Written by JENNIFER SHIKE, July 13, 2021
You can read the story below or at www.porkbusiness.com
Photo by: Legacy Livestock Imaging
A 92-year-old Iowa woman showed the world you can do anything you want if you put your mind to it when she stepped back into the show ring on July 9 during the National Swine Registry’s Summer Type Conference in Louisville, Ky.
Lois Martin, the great-great-grandmother of two, great-grandmother of 38, grandmother of 16 and mother of five from Marion, Iowa, lit up with joy as she drove her Hampshire gilt into the show ring for a second-place finish after taking a 20+-year break from pig showing.
“I was very nervous and kind of scared,” Lois says. “I kept thinking, what if something happens? But once I got in there, it felt so good.”
Lois Martin steps into the ring with a Hampshire gilt her family raised. Photo by Legacy Livestock Imaging.
Back to the Show Ring
Lois says her son, Dave Martin, and granddaughter Carly Martin concocted the plan to get her back into the show ring when Lois told them she wanted to go to the show with them.
“I didn’t want to be a burden to them,” Lois adds. “But they insisted they wanted me to go and went out to the hog lot to pick out a gilt for me to show. That gilt wasn’t pampered – I worked with her a few times at home and we washed her. Carly gave me a few tips on showing, but I watch enough hog shows that I knew what to do.”
Carly helped her grandma get up to the show ring and watched from the make-up area. She was equipped with a spray bottle and brush to help as needed.
Lois and Carly Martin wait to go back out for a final drive before the judge. Photo by Legacy Livestock Imaging.
But Grandma Lois got along just fine on her own, Carly says.
“My sweet, spunky 92.5-year-old grandma got to show a pig again and it was the best thing ever! The look on her face is truly priceless,” Carly wrote on Twitter.
Lois’ granddaughter, Ashley Fitzgerald of Boone, Iowa, couldn’t make it to the show but eagerly watched online at WaltonWebcasting.com.
“My grandma is the greatest. Grandpa is sure smiling down from Heaven today. He would be so proud,” Fitzgerald wrote.
The Last One in the Barn
Perhaps the best part about Lois is that age hasn’t stopped her from living life on the farm to its fullest. She works just as hard as ever and believes that’s what keeps her young.
She and her late husband, Loyd, have raised Hampshires since they were married in 1947. Loyd’s father started their pig business in 1933.
“My dad had Berkshires, so I had to change my way of thinking when we got married,” Lois says.
In 1972, Loyd and Lois added Durocs to their operation. Their son, Dave, continues to follow in his parents’ footsteps on the family farm raising Hampshire and Duroc pigs for breeding stock and the show pig industry.
He says his mother has always been an active part of the hog operation. At 92, she’s the head mower, mowing about 3 acres between the two farms. She also spends a lot of time trimming and tending her big garden. Whenever possible, she likes to spend time in the farrowing house.
“I like to check on the pigs and spend time out there. If the sows are having pigs, I take my Guidepost magazine out there and read it while they are farrowing,” she says.
Dave says his mom still pulls pigs and keeps the farrowing barn cleaner than any kid who has ever worked for their family.
Mother Knows Best
Last August, DCM Hamps and Durocs was hit hard by the derecho windstorm. Dave explains, “When your 91-year-old mother says a storm is coming and it’s coming fast, you better listen.”
For 40 minutes, the storm raged and snapped over 100 mature evergreen and pine trees between the two Martin farms located five miles apart. Read the full story here.
“You just can’t imagine how bad it was,” Lois says.
Last Christmas, her granddaughter bought her a little chainsaw and Lois is still working on cutting off some of the branches on the fallen trees. The damage caused by the derecho winds continues to be seen around the farm. One roof still needs replaced and a couple of grain bins will need repair work before they can put grain in them this year.
But that’s farm life, she says. It’s just one of many things that continue to keep Lois busy around the farm she has loved operating for so many years with her late husband.
“Loyd would have been pretty surprised to see me out in the show ring,” Lois laughs. “But he’d be really happy I was doing it. I always helped him get the pigs ready for the show ring, but I never went in except when we were showing truckloads at the National Barrow Show.”
She says their marriage was a true partnership. From running combines to serving at church to showing pigs, she’s grateful for all the time they were able to spend together doing what they loved.
“It’s been hard without him,” she admits. “But knowing where he is at has made it easier on me. He would have been pleased to see me showing. I always try to set an example to others and am grateful God has given me good health so I can do things like this.”
Lois Martin’s gilt sold for $5,250 in the STC Sale on July 10. Photo by Legacy Livestock Imaging.