By Marie Morris
It’s that time of year when you get to hear me talk about the county fair.
County fairs have always been some of my favorite events of the year, but I’ll admit my relationship with them has changed. Now that my job has me covering four counties and spending months preparing for fair season, sometimes I struggle to find the same joy in them that I once did.
Fair has become schedules, volunteers, displays, emails, phone calls, early mornings, late nights and approximately 4,000 things happening at once.
But no matter how much of the fair becomes work, there is one thing I will never argue about: There is something magical about a county fair livestock barn.
My favorite time has never been when the barn is packed or everyone is rushing to the show ring. It’s in the evening, after the animals have been fed and most fairgoers have headed home. The aisles get quieter, the fans hum in the background and the cattle settle down, contentedly chewing their cud.
There are few things more calming to my soul than sitting in a quiet cattle barn at the end of a long day with my family nearby. That is where I always seem to find the part of the fair I fell in love with in the first place.
Our family had been preparing for this year’s fair since last year’s ended, which is reality for many families raising livestock through 4-H and FFA. These projects represent months of feeding, walking, washing, caring, planning, learning and making decisions.
This year, my son Colter showed a Charolais market steer named Moose. Moose was the first calf born on our farm out of Colter’s show heifer, Fancy, and out of a bull Colter selected himself after hours of conversations, studying and searching for traits that would complement his heifer and fit what we wanted for our herd.
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