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County Fairs a thing of the past?

Hay Feeder

Well-known member
The past few years several of our county livestock shows have had a direct decline in entries. About 2003 entries pretty much peaked out and went on a steady decline. I will attend about four more county fairs this year (on a spectator basis). Last year one fair had only one beef exhibitor. Yesterday I attended a tri-county fair with about 25 head and two steers for the junior sale. Another county will have over 100 hogs for junior sale andwill expect 3 business and grand parents to buy. This fair will have dozen steers and a hand full of under weight lambs. (90 pounds)
Several of fairs in this area take more pride in printing a fair book (now paper) getting ads, making rules, having meetings arguing over the judge than putting on a fair. One fair a girl was not paid in full for her lamb because she beat the sheep superintendents kids. The popular fairs in our area have large carnival, or demo derby to get big crowds. As for the fair I went to I was the only one setting in the bleachers.
Also the counties that let go the extn agents and hired health extn agents have the poorest turn out for livestock

I judged a fair 50 miles away last year they had me come two days to judge 14 head of beef cattle, 3 sheep and no hogs. One man came to watch the dairy show they had no entries.
Goats are starting there run of the fairs and sales and buyers are counting there money. They get the same advertising for buying a $300 dollar goat as they do for a $3000 dollar steer.

I know there are some real good county fairs out there. What does everyone have to say.
 

leanin' H

Well-known member
We still have a great turn out around here. The show in Delta had 200 calves and a bunch of lambs and hogs. The county fair for our county is in August and it is still big doings. It seems to me like the spectators haved changed over the years. Used to get a bunch of ranchers and farmers and thier familys. Now ya see lots of folks from town wandering around looking at the animals and pies and stuff. :D
 

Ben H

Well-known member
Still going on strong here, when I was in 4-H I was in probably the largest dairy club in the country. Not bad for a state with I think less then 300 dairy farms left. My town was full of them back in the day, now we're down to around 4.

I wonder how many people like myself have walked away from showing animals. As I have focused more on a commercial herd and trying to reduce costs by raising more efficient animals that do well on low inputs I see that these "show cows" are unknowns. They are fed whatever is needed to perform and win in the show ring.

On the other hand, I am in a higher population dense area, as farms get replaced with houses you see more hobby farms. Families with a few acres and good off farm jobs tend to be the ones showing many of the animals in 4-H.

As the economy continues it's slide down and people are forced to make cuts, this is likely to change in my opinion.
 

Hay Feeder

Well-known member
Last weekend county fair in a big town (400 thousand population)
Three heifer calves in the AOB class. Two were ET calves of a three breed cross and claiming to be a AOB reg. breed. One Dexter making a total of three females. The second place three breed ET winner had to leave before the tough Championship show to go to a Baseball game. So the Dexter was automatic Reserve.
Now for the real fun the two steers at the show were sibs to the two AOB heifers. I was getting confused if one would have four et sibs calves that were a three breed reg and the two bulls of the flush were steered
and showed in the steer show...
I can not add that one up plezzze help me.
This town will host a Regional National show next week.
 

the_jersey_lilly_2000

Well-known member
Ours is goin strong, as well as most of our surrounding counties. First week of June. There were 40 or so steers, 11 pen of three commercial heifers, 120 goats, 60 sheep, heard someone say right at 200 hogs, no tellin how many chickens, turkeys and rabbits.

Then probably 60 or more kids participatin in the horse events.

Lots of baked goods, canned goods, handmade items, photography entries.

Also a good turn out for Ag/Mechanics projects.
 

Kato

Well-known member
Our fair folded a few years ago. It was not because of the livestock though. I was the horse show director, and we always had close to a hundred exhibitors. We had a good cattle show too. Our problem was that the people in town just didn't want to come to the fair. I guess they thought that going to the lake was more important. :( :(

We just couldn't collect enough gate money to keep putting it on. Most of the rural people were busy volunteering and putting the fair on, but the town people couldn't care less. We had troubles getting a midway for the last few years, and without that there was no big draw. The horse show, even though it was a good one, and a big one, did not make money, at least not enough to carry the whole thing.

We had a big ball tournament that drew a lot of people, but they always complained about paying at the gate. It didn't help one year that one of the opposing teams brought tickets with them that were exactly like the ones we were using in the beer garden and took us for a pile of money. We couldn't believe they could pull such a dirty trick, and when we tallied up the beer garden income it came up as a loss. That's impossible! A week or so later someone talked, and we found out what had happened. Stunts like that sure take the fun out of putting on an event in a hurry. We sure changed our beer garden procedures after that too!

If the local area and local businesses don't support it, it's not going to fly, at least not these days.
 

the_jersey_lilly_2000

Well-known member
The girls that are running for Fair Queen are responsible for the sale of the Fair Passes. They are $15 a piece. Which I think is a bit steep..... Exibitors hafta pay for a pass as well. Anyone walkin thru the gate hasta have one. It's good for the whole week.

If you fail to buy a pass from one of the girls, you can buy one at the gate, but it's $20.

Business are very supportive of our Fair Association.

I was just looking at our buyer list for the pen of three heifers....Chuck Norris (LoneWolf Ranch) bought some of them :eek:
 

Ben H

Well-known member
Most of the fairs here have no horse shows here. They do often have tracks and harness racing. All fairs in Maine do not sell alcohol, probably our "progressive" roots. I think we even still have some dry towns. We are one of the few states left to my knowledge that all the fairs I can think of have oxen teams. Both oxen and draft horses have team pulling events. We even have a working steer 4-H club (my first large animal project).

I haven't really noticed a lack of people at the shows, I don't think you see all that many "fair-goers" at the beef and dairy shows though. Mostly parents/grandparents. People would rather walk through the barns and see the animals then watch a show.
 

I Luv Herfrds

Well-known member
Our fair is on a down hill slide. :(
The last couple of years they quit doing the open show for all classes. My son has to show his rabbit's with the 4-H kids, only problem is the 4-H kid's get the big ribbons and he gets a small ribbon, even though his rabbit would beat the others in the 4-H show. Why he won't join again is a different story.

The run around they put some exhibitors through is completely stupid. Take it here, no go there.

The greased pig wrestling was great fun and completely funny. The year before everyone was on a level playing field, last year it was all women's teams got 10 seconds off of their score. :roll:
They had an auction to sponsor the teams before the event, everyone came in was waiting. lot's of bidding was done the teams were hamming it up pretty good, just plain fun. At the end of the bidding we were all told to leave and go buy a ticket to get into the pig wrestling. :mad: :mad:
A lot of people didn't come back in.

They keep changing the dates for the fair. One 4-H group didn't even come last year because of the date changes. All the leaders quit too.

The demolition derby is always a huge draw. The crowds are getting smaller though.

The little guy rodeo has had some problems. Telling the kids signed up that they have to be wearing long sleeved western style shirts and cowboy hats 3 minutes before it starts. Try signing your kid up for the bull riding you are out of luck unless you are part of "the group".

Sorry for the rambling.
 

the_jersey_lilly_2000

Well-known member
We have a fair book, with all rules, dates, etc in it. When I was a 4H leader, and handed out the fair books, I made sure that the parents were the one's that recieved the book, not the kid. Because it's up to the parent to read the fair book, and know the rules/dates/etc for each show. So they then can make sure that their child complys.

I had one parent call me, ranting and raving because I didn't tell him that the deadline for buyin chickens was such and such date. I asked him politely if he had a fair book. He said yes. I said....have you read it? Allllll that info is in there. Besides the fact that I had no idea they wanted to show chickens. He just somehow come to the conclusion that it was my fault. I told him, look, I have my own kid, and we hafta keep up with all the dates for all the different animals/projects she's doin. It's your job to keep up with your childs dates and projects.

This is the way all the 4H groups work in our county. Then after everyone has their animals, there are workshops and such scheduled for those different animal projects. It was then my duty to let each person know when a goat clinic was, or a rabbit clinic, steer clinic, etc. But not my responsiblity to tell them when they were to purchase their critters.

I think that's alot of the drawback in participating in the Fairs. Parents just don't wanna take the time to be involved in what their kids are doin. So therefore, when lil Susie wants to show a pig....parent says, no we don't have time. Multiply that by however many kids there are in said county, and you have lower numbers participating. Parent's just don't realize how much fun it is watching you kid grow and learn with a project. They have "more important" things to do. It's really sad too.
 

Ben H

Well-known member
Ok, here is one thing that I saw as very wrong back in my 4-H days. It was our state 4-H dairy show, it's at a fairgrounds with no fair going on, just using the facilities. It is also the tryouts for the team the state sends down to the big show (The Big E) in Springfield Massachusets. One kid showed up with his animals about 30-60 minutes late after the deadline they had to be on the grounds. One of the leaders from another county put up a big fuss that he couldn't qualify to show. I saw it as punishing the kid, his parents are trying to run a farm and get the kid and his animals up to this show, stuff happens.
 

Kato

Well-known member
That's just plain mean spirited. :mad: Shame on that leader.

That kind of behaviour is not what we want our kids to learn in 4H. I bet if you checked out the club that person was associated with it would be one of those cut throat ones where the parents drive it, and the kids are there because they're told to be. And the kids aren't having fun either.

It's stunts like that that will turn off exhibitors, because if it's not fun to show at the fair, you're sure not going to get a kid to put in the work required.
 

I Luv Herfrds

Well-known member
Kato some of the kids are mean too. That is why my son will not rejoin 4-H.
He was interested in showing a steer, heifer, horse, pig and lamb. He joined the Cloverbud section in a 4-H group. The older kids took great pleasure in telling him he couldn't do any of that and that he was not considered a member because he was a Cloverbud. :mad:

I tried to get him to join a different 4-H club, but he won't do it.

Back on the subject of county fairs disappearing. Last year I took in to just show some turkey chicks, chickens and ducks. I was the only person to bring in any poultry.
There were 3 chickens for 4-H. They left after the show. Used to be that building was completely full and if you didn't get there the first day to get a cage you were out of luck.
 

Hay Feeder

Well-known member
I know there are some real good fairs also. The better ones I have seen have a carnival and a junior livestock sale. I will be going to two next week.

To many times people change or interpret rules to discourage or tell some one they can not show. I have seen this a lot every where. This day and time we need to do everything to encourage everyone to work together not to try to discourage some one from showing or exhibiting. There are still kids out there that do not have the parent support. While others have their entire family support (which is great).

I still remember some of my 4-H and FFA Instructors helping me get started.
One helped me clip my calf and it was of a competitive breed of what they had. Another took just me and my one steer to a Saturday show 80 miles away so I could show.
 

Ben H

Well-known member
As I got older and worked with the people who go to shows "professionaly", the ones that have the one page ads in Holstein World and so on, and then working with their kids in college, I got a little lesson in ethics. I guess I should say the lack of ethics. I always knew that things happened, and I thought it was more rewarding to win ethically in the show ring, it was the last few years that I learned just how bad it was.

We have a ton of kids in this county in 4-H, there are too many clubs to count. I believe we have the largest county dairy club in the U.S., kind of odd for a state with a shrinking dairy industry.

There is encouragement to be in multiple clubs here, the last couple years I was in 4. All-Star Dairy Club, Young Farmers (Beef), Red & White Faces (beef for kids who got a scramble calf at the county fair) and Bullseyes (shooting). I am glad to see the shooting club is going strong, I asked someone about it recently and found out they outgrew the meeting place in someones basement, it's fairly large now.
 

Hay Feeder

Well-known member
This week two county fairs in the area the early fair was real good with finished steers (a rare deal in our area) great hogs also. Great porject leaders and breeders helping out.

Just got home from our county fair after weigh in .10 breeding beef. 25 steers only five are any good. Several other exhibitors did the real unusual deal they bought or picked out the poorest steers because they were cheaper (low quality cattle that wold be big discounted at the sales) the thinking if they bought cheap poor quality steers the would still get the same price and make that extra what they saved in the purchase. They started feeding them in Feb (WOW)

Sounds like a thought process of an adult leader just to many from the same town like that. :mad:
 
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