As showmen dwindle, 4-H dairy program considers its future

WASHINGTON — In 2022, the Washington County Fair saw seven exhibitors take the ring for the dairy show. The number was low compared to other events, but respectable given the industry’s small footprint in a county dominated by swine and beef production.

In 2023, the roster shrank to five exhibitors. Last week, only three names appeared on the dairy show program, a single sheet of paper with an event lineup that took up less than a full side of the page.

Exhibitors said they were disappointed to see their event shrinking.

Reese Good, a graduating senior 4-H’er, was the only showman in the 2024 show class for two-year-old cows, as she has been for the last several years.

“Most of the time, it’s been older kids, and then they’ve gone on and graduated and nobody’s really picked it up after them,” she said. “It makes me sad sometimes, because I’d kind of like to see how she would do against another cow. The last three years that I’ve shown her, she’s only been against herself, so I would like to a see a little competition.”

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The problem goes far beyond Washington County, however.

2024 County Fair Dairy Show Judge Jake Jantz said he saw similar trends in other communities, and in the dairy industry itself, across the nation, save for a few pockets of robust dairy herds in places like Northeast Iowa.

“Much like all of production agriculture, you see really rapid rates of consolidation within the dairy industry,” he said. “You’re going to have fewer and fewer farm kids going back into the family farm … it doesn’t pay to market cattle in the same way that it used to, this is certainly a theme that I see.”

Washington County Fair Dairy Superintendent Madi Skubal said she was keenly aware of the issue as well. She recalls seeing about a dozen animals entered at the fair when she showed, a little over a decade ago.

At the time, the event was viewed as a major exercise in animal raising, but not one that required excessive investments to win champion and reserve titles in, as are often required in more competitive champion drives for other animals. But with only three exhibitors in the show ring last week, she said she was getting worried about its future.

Also at play is the challenge of getting a milking cow in the first place. Washington County has few dairies of its own, which makes the animals hard to source for locals. She tentatively plans to launch a “lease” program in the near future to help 4-H’ers try their hand at dairy cattle, without the up-front investment of owning the animal themselves.

“What I’d like to do is kind of like a lease program, where, we will put out there what dairy farms have cows,” Skubal said. “And we’ll try and find you a farm so … you don’t have to come and get it when it’s born and bring it, you can come to the dairy when it’s six months old and start working it.”

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Another factor is the lack of financial incentives to show dairy cattle at the fair.

The unusually high price tags fetched by other animals at county and state fair auctions offer a financial incentive and return on investment that dairy exhibitors must go without, since their animals are not raised to sell. While that means a milking cow can keep coming back to win prizes from one summer to the next, it never brings the sizable cash payout of a grand champion hog or purple-ribbon steer.

Skubal said she hoped to raise money for a dairy-specific scholarship in an effort to counter that financial reality, at least for senior showmen.

“I don’t know how much money that would be,” she said. “Not that money is everything, but the beef kids, they get to sell it and they get money, the hog kids get money. Just like any farmer in the industry, we get money too, for paychecks.”

Dairy show enthusiasts, however rare they may be, are holding out hope for the program, even as one of this year’s three exhibitors graduates, leaving 4-H behind.

2023 Senior Dairy Showmanship Champion Katie Leichty is among them. She was in the stands to watch this year’s contest at the county fair.

“There’s so much potential showing dairy, and it’s a really fun experience,” she said. “I hope kids are wanting to participate in dairy in the future, and I know that (Madi Skubal) is going to do a good job advertising to kids.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com