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Kansas 4-H livestock producers compete at Kansas State Fair

Kansas 4-H livestock producers were hard at work over the weekend as the 2024 Kansas State Fair kicked off.

Eighteen-year-old Jacob Wendland won reserve champion in the middleweight division of the 4-H sheep show Saturday.

“There is a lot of work that goes in. From exercise and feeding and working hair and practicing how we set up. We take a lot of care in how we do it to make sure we do it right. When you do it right, it pays off,” he says.

His sister, 14-year-old Sarah Wendland is showing sheep and pigs at the fair.

“It’s a lot of work, like in the barn, repetitive like on the treadmill to get them more in shape or having them stand still in the brace box for pigs. It’s just repetitive walking trying to get their head up,” she says.

Jacob says 4-H has allowed him to make good friends and pushed him to be a stronger competitor.

“I’ve met some of my best friends. I’ve had some of my greatest competitors come out of the show barn and so that’s something I wouldn’t give up for the world,” he says.

Seventeen-year-old Isabel Wright tells Brownfield it’s a lot of work to prepare her pigs each year.

“You have to watch their weights and their skin and hair is a big part of it and it’s just a full year process, not just the day of in the week before. A lot of work goes into it, like walking daily, skin and hair washing,” she says.

She’s also showing sheep.

“This is my first year with sheep and they’ve been really fun. They just kind of have a bubbly personality,” she says.

Wright has been involved with 4-H for 10 years.

“The people that I meet are just one of the biggest things I would say is the best thing about it and all the skills that you learn from responsibility to teamwork and everything in between,” she says.

Brownfield interviewed Wright and the Wendland siblings at the Kansas State Fair in Hutchinson. The fair continues through September 15.

AUDIO: Isabel Wright

AUDIO: Sarah Wendland

AUDIO: Jacob Wendland