ISU’s Swine Teaching Farm is on a winning streak.

Allen Christian, manager of the Swine Teaching Farm, said the group recently won the category of champion boar at the National Barrow Show, in Austin, Minn., had the champion female at the Iowa State Fair and had both the champion boar and female at the World Pork Expo in Des Moines this summer.

Christian said student employees at the swine farm are in charge of the selection, preparation, care and showing of the animals at competitions.

Seven to 10 ISU students with various majors — including agricultural engineering, agronomy and animal science — work at the swine farm each semester, Christian said.

He said students who work at the farm acquire skills they couldn’t have gained from classroom instruction alone.

“I hope [students] come away with some leadership skills and the experience of working with many different people and in several different areas involved in swine production — from birthing baby pigs to helping select animals to go to market and preparing animals to go to shows,” he said.

Christian said swine farm employees are responsible for cleaning and sorting animals, selecting animals for classes, helping with labs within the animal science department and delivering animals that have been sold.

Students also participate in animal health care, including giving injections and nursing animals back to health, he said.

Students may work at the farm up to 20 hours a week during the academic year and 40 hours a week during the summer and school vacations.

Adam Conover, sophomore in animal science, said working with others at the swine farm has shown him new ways to produce hogs.

“I think it helps your people skills as much as anything,” he said. “Everybody has a different way of doing things, so it’s a good way to broaden your horizons when looking at how to produce hogs.”

Conover said working at the farm is a supplement to his academic education.

“You’re never going to know what you’re doing until you do it,” he said. “It takes more than a day or two to figure it out. People spend a lifetime trying to figure out how to raise hogs and make money.”

Brice Conover, senior in animal science, worked at the swine farm as a farrowing house manager, recording how many pigs were born, injecting baby pigs with antibiotics and vaccinations and ear-notching for identification.

“Working at the swine farm got me exposure to a bigger operation and new facilities as well as people,” he said. “A normal operation wouldn’t give you the freedom to try some of these things out.”