My name is Alia Rodgers, and I’m from Napa, California. I am 19 years old and have shown livestock for ten years now. While I was not born into a family involved in this industry, I quickly fell in love with it when I started showing. This industry has taught me what I want to do with the rest of my life, and I do not know where I would be without it. This will be my final year showing pigs, and while I am so sad to be stepping out of the show ring, I cannot wait to find my place on the sidelines. In the meantime, I will be attending Utah State University with a major in Animal Science and a minor in Agribusiness. Although I do not know exactly where my road leads quite yet, I plan to start a business back home in Napa with my sister Mardi, supporting the agriculture of California. When I got drawn for Denver, I knew I would be traveling to Gabe Salmon’s barn to see if I could feed another barrow out of Charm, the sow who raised my Reserve Champion Dark Cross at the California Youth Ag Expo in 2021. With the help of my family, we picked out a blue barrow I went on to name CJ, who we would raise for Denver. Blue pigs have never been my favorite, but CJ was a special pig and definitely changed my mind. Somehow our green little prospect barrow grew into a champion on a national stage, and I could not be
108
Powered by FlippingBook