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State fair fun

My team of reporters at Brownfield Ag news has been busy in recent days covering state fairs throughout the Midwest. It is such a pleasure to report about events and activities in which young people are featured. Because we hear so many horror stories about “bad seeds” that commit heinous crimes and become drug addicts and car thieves and worse in their teen years it is especially gratifying to see young people choose a path that leads to a more promising future.

A community in southwestern Wisconsin is apparently doing all it can to promote youth and livestock agriculture. Mineral Point, a town of 2,400 is home to the Grand Champion steer, barrow and market lamb at the Wisconsin State Fair this year.

I’m not kidding. All from the same small town. The steer was exhibited by Brock May, the barrow by Jordan Tibbits and the lamb by Jacob Johnson.

It has been hot in recent days with temperatures hovering around 100 degrees across the Heartland. At festivals and fairs, people are doing what they can to keep as cool as they can. Whether it is hanging out in the livestock barns where there are fans blowing and misters misting to keep cattle and hogs comfortable, to spending time at the wash rack, getting more water on yourself than on the heifer you went there to wash, or if it is finding a reprieve from the heat in one of the air conditioned locations on the grounds, there are ways to stay cool.

Our friends Matt and Andrea Fischer from St. Joseph, Missouri kept their 2-year daughter Ella cool Saturday afternoon at the Missouri State Fair by filling a large multi-purpose tub with water. Ella, wearing a pink swimming suit, climbed into the tub placed inside the grooming chute that had been used earlier in the day to fit cattle for the Simmental Show. There she stayed until it was time to begin tearing down and loading cattle for the drive home.

Whatever method you choose, I certainly encourage you to be careful and take breaks because this heat can not only be uncomfortable. It can be deadly for you.

As the Illinois State Fair winds down, I hope you have taken the opportunity to visit the Dairy Building. My good friend Marla Behrends with Midwest Dairy Association is among those who are constantly thinking up ways to make your state fair experience better. It is important to her and of course to those in the Commodities Pavilion to educate the consumer a bit during their total fair experience. There is a lot of hard work being done behind the scenes by staff members and volunteers to make sure all the food products served are representative of the great products Illinois farmers produce.

When you ask anyone about their favorite part of the fair, they might hesitate, but they almost always answer, “The food.” Imagine how happy all of us who attend and report from county and state fairs across the Midwest were to learn about the new featured food at the Indiana State Fair. “Hot Beef Sundae.” For 25 years, the Indiana Beef Cattle Association has been part of that state’s fair. A new tradition began this year when they added this comfort food to their food stand menu.

The “Hot Beef Sundae” is a bowl, generously filled with buttered mashed potatoes, surrounded by slow-roasted fork-tender shredded roast beef topped with savory beef gravy, sprinkled with Cheddar cheese and topped by a ripe red cherry tomato.

The whole “fair food experience” can be quite fun, but I have to be honest. The very best food I ever ate on the Illinois State Fairgrounds was eaten with my parents and siblings on a blanket on the ground. When our 4-H projects were selected to go on to State Fair, Mom would get up early and fry chicken and make potato salad and homemade desserts and the best iced tea in the world.

I am not quite sure I ever really thanked her, so “Thanks Mom.”