Miles & Mountains

From 4-H To FFA w/ Jaxi

• Nick • Episode 263

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A fifteen-year-old stock show competitor opens up about life in FFA, why she chose pigs over sports, and how caring for animals builds real discipline. She shares the feed plans, show prep, and family support that keep her moving toward a future in nursing.

• moving from 4‑H to FFA and finding a better fit
• what FFA teaches about livestock, routine, and responsibility
• choosing pigs, training methods, and daily handling
• feeding strategies, target weights, and show prep for OYE
• weekly care, pen cleaning, grooming, and teamwork with her sister
• honest talk about butchering, costs, and hard choices
• future goals in healthcare inspired by her grandmother.


Shoutout to :

Jaxi Long 

The Long Family 

FFA 


Ag-Gear Store 

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Raising Awareness:

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW)

Mental Health 





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SPEAKER_00:

Jackie Long, how are you?

SPEAKER_01:

I'm good. How are you?

SPEAKER_00:

I'm doing good. I'm doing good. Thank you for being on. Thank you for being patient. Things that we cannot control. That entails Wi-Fi. Yesterday we were supposed to meet guys and we couldn't get on. It was quite embarrassing. Nothing like a grown man trying to get Wi-Fi going, not just for this podcast, but for the family. And then come to find out when the outage happened, it blew my modem. So I had to go Sunday during the football games with other people who whose modems blew and get a new modem. So yeah, thankfully they were open because if not, I would have gone all day without Wi-Fi and had to entertain the kids somehow. I don't know. Old school ways. But anyways, enough of that. Jaxy, thank you for being on and being patient. I'm glad you're on. It's been a while. It's been a while. It's been in the making for what? I mean, you contacted me. But yeah, it's been a couple months, but no, no, no. Let's start from the beginning. Because I had your brother on, right? Yes, sir. That was 2023. That was it was published August 3rd, 2023. You're youngin'. I was a little younger. Your brother was definitely young, but now he's you know doing his thing. We'll we'll talk about that. But 2023, I remember you you became my I think my youngest fan outside of my family. And I was like, who is this? She is a rock star, she wants to be on, she wants to share. You wanted to share your pigs.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, I did.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm all like, before we even start talking, you got to have permission, right? Yes, sir. And you got it, yes, sir. And then you and we got so much permission that you told mom how that outage is making me look almost amateur-ish. Just joking, but yeah, I would have. So you got mom's permission. How's mom?

SPEAKER_01:

Mom is really good. She's living life, just got a new car and everything. She's doing great.

SPEAKER_00:

All right. Nice. Nothing, not nothing like a new car. So, what did what did she get?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, she got a 2020 seat 2026 Jeep compass.

SPEAKER_00:

Wow, go with the the new the new do it with the newest thing she can have. Now, the compass isn't nice, it's not box-like like it used to be.

SPEAKER_01:

It's really nice, it's got five seats and a big old backup camera. Knowing that lady, she'll hit some curves.

SPEAKER_00:

That's funny. That's funny. Now, is that is that car to go see your brother?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I don't see your brother. Yeah, he moved away. Jeff don't live in where's he at? Is he he he lives in Guthrie now? Where Guthrie, Oklahoma.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, and all he's doing is riding, huh?

SPEAKER_01:

No, he works and builds houses and buildings for a living now.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, he did he end up going to college or have a little bit of college or no?

SPEAKER_01:

Heck no, he did not go to college.

SPEAKER_00:

Hey, college radio is the best thing, and a lot of kids that didn't like high school they enjoy the college because they end up doing the college radio and then you know, learning a trade or two or four, you know, doing ag studies, that kind of thing. But is he is he killing it? Is he killing the circuit down there?

SPEAKER_01:

He's killing it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, okay. Does he take you along, or do you beg him to take you along?

SPEAKER_01:

I don't really go along with him. He's he's living his life, and we talk here and there, but it's about it.

SPEAKER_00:

Gotcha, gotcha. Okay, well, get this Jeb's episode published August 3rd, 2023. Right? It was episode 173. This episode is kind of close. It's gonna be 263. Is that okay? Yeah, you sure? All right, all right, all right. Hey, that that's it's pretty not bad, though. Not bad. Surprised I haven't put out more episodes, but you know, life happens and life does happen. Yeah, so but here we are. Here we are. You're finally on. It's been a few months, been a couple years because you wanted to share your pigs when you started getting pigs, correct?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_00:

All right, when did you start getting pigs?

SPEAKER_01:

My seventh grade year. I started showing my seventh grade year, so two years ago.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, and you were proud, you were louder and prouder, like I could share my pigs. Let me share my pigs with you guys. So here you are. So pigs, you're part of FFA. Were you part of FFA in seventh grade?

SPEAKER_01:

I was a part of 4H in seventh grade. I wasn't in my I wasn't in my FFA program yet.

SPEAKER_00:

FFA's high school, correct?

SPEAKER_01:

FFA at my school starts in eighth grade year. You get to go be in an FFA class.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, which one's better? 4H or FFA? Just asking.

SPEAKER_01:

FFA all the way.

SPEAKER_00:

Why why is that?

SPEAKER_01:

I can't stand the color green. I cannot stand the color green. Just because of color, man, you're a typical it's just like when I put that 4-H Hutch jacket on and went and started showing pigs. I look like a little boy. If you seen me and Jeb beside each other in a 4-H thing, we'd look just alike. We are identical all the way.

SPEAKER_00:

But FFA is blue, correct?

SPEAKER_01:

Blue and gold.

SPEAKER_00:

And you you rather rock blue and gold than green? Yes, all the way, because it's also my school colors, so uh gosh, no variation whatsoever. All right, okay. All right, so FFA. All right, you know, it's it's weird. I was you know, daughters does uh they do FFA and everything else, and I was reading about FFA. Did you know they don't call it Future Farmers of America anymore? It's just FFA. Did you know that?

SPEAKER_01:

No, I didn't know that. I had no clue about that.

SPEAKER_00:

Do you know?

SPEAKER_01:

No, I did not know that. I've always thought it was future farmers of America of America or logical culture.

SPEAKER_00:

No, it's it's called the national FFA now. Weird, huh?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

You'd think they would say future farmers of America, but yeah, no, it's F the National FFA. It's crazy. It's I wonder why they took those the you know the actual name out, huh? But me too, yeah, interesting. So FFA. Do you find it helpful for young kids like yourself getting in the the farm life or hinder?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it helps you a lot. It helps you, it it teaches you a lot in life, and how much cattle and pork and how much it helps you, and how much it like develops your life, and how much it put how much it puts in your life.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and it it's helped you a bit.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's helped a lot.

SPEAKER_00:

Or a lot.

SPEAKER_01:

It helped it helped me just understand. Because before I started for before I started FFA, I didn't know much about like the cattle and swine industry, and then my ag teacher started helping me, and it kind of just dang you you need cattle and pork in your life. You wouldn't be alive if you didn't have it.

SPEAKER_00:

Right, okay, all right. Now, do you plan on being a farmer when you get older?

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely not. No, I don't see that at all.

SPEAKER_00:

No, all right. So, so we'll we'll we'll get back to that. We'll well let's let's let's dive into that. Why why why not be a farmer? You're in FFA, you're learning all this stuff. I mean, you're putting a lot of time and money on your pigs, right? But oh yeah, why not get it a lot? Why not let learn all that and then get a farm yourself?

SPEAKER_01:

I just feel like that's just it's too much.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. What do you plan on doing?

SPEAKER_01:

I plan on going to school to become either ultrasound tech or a traveling nurse.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, you go, girl, you go. All right. So FFA, let's let's bring it back. What does FFA mean to you? Besides the cattle and pork in your life, what the what does it mean to you?

SPEAKER_01:

It's just passion. Chase your dreams, it makes you chase your dreams. If you want to show livestock, or if you want to judge cattle, or if you want to judge animals, do it because it will help you, and it it gives you something to do. It don't really yeah, it gives you something to do.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, it's giving now is a lot to do as a 15-year-old girl like yourself, right? I have a 14-year-old and I have 18, you know, and then uh a seven going on eight, almost 28. Uh does it give you something to do?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, it gives you a lot to do, it keeps you busy.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, but you don't want to take it further in the future.

SPEAKER_01:

No, once my senior year is over, I'm done with it.

SPEAKER_00:

Done, mom, mom's sticking to it too. Mom's like, I got you.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, mom's like, this is a lot of money to do, it's a lot of money.

SPEAKER_00:

It is, it is so just just to give up. That's why like that's why I'm asking you this question. Just to give it up. You spent so much money, and just voila, done.

SPEAKER_01:

I think I'm just your hands off. My kids might show pigs, but that's about it.

SPEAKER_00:

But that's not that that's until you're 40. Don't don't don't get kids or that. Yeah, mom's like, thank you, thank you, Nick. Thank you for telling her that. No kids until 40. Okay. Why FFA?

SPEAKER_01:

You say why FFA?

SPEAKER_00:

Why FFA? Yeah, why FFA now? Since you already have the mindset that you're gonna quit, right? After senior year. Why FFA? Why stay in FFA?

SPEAKER_01:

It gives me something to do. I don't like playing sports.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't like playing.

SPEAKER_00:

Jeb did, right?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, Jeb was a sports player. He did a lot of sports.

SPEAKER_00:

And why why not sports? You're a girly girl, right? But it sounds like you know, you can you can handle your own. You can play basketball, right? Softball.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't know. I just never was really into sports. I did it until I was in like the sixth grade, and then I quit once I hit high school.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. From what grade? Because before this, you told me how how uh middle school is and then high school. Can you tell me? So are listeners.

SPEAKER_01:

Our elementary is pre-K through third grade, our middle school is fourth through sixth, and our high school is seventh through twelfth.

SPEAKER_00:

That's a true rural rural area.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Right? Yes, yes, yes. Hey, I could couldn't imagine. I mean, it it's it'll be fun. It'd be fun. You probably have to travel everywhere, right? For for sports and stuff, yeah. That's uh that's that's that's the downer. That would that would make me quit, I think, just because all that traveling. No, I'm I'm good, I'm good. So could you do show pigs, right? Could you show pigs without being part of FFA?

SPEAKER_01:

You have to be a part of something, either 4-H or FFA to show pigs.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, but you couldn't go on your own and show yourself.

SPEAKER_01:

No, you gotta you can show without an ag teacher. So if you're homeschooled and your parents are good at doing that, and you don't need help by an ag teacher, you can join 4-H and you can show through homeschooling. But me, I show through FFA, and if you're in FFA, you gotta be in school to show with an ag teacher.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, okay. Would you say not only is it something to do, but do you feel like FFA brings discipline and knowledge in your life in that world?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh yeah, yeah, most definitely.

SPEAKER_00:

Would you say would you say it's helpful?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it is.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, okay. Do you know the creed?

SPEAKER_01:

No.

SPEAKER_00:

I had to ask. I had this because that's one of the first things that they uh they make the the kids do here at the school. So I had to ask the if you need a creed.

SPEAKER_01:

I've had to to say it, but I had to study it by paragraph. Like one paragraph I'll say to my ag teacher, and the next week I'll say the other paragraph, but I don't remember F you get an F.

SPEAKER_00:

No, I'm gonna so you did you you got by, you did what you had to do, and you're you know sticking to it. Yeah, okay. All right, all right. Just had to ask if you knew the creed. All right, now let's get to animals. Pigs, pigs, you could do you could have done chickens, you could have done ducks, you could have done bunnies. We got a couple bunnies at the house, right? Yeah, I mean, you can do cows, but pigs, the sloppiest, most intelligent animals you could ever pick. You pick those.

SPEAKER_01:

I didn't pigs. It's just like they're actually once you get a hang of it, they're actually really easy and they're really, really smart animals. But the yeah, intelligent very they're very intelligent, but it's just like as much work as I have to put into them. I just like putting in the work. I like breaking my animals, I like teaching them how to walk. I like just I like doing that. And I picked pigs because of a girl that used to go to my school and she graduated. Her name is Shay Stamball. Shout out to her, she helped me a lot through my first year. I started because of her. Her and her mom talked me into showing pigs my seventh grade year, and it was her senior year that year, and I've stuck with it ever since.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, all right, and you're sticking to it up until senior year. Uh up until after all right, until graduation. Yeah, okay. Yeah. Okay. Now take us through the year, all right? Because I know you I know you don't, you know, you you don't breed them. You you you you get them at a certain time of the year, correct? Like fall? When do you get them? Take us through that.

SPEAKER_01:

We get them in the end of October, beginning of November, sometimes middle of November, and we get them as like a couple weeks to a month old, and we raise them from that time on until the county fair.

SPEAKER_00:

When is your county fair?

SPEAKER_01:

I show there's this thing in Oklahoma that's called OYE. It's Oklahoma Youth Expo Center, and you show them there, and it's Oklahoma's biggest show, and I show them there, and then after that, they're feeder pigs or you sell them to be bred.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. Okay. And all right, so when you when you right before you sell them, how difficult is it to sell them or figure out what they're gonna do with them? How difficult is that for you?

SPEAKER_01:

It's it's real difficult because I've raised them since they were a little bitty pig. But sometimes you just put it into the thing like it's giving my family food. If I butcher them, it's giving my family food. It's going putting food in my it's putting food in my freezer. And if I do sell them to bee bread, then I usually get first pick of the litter out of her. Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

All right. Now put things in perspective. When you get them, how how what what's the poundage? What how how big are they? Like through pounds? Would they be like a hundred pounds? They're like what 80.

SPEAKER_01:

Some of them are really big and some of them are really, really little. My okay, my Berkshire guilt that I got this year, she was super super little, and she was like 55 pounds when I got her. She's now she's huge.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, what is she now? What is she now? Because you're you're gonna show her this coming up county, right?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, she's county fair. Okay, she's 10. Last time I weighed her, she was like 105, 107.

SPEAKER_00:

She's getting 50 something. What are you feeding her?

SPEAKER_01:

She's a big girl. She's getting a lot of protein right now.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, okay. Well, look, explain. Like, what's the daily food? Because they eat daily, right? Yeah. She gets so I mean everything.

SPEAKER_01:

She gets two and a half pounds of BB18, which are pellets, and they have a lot, a lot of protein in them. And she gets a full cup of Miller Oats.

SPEAKER_00:

Miller Oats. Okay. A lot of carbs. A lot of carbs.

SPEAKER_01:

I got a cross, I got a crossbed, I got a dark crossbred guilt, and she gets two pounds of Sunglow 16, which is a powder. And she gets a full cup of Miller Oats. She's a big that one. She's a big girl.

SPEAKER_00:

No, no, they also get scraps, right? They get every now and then.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I give a scraps. When they're little, they get marshmallows to train them how to walk. When they do good, they get a treat like marshmallows. But once they start learning, they don't really get scraps until they're about to get butchered.

SPEAKER_00:

Gotcha. Gotcha. Because I know later on, and they I mean, you they get stealth bread. I mean, they eat nasty old bread a lot. I know that. And any slop around the kitchen and farm or whatever.

SPEAKER_01:

So yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Ugh. Okay. So you don't get the nasty parts yet. You're not in it to raise them full to get big and fat. And all right, all right. And and and nasty like. Okay. That explains it. Because I was gonna ask you, I was like, what's the nastiest thing you had to feed them? Because they eat some nasty stuff.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I don't they're on a strict diet, they're on a really, really strict diet right now.

SPEAKER_00:

Sounds like it. Protein and carbs.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Best thing, best thing for us, right? Yeah. Okay. All right. Got all that. What's the best part of having these pigs?

SPEAKER_01:

Working them. I love working them. I love tanning them. I love just doing hair and hide. I love walking them.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

They're just it's just a great, it's a great thing.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, they could they they got quite the personality, correct?

SPEAKER_01:

They do. They got a big personality.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, they talk back to you. I mean, there's there's ways. It's almost like you know, a dog kind of thing, but it's a pig, and they they they they talk back, they back to you, you know. Sorry to do that, guys. But I mean, they do, don't they? They talk back, they got attitude.

SPEAKER_01:

They do, they're they're on their yeah, all right.

SPEAKER_00:

What's you what's what's the least favorite thing about having pigs?

SPEAKER_01:

Cleaning their pins and washing them.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, but how how often do you have to clean the pig or the pins and wash them?

SPEAKER_01:

I clean, I clean pins and wash them every week.

SPEAKER_00:

Every week. So do you designate a day, or is it like, okay, I'll get to it tomorrow. Every my wifi's down, so I'm gonna get it now.

SPEAKER_01:

Every Thursday, every single Thursday, I clean and wash pins.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, and you're pretty pretty good at it.

SPEAKER_01:

I guess I don't I don't even do it. I wash pigs, and my sister cleans my pins. Big shout out to my older sister, Destiny, because if it wasn't for her, their pins would not get cleaned.

SPEAKER_00:

Gotcha. So so sister puts an extra oomph on the cleanse and says, you know what? My little my little sister doesn't do a good job, so let me big sissy get involved and clean them pristine. Yeah, well, you you know what that tells me? You need to get with it. Let's go, Jaxie. Let's go. Okay, so at the fair or the expo, yeah, their last pig. The last pig. How how much did it sell for?

SPEAKER_01:

I don't I have not sold my pigs once yet. I've all I've butchered them. I've butchered one of my pigs.

SPEAKER_00:

All right. When you butcher them, what do you mostly use them for? Bacon or all the buttons?

SPEAKER_01:

Usually use them for pork chops. Their pork chops are really good.

SPEAKER_00:

You love pork chops. All right, okay. Now, do you bread them? Like, do you bread the pork chops or just eat them plain, just meat kind of thing?

SPEAKER_01:

Eat them plain, put some seasoning on them and eat them plain, put them on the grill.

SPEAKER_00:

Pork chops. Okay, so just a pork chop eating kind of gal. All right, I get the bacon, the the back strap, too. All right, okay. I got you, I got you. All right, we talked about everything. FFA, pig, right? You talked about after high school, you're no longer gonna do this, you're not gonna go to farming, you're gonna go radiologist or traveling nurse, right? What got you into those two fields? Just thinking of the fields.

SPEAKER_01:

My grandma. My grandma is a grandma was a nurse. My grandma is an RN.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, okay. Shout out to grandma.

SPEAKER_01:

She's a hardworking lady. That's that's one work. She still works, she works night shifts. She stays up day and night, day and night, and goes to work.

SPEAKER_00:

You're gonna say something. She does what now?

SPEAKER_01:

She goes to work at nighttime, takes about a four-hour nap, gets up, and goes right back to work. That's that's my nano. She's been doing it for I can't even do that. She's been doing it for a long time.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, and you want to do that in honor of her.

SPEAKER_01:

I wanna I wanna follow my grandma's footsteps and do what she does and what she loves.

SPEAKER_00:

Shout out to grandma. I tell you what, those four-hour naps or sleeps won't cut it. Not in this household. I don't even know this household, so shout out to grandma.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't know how she does it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, but you want to do it, so hey, more power to you.

SPEAKER_01:

I do want to do it.

SPEAKER_00:

All right, what school do you want to go to?

SPEAKER_01:

I ain't really looked into that yet.

SPEAKER_00:

No, no, I haven't you're you're a freshman. There's still time to get get hungry, figure things out, you know, whether nurse like grandma or radiologist, you know, just be your own person. You're gonna stay stay in the state of Oklahoma or you gonna move up or around?

SPEAKER_01:

I I think I'm gonna move on, get out of this state for a little bit.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, I'm pretty sure you'll be back though.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, I probably will.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. What's your favorite town in in Oklahoma?

SPEAKER_01:

I don't really know. I don't got a favorite.

SPEAKER_00:

No, you don't. Okay. Alright. All right. So, did we say everything? Do you want to add anything?

SPEAKER_01:

I want to give a shout out to a couple of people.

SPEAKER_00:

Let's go, Jackson. Go.

SPEAKER_01:

I want to give a shout out to my stepdad, my mom, and all my siblings, especially my older sister Destiny and Jeb. I want to shout out Jeb for being there for me through my hardest times and through my best times. He's always been there no matter what.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

All right, I'm gonna shout you out, Jacksie, for hanging out. And and and you know, being my youngest fan outside of my family, right? And and always checking in with me, always talking, you know. First I was like, is she serious? But then you are, and you know, three years almost three years later, you know, we're still talking and we're sharing pigs, talking about your brother, talking about family, you know. So I'm gonna shout you out, Jaxie. And I appreciate you being a loyal listener and a fan. Not because I interviewed your brother, but I mean, I only interviewed your brother once, and you've been a fan of mine for a while. So yeah, shout you out, you know. And so I I I hope we we continue, you know, being fans of each other and anything you need and want, especially later on, references and everything else, hit me up. All right. I will. All right, Jaxie, till next time.

SPEAKER_01:

Till next time,