The Fair is over!! But here is a re-cap!

Hard to believe it has already come and gone!
Here are this year's highlights:

Swine:
Our gilt "pink" remained in great health so she was able to go to the fair (because the fair is a one way market- Charlotte didn't go to the fair, she is still at home). She weighed in at a whoppin 305lbs! She looked nice! All clean and shaven, had great length to her...
She placed a 3rd in the market animal class. Not too shabby given we have never raised a hog as a show animal before. And we raised her as natural as possible- didn't have her all "paylean'd" out. (a hog muscle growth hormone) You should see some of the pigs at the show! They have muscles where I didn't even know pigs HAD muscles!

My daughter also did a showmanship class with her. She placed 3rd. I was so proud of her, she tried so hard to keep her swine under control. Pink always did have a natural tendency to run so I was kind of worried about how she would act in the show ring. But my daughter did her best to keep her in the Judge's eye and out of the corners!

At the market sale, a company purchased her gilt for $2.10lb.

Sheep:
This year we took 3 sheep to the fair (OK, really 5 - two of them were market lambs we had raised for other 4h kids) My daughter showed a yearling ewe in a colored fleece (black wool) class and took a 1st place. She also showed one of our mature ewes in a breeding stock class. This ewe did have some age on her, she is around 7 years old! The judge liked her, but placed her as a third because the judge wanted to see more muscling on her. No problem! We only brought her for the fun of it. We just pulled her off the pasture, cleaned her up and brought her to the show.
As for her market lamb, it placed a 4th. The judge wanted more length of body to him. Oh well, that's nothing we could have "fixed"- unless we stretched him on a RACK of course! lol. kiddin.

The other two market lambs that were born here- one placed 2nd, and the other a 4th.

BUT- the best news with the market lamb was the night of the market animal sale! The business that bought our lamb last year, was desperately asking people who knew us as to if we were having another lamb in the sale. And if we fed him the same way we did last year. Come to find out, they just LOVED the taste of the meat last year (it was the first time ever they had bought any form of "lamb") and wanted to purchase another one from us this year! Long story short, they got into a bidding war with another company over my daughter's lamb and it sold for $2.70lb (he weighed in at 125lbs). And to top it off, they ended up purchasing another one of our lambs - one of our farm born ones shown by another girl from our club. I did talk to them afterwards explaining to them that what we raise is more of a production type lamb (meant for eating) over looking all muscle bound (good for placing well in the show ring) lamb. I explained how my daughter's lamb will have a larger leg of lamb than the other, and the other lamb will have a larger loin. They are thrilled to be having our lambs again for their freezer!

Chickens/Bantams:

My daughter rocked it with her chickens this year! She took 7 birds (I think??) to the fair. Each bird received a 1st place. Just for fun, I have her enter the egg judging class (I do it each year) I I (through her :) ) entered 6 colored eggs to be judged. They too took a 1st place!

As for showmanship, she didn't take the trophy this year like she had for the 2 past years. She made a crucial mistake. She took a Japanese bantam up to the table for the one on one w/ the judge. And long behold, the judge wanted to know specifics about this breed, and she didn't know it! So she took a 2nd place this year. I felt bad for her- she has all kinds of rarer breeds that she knows inside and out and here she takes the one bird ripped from our pasture- and doesn't know squat about it! ugh! But on the other hand, I keep telling her to study for showmanship (it's all question / answer with the judge) and she basically gives me the one finger wave (so to speak) and tells me about how she won the top honors 2 years in a row w/out studying. So when she placed second, I was glad to see her humbled back down to reality!

Dairy Goats:
This was our 2nd year bringing "Rosie" our Alpine yearling doe (non milker-never been bred). She placed a second place 1st (if you can follow that one!) in her dairy class.

As for showmanship, my daughter did better than last year and pulled off a blue ribbon. She placed second last year.

Meat Goats:
This was our very first attempt with a Boer goat. We only decided to do the project to help promote it with our county. It was our county's first year for the meat class. The goat, "Cracker head" (yes, he was a bastard of a little goat!) placed super well! He took a second place blue ribbon. He was a big contender for Grand Champion, but didn't get it. Our friends / family would have gotten a big kick out of it- if he did win Grand, because everyone KNOWS how much of a "challenge" he is! lol. He is all muscled out, um... not because of a great exercise program set by us, it is because he is IMPOSSIBLE to catch and can run like the dickens! 5 people in an enclosed paddock couldn't catch this little bugger!

Anyway,
My daughter scratched the showmanship portion of the show. The goat was just tooooooooooo much to handle. And sometimes the judge will make the kids switch goats to see how they handle another goat other than their own- Well, we would have been FINE but the poor kid that got Cracker Head would have been screwed. Plus chasing that little bastard all over the fair grounds after that poor kid let him go, would not have been cool. I could see it now... some little kid in a stroller seeing a baby goat come flying past: "mommy! look at the goat!" and then "BLAM!!!" as I shot it dead in front of them because the two hour chase around the fair was grating at my nerves! LOL!

Other projects my daughter did:

A saddle pad she had sewn took a 1st place and an Award of Merit (higher than a 1st place)! It was show cased in the glass case for all to see.

She also sewed a helmet bag for her riding helmet, that took a 1st place blue.

And lastly, she made 2 posters. One horse poster and one swine poster- each took a 2nd place.

We had a blast all week at the fair! This was our first year that we reserved a campsite and stayed there. We had showing everyday from Thursday through Sunday. It was a very heavy load, but well worth it! Can't wait for next year!!!!