Ladies in Butter

At the State Fair they have a cooler with these 90 pound bricks of butter and someone carves the dairy princesses heads out of the butter. A must see at the Minnesota State Fair.  The one with the crown is Princess Kay of the Milky Way, thats what they call the state winner.

Maybe they should carve the beef cattle princesses out of bricks of sausage?

Talking to people at the fair

 

 

The State Fair. Each year for two weekends my family goes to the state fair with animals.  One of my favorite things is to talk to other kids and their parents about our animals. Letting them pet or brush our animals is fun. Often we see kids petting animals with out asking which can be ok because most animals at the fair are used to it. But there are some animals that are not as friendly - just like some dogs are not as friendly.  So if you are going to pet an animal always ask. My sister and I want the kids to enjoy their limited time with the animal and for the kids to be safe.

 

 

We answered lots of questions at the fair.  Most couldn't believe that the little calves were just 6 months old.

 

 

It is fun to talk to the people and my dad says its really important to teach those from the city about livestock.

 

 

Hannah

Judging

Livestock judging. It was misting out when some other 4-H kids came to judge at our house. Nobody complained because we haven't had rain in a while. Livestock judging is when we look at a four animals - either pigs, sheep, goats or beef cows - and put them in order of how we like them. Neil is our coach and some of the parents help too. After we place them, or put then the order of how we like them, we then have to tell them why we placed them that way.  The why part can be hard.

We learn that it is important to make sure they walk right, and that the biggest animal isn't always the best one. Each year we practise and get better at the why part. We have to take notes to study for the questions they ask. This practise was at our farm and we judged pigs, sheep and beef right before we went to the state contest. Isaac wasn't old enough to go to the state contest.  This was my first year.

Judging can be hard but we have fun together learning. (And maybe some goofing too)

Hannah

Thats a Hay mover

See this cool bale mover our neighbor has?  Dad bought some hay and Bradley brought his tractor that can unload and move two big round bales at one time. It took no time at all for him to unload. I think Dad was really happy that he brought this tractor.  It saved a lot of time.  Glad we have some hay for this winter.

Isaac

The photo shoot

 

Things parents do to get a good photo at the fair of the kids and a their pig. Takes more people than my sister's senior pictures.

Lamb Lead

Here we are in Lamb Lead.  This is a contest where we lead a sheep, wear something that is at least 70% wool and get interviewed by a judge about wool, sheep and the sheep industry.  We have learned a lot about wool by being in this contest.  Did you know that wool not only keeps you warm but is stretchy, last a long time (Mom says durable) and is a renewable resource?  Our Suffolk sheep have medium to course wool which is good for sweaters and rugs. But my sweater (thats me in the blue sweatshirt) is from Merino wool.  Merino is a different breed of sheep that has really really soft fine wool.  My sweatshirt wasn't itchy at all, and it had a skateboarder on it.

Why do we do lamb lead?  To show the public that wool is something that anyone can wear, it is beautiful, comforable and versitile.

The pig show

The pig show is fun. Here is my brother Andrew showing off his Duroc pig for the judge. Even though the county fair is done my brother is still working with his pigs for the state fair.  He will show them in FFA. We did alright with our pigs this year mostly purples and blues. Isaac did get one red because the pig didn't walk right and we knew that but didn't want to leave it home alone. Just like all animals it is important that the pig walks well.

Putting my pig in a pen. Thank goodnes the ring helper was there because it can be hard to do when the pig wants to "visit" with all the other pigs.

Hannah