At Last, the County Fair

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On this final week I have learned a lot about preparation for county fairs, being that I worked with show steers, heifers, bulls, and cows all summer. Now the hard work is being paid off watching three heifers and one steer go to the fair. What we ended up doing is going from eight head to four to make it easier to handle, and allows us to be more attentive. As for the fair, I didn’t partake, so I cared for the ranch while everyone else was clipping steers and preparing at the fairgrounds.

From this week, I have been thinking about how to wash a show cow and how to desensitize it to allow them to be show ready. What we ended up doing, and what I learned, was first we hose them down to get them damp, then we bring them to the drying room, where we have several fans blowing. In the drying room, we comb their hair forwards to give it the memory. This comes in handy when it comes time to clip the steers before show, when they are fitted and ready to be shown.

At this point my questions have shifted from focusing on crops and water to the preparations of show animals. Now my question is, do we all prepare animals the same in some for or fashion? As such, what else was done at the county fair that I didn’t see? Do they apply a sort of hairspray to ensure that the hair stays stiff or would that not be allowed?

I am very thankful for the past ten weeks of learning about show animals, and just agriculture in general. I will use my understanding going forward to understand what is happening at any county fair seeing how show animals are shown and what they get scored on is something I will now pay attention too as I have learned.

Submitted by: Cody Long
Edits by: GrowinG Internship Team