Pigs Bring Plump Bids

Farm kids in white pants paraded their white-belted Hampshires and cinnamon-colored crossbreed hogs before bidders who spent $404,699 at the Sonoma County Fair's annual swine auction Thursday.

The total was more than last year's auction, which raised $352,000. Fair officials expressed satisfaction with the bidders, who spent considerably more than the market price of 58 cents a pound for the hogs.

Mallory Gomes of Petaluma received $15 a pound for her Supreme Grand Champion hog, a Hampshire barrow with a distinctive white belt or band near its shoulders.

The hog, which Gomes named Josiah, was purchased jointly by Craig Nordby of Nordby Construction, Larry Wasem of Wasem Investments and Windsor developer Richard Coombs. The trio paid $3,825 for the 255-pound hog.

Gomes, a senior at Casa Grande High, has shown hogs at the fair for nine years and is saving her auction sale money for college and to pursue a degree in health care or nursing.

"My favorite part is when I get in the ring," Gomes said.

The auction is held each year in the shaded sawdust ring toward the back of the fairgrounds. FFA members in blue jackets and the 4-H youth in green ties or kerchiefs helped line up their hogs for sale.

About 70 bidders and solicitors, the people who find the bidders, sat at tables in front of a podium presided over by volunteer auctioneers Louis Ricci and Tony Brazil. The two men, decked out in red jackets and straw cowboy hats, have served a combined 114 years for the fair's junior livestock auctions.

Also returning this year was El Molino High freshman Rachael Gross of Forestville, who as a novice last year had her hog named the supreme grand champion.

On Thursday, the first of her two hogs, a cross of Duroc, Yorkshire and Hampshire breeds, was purchased for $5 a pound.

Even though she didn't again win the top prize, Gross said she was satisfied with how much more she had learned about caring for hogs over the past year. She was especially proud for her fourth-place award for showmanship.

Not only will she return next year, Gross volunteered that she already is looking forward to her future family taking part in the livestock shows and auctions.

"I'm definitely going to have my kids do it," she said.

Fair officials said the auction rewards youths who work hard in raising their animals and who represent the future of farming in Sonoma County.

"There's a lot of good kids," said fair board president Ralph Bettinelli, surveying the young people around the auction ring.

You can reach Staff Writer Robert Digitale at 521-5285

or robert.digitale@

pressdemocrat.com.