Over the past few months, the Brown County Fair board has been trying to decide if they should proceed or cancel like many other fairs. In the end, they decided to move forward and also welcome exhibitors from the surrounding counties.
I’m talking with a few of the kids showing at the fair to get a better understanding for how much work they have to do prior to the show. First off, I spoke with Heidi Beyer of Morrison 4-H who’s showing sheep, goats, and chickens. Heidi’s in her 11th year of showing and doesn’t plan to stop any time soon.
“I like the competition…I like the people, and it’s just one big happy family,” Heidi says. She talked about how the toughest part of training the animals is getting used to waking up really early to walk them. She joked that all you want to do is sleep in, but that’s not really an option.
Heidi walked through the whole process of training the sheep and how it starts months before the fair begins. “Even when they’re little babies we go in there and start playing with them,” Heidi explained. “We walk them either around our yard a couple of times or we walk them a half mile down the road and back, just to get them exercise.” One other trick she mentioned is that they also walk the sheep up a hill so that they build more muscle in their back legs.
She said that showing at the fair teaches you a few different things, leadership, responsibility, and public speaking. These are three factors that can easily be carried into any other aspect of life. For anyone interested in showing at the fair, Heidi says go for it. “It’s a lot of work beforehand, but it’s so much fun and I definitely recommend showing because it is the best thing I’ve ever done.”
The Brown County Fair kicks off on August 19th and ends on the 23rd.
