Illinois Beef Expo kicks off Thursday, February 19

Feb 18, 2015

Will continue until Sunday, February 22

Remember when that old woman from the fast food commercial asked where the beef was?

Well, from Thursday, February 19 to Sunday February 22, the beef will be at the Illinois Beef Expo, taking place at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield, Illinois.

The four-day event will feature different kinds of cattle up for sale, a meeting of the Illinois Angus Association and a junior beef skillathon event that will challenge the young minds of tomorrow’s cattle producers.

Vendors from various companies including Big Bend Livestock Solutions, Merck Animal Health, Stone’s Cutting Edge and Images Embroidery will be on hand to provide visitors with the latest and newest technologies and supplies aimed at cattlemen.

Among the scheduled events will be the Junior Show, where participants between the ages of 8 and 21 can strut their stuff.

For the 2015 edition of the Junior Show, rule changes have been put in place, including:

The show is only open to heifers born after September 1, 2013 or steers born after January 1, 2014.
All ear tags except EIDs will be removed from the animals upon check-in.
When it comes to heifers, original registration papers are required on all of them, except those for commercial breeding and market heifers. Copies, faxes and electronic registrations will not be accepted.
When speaking of stalling, no junior show cattle are allowed on the fairgrounds before 5 p.m. on Thursday, February 19. No stalls are to be reserved for Junior Show cattle, except by Expo Management, and no stall set up can begin until 5 p.m. on Thursday.

There are plenty of farm shows throughout the year so be sure to check out Farms.com’s farm shows calendar to see what shows are on the horizon.

Illinois Beef Expo

Video: Drought Now, Cold Weather To Come, Grain State Outlook

Colder weather ahead is the call from Eric Hunt with University of Nebraska Extension. We dig into the forecast for the months to come and look back at what happened at the end of the growing season, including the conditions that allowed southern corn rust to thrive. Eric also breaks down the current drought situation, highlighting where it’s driest now and where the conditions are changing. We wrap on the spring outlook and the current La Nina pattern in place and and what’s driving this cold snap. Yes, Eric said polar vortex in this conversation.