pig and Pancake was her second pig, so she decided it made sense to stick with a breakfast-theme name for this year's pig.

Rolling Hills is showing market animals and dairy animals at the annual fair. The difference between the two categories lay in the purpose of the animal, says Gabbi Crum.

“Market animals are the ones that go for auction, then are sent off and come back in shrink wrap. They’re raised for that purpose,” she says.

And it’s at auction where money can be scored, according to Rakhay.

These animals are not raised to be pets, though Rakhay says “some people actually make a connection with their pigs.”

It’s her third year raising a pig and she does it to get experience beyond academics. It’s a chance to “roll up (your) sleeves and do hard work. It’s kind of fun taking care of all the pigs,” she says.

“Each pig has a different personality so you really get to know them.”

But in the end “you do get a large amount of money,” she adds.

Which is all part of the learning process.

“You learn how to make profit because you have to get all the costs of getting the pig and feeding it. Then when you sell it at auction you get to decide how much money you need to get all your money back and make a profit. It’s rewarding.”

—Additional reporting done by Dave Colby.