Entrepreneur Turns 4-H Pig Project Into Direct Marketing Biz

Agri-View:

After the county fair, many 4-Her’s part ways with their project pigs until the following spring. But for 9-year-old Blake Vandehei, raising pigs is a year-round business and a real-life lesson in animal care and economics.

Blake, son of Pat and Jennifer Vandehei of De Pere, made his official 4-H debut showing pigs at the Brown County Fair in August. According to Jennifer, this was something he had been looking forward to for quite some time. “From the time he was three he really loved the pigs at the fair,” she notes, “We always had to watch the pig show.”

Though this was his first year showing, the young entrepreneur got his start in the hog business when his grandfather, John Everett, gave him two pigs for his seventh birthday. Since then, he has raised and direct-marketed six batches hogs. “I started out with those two and kept going with them. I took money from when I sold them and kept buying more and more in a continuous cycle,” says Blake.

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