A family tradition: Van Hauen show pigs win major awards across the nation

The Van Hauens—Kenny, Nadine, Clint and Krista—have always been firm believers in the mantra of quality over quantity: it’s why, at any given time throughout all their years of showing and selling hogs, they’ve never raised more than 30 or 35 sows at a time on their farm between Grundy Center and Wellsburg. But the results speak for themselves: even during an interview on Friday afternoon, Kenny received word over the phone that one of his own was in the running for the big award at the Minnesota State Fair. He could barely contain his excitement.
           
“Really? I’ll be darned,” he said with a laugh. “There’s nothing greater in this business than to see some little kid with a big smile on their face because maybe it’s the first time they’ve ever won anything. That’s the satisfying thing.”
           
Clint and Krista, both of whom graduated from Wellsburg-Steamboat Rock High School in the late 1990s, became fixtures at the Grundy County Fair as kids. It was virtually guaranteed that one of them would show the grand champion or reserve champion market hog whenever they were in the running, and that success translated to major accolades at the State Fair—where Krista showed the overall reserve champion in 1999 and both the grand champion and reserve champion FFA market hog in 2000—as well. 
           
“I’ve got ‘Play to Win’ written on my license plate. I’m just a competitive person. That really kind of sparked my interest in it,” Clint said. “A business came out of it to sell show pigs to other kids to try to get them to win.”
           
And Krista, though she got the glory of the big awards, effusively praises her brother as the “mastermind” behind it all and the main reason she won.
           
“I was just fortunate to show quality hogs throughout my career,” she said. “My brother was actually the one that did all the hard work, him and my dad… It was always a family accomplishment.”
           
As previously mentioned, the family’s involvement didn’t end when Clint—who taught agriculture education for nine years at Colo-NESCO and currently raises hogs and aronia berries near Ames—and Krista— now the head women’s basketball coach at St. Ambrose University in Davenport—left school. Since then, they’ve sold at least six other county champion hogs that they breed themselves to aspiring 4-H kids who want to show, and it’s spread into other states as far flung as Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas and Minnesota.
           
So, what makes a great pig? It’s difficult to succinctly describe, but you know it when you see it. Clint uses the family’s other passion—basketball—to make the analogy.
           
“They’re looking for ones that have a lot of product—muscles, square built but then can move like an athlete,” he said. “You can make them tall and skinny, (or) you can make them short and fat. But it’s pretty hard to make a human being or an animal a Shaquille O’Neal that can move like Michael Jordan.”
 
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