By Ethan Forman
SALEM, Mass. — Al Craig knows a thing or two about draft horses, goats, chickens and sheep.
Now, the Topsfield Fair’s general manager has made front-page news in Alaska for his pig-judging prowess.
“What makes a pig truly special? Ask Al Craig,” a front-page article in the Anchorage Daily News proclaimed last Tuesday.
Craig, 69, of Essex, Mass., traveled to the Alaska State Fair recently during a road trip that included a stop at the Minnesota State Fair.
But he had never judged a hog show in his life, so before he left, he hit Colby Farms in Newburyport to bone up on the finer points of swine.
“I’m impressed at what a good student he was,” said farmer Lisa Colby, who, along with her husband, Bill, gave Craig a crash course in pig judging.
So when Craig showed up at the “swine conformation and showmanship” event in Palmer, Alaska, on Saturday, he was prepared for a reporter’s questions.
“For breeding stock, I start from the
bottom up,” Craig told the state’s largest metropolitan newspaper. “That means a strong set of nipples — preferably around 14 — a good, long body and good legs.”
When told about that quote, Colby was pleased with her student.
“He seems very serious about his pig judging,” she said.
“Actually, the manager here in Anchorage, I’ve known him for some time,” Craig said in a cell phone call from Alaska’s Denali National Park. “He asked me to come up here and judge some livestock.”
That included cattle, goats and sheep as well as pigs.
Craig raises a couple of pigs on his farm each year. He pointed out there are two kinds of pigs, those meant for breeding and those meant for bacon, and you have to approach judging them based on those two factors.
Craig’s love affair with the Topsfield Fair began not with pigs but with the draft horse show in 1980, which eventually led him to take the reins of the fair in 1987. He has owned draft horses for years and often shows them.
“Horses are his forte,” said Sally O’Maley of Essex, the Topsfield Fair’s spokeswoman.
Craig, formerly a teacher at Greater Lawrence Technical School in Andover, will retire this year as the fair’s general manager.
Despite his high-profile job running the country’s oldest fair for the past 19 years, Craig is certainly no ham. In fact, he was caught off guard by the Alaskan news article, which caught his eye Tuesday as he rode an elevator with his wife, Caroline, O’Maley said.
Craig may have wanted to downplay the article, but O’Maley told the commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources, Doug Gillespie, who was at the fairgrounds Tuesday morning to pick up some brochures.
Gillespie said he knew Craig was going to Alaska to judge all sorts of livestock, including pigs.
“He was kind of laughing, hoping he would be up to the task,” Gillespie said. “On a serious side, a good livestock guy can judge any species.”
But Craig won’t be handing out any blue ribbons to prize porkers in Topsfield this fall. The Topsfield Fair hasn’t had a pig competition since the early 1980s.
By the way, the Topsfield Fair’s first night is Sept. 29. It runs from Sept. 30 to Oct. 9, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Colby’s piglets will be there.
Ethan Forman writes for The Salem (Mass.) News.
