Months of hard work pay off for fair exhibitors

FAIRFIELD — The Greater Jefferson County Fair wraps up Monday with the 4-H/FFA livestock sale, marking the end of an exciting and busy week for area youngsters who showed animals and exhibits at the fair.

For many youth, fair week means spending their days at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds from sunup to sundown, even if they will only show their animals one day that week. After all, their animals need to be fed and watered just like any other day, and their bedding needs to be cleaned, too.

Brooke Miller, a 16-year-old member of the Packwood Trojans 4-H Club, arrived at the fairgrounds at 6:30 a.m. every day of fair week. She brought four pigs to exhibit during Friday’s swine show. The day before the show, Miller was at the fairgrounds until 11:30 p.m. washing and grooming her pigs so they would impress the judges the following morning. And that’s exactly what they did as Miller won the grand champion overall market hog, grand champion purebred gilt and reserve overall breeding gilt.

Miller said part of her preshow routine includes giving the pigs a filling meal with plenty of electrolytes that come from sugar water poured on their feed. She said that’s done to give the pigs energy to move around the ring and to look bigger. Miller said she and the other exhibitors were lucky this year that the weather during fair week was mild because her pigs don’t eat well in the summer heat.

Fair week is the culmination of months of hard work that Miller and other youth have put in. Miller got her pigs in March and began training them. She practiced leading them from place to place so they would obey her commands on the day of the swine show. She worked with them to keep their head up, which the handlers are judged on.

Miller can tell the difference in the ease with which her pigs follow her lead week after week, with the pigs getting a little better at each rehearsal.

“But on some days, they have an attitude,” Miller said. “They can get a little sassy.”

Miller and her pigs have a few more shows on their summer schedule. She’s taking them to the Southeast Iowa Showdown in Donnellson on Aug. 1, then to the Iowa State Fair about two weeks after that, which runs Aug. 12-22 in Des Moines.

Miller’s success at the county fair would not have been possible without the help of Drew and Katie Johnson, who housed her pigs at their farm since Miller no longer lives on a farm.

Miller said her favorite fair food are the tacos from Mr. Taco, but what she enjoys most of all is seeing so many people come to the fair and show their support for the 4-H and FFA exhibitors.

Twelve-year-old Bailey Headley and her siblings Braxton, 11, and Brooklyn, 9, said they were glad the fair returned to normal this year with lots of food vendors, games and carnival rides. Bailey and Braxton showed cattle and pigs during the fair, while Brooklyn showed a bottle calf. Brooklyn said her task was to give the calf fresh hay, food and water every day.

Braxton said he cleans his animals’ stalls and practices leading them so they get used to it before the show day. He said cleaning the stalls is a dirty job but somebody’s got to do it. He said one of the things he looks forward to during fair week is getting to eat turkey legs and cotton candy, while Brooklyn said she enjoys the carnival food in general.

Bailey said she likes having her younger siblings at the fair to help with the chores just as they do at home. She said her favorite part of the week is hanging out with her “fair friends,” riding carnivals rides and eating fair food. Her favorites are the French fries and funnel cakes.

Training the cattle for their show is easier than the pigs, Bailey said, mostly because the cattle have a halter the handler can use to lead them. The pigs wear no such equipment. Bailey said they can run off if they get excited or startled.

“If you work with them enough, they won’t run away,” Bailey said of the pigs.

Carson Rubey, 15, has been showing cattle at the fair since fourth grade, which is the grade when kids can join 4-H. He takes caring for his cattle seriously, spending six hours per day training, feeding and grooming them. He breaks that up into three hours in the morning before school and another three hours in the evening after baseball practice.

Rubey said he experiments with different combinations of rations to see how the cattle gain weight with each combination. Getting cattle to gain weight efficiently is among the most important jobs for an exhibitor. Another important element is making the animal look big, which Rubey said can be done by training its hair to grow a certain direction.

All of Rubey’s efforts, his six hours per day with the cattle, paid off in the form of winning grand champion breeding heifer and winning intermediate showman.

When Rubey is not busy tending to his cattle, he likes to spend his time at the fair hanging out with friends, teaching other exhibitors what he’s learned, and helping in the FFA food booth.

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