HOGGING GLORY AT VALLEY FAIR; SYLMAR TEEN'S PROWESS WITH PIGS PRODUCES A MIGHTY FINE SWINE.

Byline: Melissa Schmitt Daily News Staff Writer

Dana Reynolds' primo porkers really bring home the bacon. And she hopes Pork Chop, her entrant in this year's Valley Fair, will do it again today.

At 15, Reynolds seems to have mastered the recipe for prize-winning swine at the Valley Fair and Rodeo.

``I buy from a really good breeder, feed it good food, run it and take really good care of it,'' Reynolds said Wednesday afternoon after returning from the fairgrounds, where she'd gone to take Pork Chop for his daily run.

Reynolds' swine-rearing technique might seem a little odd to the pig-ignorant, but to the judges at the Valley Fair it is proven to work.

Last year, Top Gun, Reynold's 257-pound porker, brought $5 per pound. Punch that into the calculator and it comes out to $1,285. Not a bad return on a $150 investment.

Top Gun was mean and lean, Reynolds said. He might have weighed more than Denver Bronco quarterback John Elway, but those were Sizzlelean pounds.

``People always think the heaviest, fattest pig is always the best, but that's not exactly true,'' the Sylmar resident said.

``You basically want it muscular and lean.''

Which is where the running comes in.

Pork Chop stepped on the scale Tuesday night and oinked up 257 pounds, just like Top Gun. And Reynolds is hoping he'll bring a similar price so she can bankroll another $1,200.

Reynolds has been a 4-H member for the past five years. She doesn't have a long-term interest in raising pigs, or animals of any kind, she said, but it has proven to be a good time. And she's learned some major-league responsibility. But good old-fashioned fun is really the name of the game.

``This is basically just for fun,'' she said. ``I don't think I'll ever get into this for a job or anything.''

But for now pig raising has done enough fund raising for Reynolds to buy an amplifier for her bass guitar, her true love, as well as Pork Chop and his supplies. And there's still $500 left over.

Reynolds tries not to let those things affect her. Part of her secret is not to get to attached to her swine charges.

``I take it to the fair. They judge it - how good it is for meat. They auction it off - however many dollars a pound. That's what happens to all of them. Unfortunately, it's pretty sad.''

Reynolds said she doesn't think the pigs get to attached to her, either.

``I try not to sit there and pet him and get attached to him. Though sometimes it's hard not to,'' she said. ``I don't think he does. It's not quite like a dog.''

Which, Reynolds said, explains Pork Chop as the pig's name, which might seem a little callous.

``I wasn't going to name him this year,'' Reynolds said. ``It's kind of sad. But my friend kind of named him Pork Chop. She'd come over and be like, Hey, Pork Chop. It just kind of stuck. I felt kind of bad. After a while the guilt kind of sets in.''

Rick Reynolds, Dana's dad, said his daughter has always been very grown-up about the way she sees things.

``She grew up in an area where there were no kids,'' Rick Reynolds said. ``She was born 40.''

Though, Reynolds pointed out, the money didn't come easy. Running a pig isn't anything like running a dog. There are no pig leashes and the hog isn't as enthusiastic.

``You just let them run free. You have a cane you can use to tap them in the nose as a guide, but they don't like being hit in the face. I try not to do that when I don't have to,'' Reynolds said.

``Every pig I've had doesn't want to run. But they do need exercise.''

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos, box

PHOTO (1) Rick Reynolds of Sylmar secures his daughter's pig, Pork Chop, in a pen on the back of his truck for a trip Wednesday to the Valley Fair and Rodeo in Burbank.

(2) Pork Chop the pig gets a final hosing Wednesday before he and his owner Dana Reynolds head to competition at the Valley Fair.

(3) Fifteen-year-old 4-H member Dana Reynolds spreads sawdust to prepare a stable for her hefty hog, Pork Chop, at the Valley Fair.

Michael Owen Baker/Daily News

Box: Valley Fair Facts