4-Her raises pig to be auctioned off to benefit Hospice

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 17 July 2016 at 12:00 pm
Jayne Bannister with Edith the pig

Photos by Tom Rivers-Jayne Bannister, 18, is pictured with her pig, Edith, that will be auctioned off July 30 at the Orleans County 4-H Fair. Proceeds will go to Hospice of Orleans.

Jayne Bannister with Edith the pig

Jayne walks with Edith the pig on Saturday at the family farm on Route 98 in Point Breeze.

Robert Bannister at the 4-H Market Meat Auction

Robert Bannister, right, serves as auctioneer for the 4-H Market Meat Auction. His sister Jayne Bannister is in the ring with the lone steer at last year’s auction. Panek Farms paid $4.50 a pound or $5,378 for the 1,195-pound animal.

KENT – Jayne Bannister later this month will end her 4-H experience after about a decade of showing animals at the Orleans County 4-H Fair. Bannister has won numerous ribbons for showing pigs, cows and other animals.

She wants to make her final time in the show ring special. Instead of going for a blue ribbon, Jayne, 18, is using her 4-H finale to raise money for Hospice of Orleans.

Jayne has been raising a pig that will be auctioned off July 30 during the 4-H Market Meat Auction. The auction is at 7 p.m. on Saturday, the last day of the fair.

Jayne said she appreciates the care provided by Hospice about a year ago when her grandmother, Doris Bannister, was dying. Hospice sent nurses to help care for Doris so she could be at home in her final days.

“It was really great for our family,” Jayne said about having her grandmother at home instead of at a hospital. “We could see her as the mother and the grandmother we knew.”

Doris stayed close to her loved ones and the farm, even joining her son Roger on a Kubota for a ride in the orchard.

“It was so much better for her to be able to be at home rather than in a hospital bed,” Jayne said. “She had a sense of freedom, which was always important to her.”

Doris Bannister was 97 when she died peacefully last July 30.

Jayne in May finished her freshman year at Kansas State University, where she is a double major in animal science and agriculture education.

She has been getting three pigs ready for the fair since she came home. One of the pigs she calls Edith will be in the auction with proceeds going to Hospice. Edith weighs about 240 pounds. Jayne is hoping the pitch will fetch more than $1,000 at the auction.

Edith is named for one of the sisters in the popular PBS show, Downton Abbey. Two other pigs that Jayne named Mary and Sybil – also Edith’s sister in Downton – will also be going to the fair. Jayne is calling the trio, ” Downton Hammy.”

The auction starts at 7 p.m. with a buyer’s preview and reception at 6:30. Steer, pigs, lambs, meat goats, meat rabbits, chickens and turkeys will all be up for auction.