I think I must have asked my sister a dozen times what date the fair was this year. You see, last year I MISSED it as I'd entered an agility trial! UGH!! Kids grow up fast enough without missing the fair!!
They live in Southern Iowa, so, I attended the Des Moines County Fair on Friday. Yes, the Des Moines County Fair is in Burlington, not anywhere close to Des Moines! Des Moines is actually Polk County, sometimes you're better off NOT asking why.
As I arrived a little before 8 am Friday morning, the 'fair smells' hit me.
The smell of funnel cakes?
Um, no.
The smell of sawdust, wet with manure and urine.
Yep, I'm at the right place!!
The cattlemen put on a free lunch.
Of course hamburgers were served!
They were Great!
Here's my niece, Daphne, grooming one of her two steers.
I know Marsha would LOVE to put a bow in his hair!
Crazy thing is, he wouldn't have cared!
Daphne did very well with her steers.
One ended up 6th in the weight of gain class.
This is actually the most important factors for cattle.
How fast can you get them 'market ready'.
Daphne's gained 3.68 pounds per day over 222 days.
The winning of the weight of gain class was an 1800+lb steer.
With an impressive 4.68lb per day weight gain.
The judge asked the young man how he got him so big.
He explained that his steer,
(which was his returning bucket bottle calf from last year),
kept eating his other steers food.
The judge commented that he 'might' have eaten one of
his other steers.
The down side of the fair is auction day.
Most of these kids have had these animals through two summers.
They got them as little bucket bottles, they have feed them,
watered them, groomed them, and taught them to lead.
Tuesday the kids will sell their animals.
I'm glad I'm not there for that!
I guess that's why I took horses to fair!
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3 comments:
That's so sad about them selling the animals! I was in 4-H with rabbits. We couldn't have a horse, and definitely not any farm animals. Our county 4-H was really just rabbits and horses, with a few sheep and goats thrown in. Nothing with steers, so it was interesting to learn how they grade them. The comment about the steer eating another steer made me lol!
LOL - I would have to put a bow in that hair!!!
When did Daphne grow up?! I still think of her as 5 years old (?), helping build fence at your "new" house.
Sometimes I think my daily rate of gain might be about 3 lbs./day. ( :
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