Agri-tourists Part 2 of 3: Virginia State Fair

So growing up, I never realized just how unique things like our county fair and state fair were.  These were not events where we went to ride amusement rides or play games (though the state fair does have that option), but places we went to exhibit and see livestock and other homemaker, 4-H, or educational projects.  We'd have tasty food too just because we were there.

I feel like around here, people mainly just go for the rides.  Sigh.

But, it was still really fun to take the boys to the Virginia State Fair a couple weeks ago.  To have a state fair in October is so different, since the weather actually makes it enjoyable to be outside all day, and all the fall decorations give the whole place a very different feel.

In my experience, the only other two state fairs I've been to are Indiana and Delaware, as I still regret never making it out to Arizona's.   As I wrote back then, Delaware's was basically just a big county fair to me (which makes sense, since there are only three counties in DE and they don't hold local fairs).  I expected Virginia to be a lot larger since there is a lot more agriculture in this state.  In some ways it was, in others, not so much.

My thoughts and impressions...
$15 for admission!  At least Eli was free, I can't remember exactly what ages had to pay.  I'm used to getting free exhibitor tickets...

It was very strange to see all the VSU and Virginia Tech information everywhere, since I'm used to seeing Purdue blasted all over everything.

Their horticulture display was pretty interesting, and I liked checking out the peanut plants and the sweet potato harvester, since those aren't plants grown in my native land.  There was a petting zoo in the tent, and the kids got to explore five different types of seeds, and walk away with a free jar filled with them.  The largest pumpkin competition was pretty fabulous.  The rabbit/poultry barn was here, as well as a pigeon and dove barn (something you don't see in IN).  Their dozens of rabbits can't really compete with Indiana's huge barn full of rabbits.  But Elijah still loved seeing each of them.

Poultry seem to be his favorite. He even learned to say "cock-a-doodle-doo" recently and it's the cutest thing in the world. 

I did let the boys ride a couple rides, mostly because I wanted to get a view of the area from the Ferris wheel.  Theo still talks about flying through the air on the banana ride, and I loved that I felt physically comfortable and confident enough to get Eli up and down a huge slide.  He loved it.

Their exhibit hall really seemed lacking.  The youth and adult exhibits were kind of squished back in the corner of a commercial exhibit building, and since I'm used to two huge multi-story buildings housing 4-H exhibits at the Indiana State Fair, I guess I just expected a lot more to see in that department.  (Side note:  I really need to find someone around here that can explain the 4-H system to my here, since Theo can sign up to be a clover bud soon.  I think they have like a state congress, maybe that's where their projects go?) But again, lots of interesting things to talk about with the boys.

Once we finally backtracked to the entrance, we found the livestock buildings/tents, as apparently we had passed them on the way in without realizing that's what was there.  The open shows happened first, but we came down when the youth 4-H shows were starting.  The sheep/goat building was about on par with Indiana's size, and probably the horses as well.  But the biggest difference was the swine exhibit:  Indiana exhibits over 2000 pigs, while Virginia had maybe a hundred.  And the department that I know the most about, the beef one, was so different.  First, the only breeds pulled out into their own categories were Angus, Braunvieh (never heard of before), Hereford, Shorthorn, and Simmental.  All other breeds were shown together  Indiana exhibits 15 different breeds and they get to show in the coliseum (a building used for professional sports, and the Beatles even performed there once).  Here, the beef showed in a small arena in the corner of the barn (probably smaller than our county fair's, and with less seating for sure).  The heifer numbers were pretty high, but the main difference is that their steer show only had a dozen or so entries.  Their feeder calf program had more entries than their steer show, which was surprising, but reasonable since the fair is so late in the year.

The pig show arena, similar to the other ones.

 We only got to watch goat showmanship, but it was actually one of the best showmanship contests I have ever seen.  The judge placed the exhibits from top to bottom (instead of just picking the top two) and had very detailed reasons for his placements.  He did not rush things, but took as long as it took for contestants to win or lose the class by their actions with their animals.  I really respected the competition and the kids did a great job.  And loved hearing a lot of southern accents (up here, most people are not native to VA, so we don't hear it much).

He still says he's going to be a builder when he grows up, but lately he says he's going to be a farmer too.

Some other things we found at the fair included:  a farmers market, racing pigs, a rattlesnake show, magic show, masters of the chain saws, and some really good ice cream.

Overall, this fair will never really compare to the Indiana State Fair for me, but it had enough of the agricultural roots still in tact for us to thoroughly enjoy our time there.

2013 Huntington County 4-H Fair

I had started a post on the fair, going into the details of all the tradition involved, and realized it was going to be way too involved of a post.  I think I'll save it for next year when my brother finishes his tenth year in 4-H.  My mother requested the photos from the fair, and I decided to just turn them into a photo book for her instead.  You can see the results below:

Click here to view this photo book larger

Turn your favorite photos into a photo book at Shutterfly.com.

County Fairs.

We had a great time at the Huntington County 4-H Fair again this year.  It was HOT, and we got a little overheated a couple times, but it was a ton of fun.  Uncle Matthew had plenty of animals there to keep us busy the whole time.  This is the epitome of county fairs for us.  Theo got to enjoy the special foods this year, including milkshakes (at least one every day-and I never bought him one) and tenderloins!

After we got back, I decided I wanted to see what the fairs were like around here.  I went to the Delaware State Fair in years past, but it was already over, so I picked a few other local fairs to try out. 

The Salem County Fair was in New Jersey, and was similar to Huntington's in the fact that it was not focused around a big mid-way, as there were no rides to speak of.  There were some "pig races" and other entertainment, but most of the fair was traditional in being centered around the agricultural and homemaker traditions.  However, I didn't find a lot of 4-H'er exhibits, but there were lots of open class entries.

I noted how each species was different from what I'm used to in Indiana. In the rabbit barn, I noticed almost all the breeds were purely "fancy" breeds, those raised almost exclusively for pets. Being that Huntington has a huge meat show, it was very different in that way.  The poultry was similar, in there being lots of unique laying breeds, but few meat broilers. 

We then sat through the entire cattle show.  I did a really job judging the showmanship class (which is also judged on how well the animal is fit), and matched up with the judge very well.  There were then three classes of steers, shown not by breed, but by weight.  Eventually the judge picked the heavyweight steer as the champion, and then had a quick class of four heifers. 

We noticed a lot of differences in the sheep barn as well.  In Indiana, almost all the sheep are market sheep, but here there were all sorts of varieties raised for their wool!  They were really interesting to see.  This guy I think was a Jacob breed.

The goats were not so different, though there were a lot of Lamancha goats (the ones with tiny ears) that I haven't saw in a while, and less of the Boer goats.  There were not many swine entries to compare, but what were there ranged in weight from 150-300 pounds!  There was a lot of variety.

Theo also enjoyed the "miniature horses" that were at the fair, something he didn't see during the Huntington fair.

Next, we went west to the Queen Anne's County Fair in Maryland.  This one was a little more typically, in the food court and mid-way rides.  Some animals had already been released by the time we got there, but we still got a pretty good feel for the fair.  It was fairly similar to the NJ fair, but had a few differences.  There were probably a few more beef cattle, and meat sheep instead of wool sheep.  They seemed to have a lot more 4-H exhibits (like the sea shell collection below).  And they had a lot of horse and pony exhibits. 

 All in all, these fairs were both awesome places to take Theodore, and he enjoyed himself immensely.  They don't really compare to the fairs we're used to in the Midwest, but they did make me feel a little more at home, even out here on the East coast.

Delaware State Fair

Since we couldn't attend the Huntington fair this year, we made sure to check out the DE state fair. Now. I understand that this is not the Midwest. And I understand that Delaware is a tiny place (3 counties-873,000 people). However, it is hard to not compare this fair to my home county's fair (population 38,000).

It was very weird to see all the 4-H and FFA exhibits in a state other than Indiana. There are completely different projects here, and all the requirements are quite different. There was a quite respectable building full of exhibits in areas such as crafts, cooking, photography, sewing, and other projects. Below is a picture of their photography exhibit. The one thing that bothered me was that there don't seem to be Champions in the divisions (unless I missed them). So the best you can do is a blue ribbon.

One of the exhibits I really like is the "place setting" contest.

When it came to the animals, there were probably quite a bit less than at our county fair. However there was a lot more variety. I couldn't even identify all of the various sheep and poultry breeds, and enjoyed seeing beef breeds I normally don't. Some Belted Galloways were on display, one of my favorite breeds (see picture). I was quite annoyed that of the few rabbits shown, about two dozen of them were crossbreeds, which are typically declared to be unshowable outside of a "pets" class.
Some Numbers for the JUNIOR shows

Beef & Starter Calf shows: DE: 75 Huntington: 175
Rabbits: DE:  85 Huntington:  40
Sheep: DE:  LOTS! 300-400? Huntington: 150
Swine: DE: 200 Huntington: 470
Goats: DE: 175 Huntington: 300

I didn't check the results for the poultry and dairy, but it seemed pretty similar at both fairs.