The Knox County Fair...2019 Edition

7/29/2019

We survived!

By Monday the extreme heat had subsided and we returned to normal temperatures. The fair board did a great job of modifying weigh-ins so that the animals were stressed as little as possible. Amazingly, only one chicken died this week due to the heat. You can only control what you can control, but the vet, fair board members, parents and kids did a great job in a not so great couple of days.

I worked on Monday...because I am a bad mom and kept forgetting that Isaac shows goats...which show on Monday.

Walker had strict orders to take pictures.

Isaac made it to the finals for showmanship...which isn't too bad for his second year.

His goat ended up winning reserve division.

Daniel did end up making it in time to see part of the goat show...which was good, because someone decided it was nap time.

I guess you have to get your naps in when you can.

Tuesday night was the beef show.

The boys had a lot of support from family and friends. This show is close to home and always brings a crowd. The Papa's and Uncles hear about cows all year long and the boys love being able to show off their cows and their talents at the fair. Their great grandpa may be 88 years old, but as long as we taxi him from the parking lot, give him a chair and a bottle of water, he is there to support his boys.

The evening started with the feeders and Walker was in the first class. He won the class.

Isaac placed second in his class with his feeder. This meant that both Walker and Isaac were in the feeder final drive.

Walker ended up winning 3rd place overall.

Isaac then ran back to the barn to grab more cows. We don't show steers, so the boys were free for the rest of the evening. Except, a bunch of their friends had multiple cows in the same class. That meant they needed someone to take the other cow into the ring. Isaac's reputation as a showman has proceeded him, so he ended up showing for two other families. He had a great time and the judge would just laugh and shake his head every time he saw him in the ring.

We were back in the barns early Wednesday morning for showmanship and the breed show.

Senior showmanship was first. Isaac had planned on using Mini because she had been the better behaved cow all week....until Wednesday. She was a fireball. He started walking her toward the ring and then the next time I saw him...he had his black calf. Mini just wasn't going to cooperate.

It ended up being a good choice. The black heifer worked perfectly for him and didn't make a wrong move. Showmanship can sometimes be a challenge with a young and inexperienced calf, but she didn't miss a beat.

Isaac won his class and then went on to win 3rd place overall.

Walker used Romance for showmanship. His biggest concern with her is that she doesn't want to walk. He had to do some tugging, but she still did pretty good.

Walker won his class and then went on to place 3rd overall in intermediate showmanship.

Then we went right into the breeding classes. Since both of the feeders were heifers, they were able to show them again in the breed show.

The feeders were in the same cross-bred class and Walker's heifer won the class and Isaac's placed 2nd.

Walker then went on to win champion cross-bred female.

Isaac showed Mini in the other breeds class.

Walker showed Romance in the other breeds class.

The judge chose the full-sized over the smaller calves, so the boys didn't place in this division.

The final class of the day was to choose the best female in the barn. The winners of each breed competed head to head for top spot.

Walker and his cross-bred heifer claimed Supreme Champion Female.

But it all comes down to sale day.

Isaac and Walker really worked their sales skills to find buyers and give them reasons to buy their feeders. Since their feeders are heifers, they have a different market. They are looking for someone to take these cows home to add to their herd. They have to sell why these females will improve the herd and get them to where they want to be in their breeding program.

If you have ever been to the Knox County sale, you have heard the name Small a lot. The Small families and their companies are incredible supporters of the youth of Knox County. They really have a heart for the kids and consistently give, at the sale and for projects around the grounds.

Small's Farms bought both Isaac's and Walker's feeder calves this year. We know they are going to a great home and we will get to keep tabs on their progress. I hope they know what this means to us...because words just can't express how much their support means to our family.

And that's it. Fair is over.

All that was left was tearing down, packing up...

And cleaning out the barn.

We had to wait a while for the sale animal trailers to move out, so the kids had some down time.

Nothing to do...

No animals to take care of...

All the competitiveness over with...

Just time for plain fun.

These are old friends...and acquaintances who are becoming fast friends. Friendship that build each year and memories that will last a lifetime.

This is Us - our life, our story, our farm