$178,000 Is a Lot for a Pig, but This Pig Is Paying for College

HOUSTON — Here in the largest city in Texas, $200,000 still goes a long way. It can buy you a four-bedroom 3,000-square-foot home, a used red 2010 Ferrari or a short tubby pig.

In the real world, Kipper — a 278-pound dark crossbred barrow, or castrated male pig — would have had a market value of about $167. But in Houston every March, reality gets temporarily suspended: Kipper was bought at an auction at the city’s annual livestock show and rodeo for $178,000, the highest price ever paid for a market hog at any livestock show in America. The pigs had nothing on the sheep — Rico, a 151-pound lamb, went for $210,000. And the sheep had nothing on the cattle — Freddy Krueger, a 1,288-pound steer, pulled in $460,000.

This was not a typical auction. This was philanthropy, Texas style.

Three groups of Texans bought Kipper, Rico and Freddy Krueger for far more than they were worth last month because the money helps pay the college tuition of the high school students who raised the animals and provides scholarships to dozens of other young men and women. The junior-market animal and art auctions at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo are some of the biggest college scholarship fund-raisers in Texas; this year, sales totaled $9.2 million.

About $4 million of the money will be given to the students whose animals or artwork qualified for an auction and an additional $4.8 million will go to the livestock show’s educational fund, which finances scholarships, research grants, graduate assistantships and other programs.

Of Kipper’s $178,000 purchase price, Brady Leach, the 18-year-old high school senior who fed, walked and cared for Kipper daily in the small barn behind his house in Haskell, Tex., will receive $40,000. An additional $10,000 will be put into a bonus pool to help pay any exhibitors whose hogs did not bring in the guaranteed amount at the auctions, with the remaining $128,000 going into the education fund.

Mr. Leach plans to use the money to attend South Plains College in Levelland, Tex., and then transfer to Texas Tech in Lubbock, with the goal of becoming a Texas game warden. For many high school students, landing a college scholarship depends on their athletic skills, straight A’s or financial need. At the Houston auctions, a throwback to the city’s and the state’s agricultural roots, what matters most is their way with a pig.

Kipper was about eight weeks old when Mr. Leach’s father, Kevin, bought him for about $500. “The breeder’s name is Kip Smith, and I decided well, we’ll just call him Kipper,” said Mr. Leach, who has been raising pigs since he was in fifth grade.

After school and basketball practice, Mr. Leach would look after Kipper, massaging his legs and brushing a lotion on the bottom of his cloven hooves to help his sore feet. Out of the 2,526 barrows at the Houston event, the judges declared Kipper the 2012 grand champion, making him the star of the swine auction. Mr. Leach is still trying to get his head around it: His pig will put him through college.

More on New York Times