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County fair is like harvestBy Richard C. Snell Barton County Extension Agent, agriculture One of my favorite times of the year is at the county fair and Barton County Fair time is just about here. We have one of the earliest county fairs in Kansas and thus we are usually just finished with wheat harvest when the fair hits. One of the highlights for me this year will be the Mark Schultz Christian contemporary music concert on the evening of July 10. There are a limited number of reserved tickets on-line for $15. General admission tickets are only $10 for adults and $5 for ages 6-12. Mark Schultz is a native of Colby and was a member of the K-State singers when he attended school there. Many of his songs are played on KPRD, K-LOVE, American Family Radio (AFR) and other Christian stations across the plains. We are hoping for a big turn out. The opening act will be some local friends of mine, "The Big Picture Band", from the Great Bend area. We invite you to attend our fair even if you live 300 miles away. This year's fair will be held July 9-13 at the Expo Grounds west of Great Bend on 10th Street. However several events take place before that. The judging of the 4-H clothing and fashion revue will be during the day July 2 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Great Bend. July 1 at 7 p.m., will be the public style show at the Crest Theater in downtown Great Bend. This is where the kids get to model what they have sewn themselves or purchased. On July 5 and 6 is the Sunflower Showdown Open Class Goat Show. This is a meat goat show with wether and breeding classes. Times have changed. A few years ago we had a large dairy goat open show; now the emphasis is on the meat goats. If you wish to enter this show you must register in advance. Late entries will be taken until July 3. The show begins at 8:30 a.m., July 5 and at 9 a.m., July 6. At 5 p.m., July 7, we will start setting up Expo I and II and move tables, chairs and equipment from the old 4-H building out north of Great Bend to the Expo out west. We will have a helpers picnic when we are finished. We would welcome any help. We are making July 8 a day to do that last minute finishing up and preparing projects for exhibition. The Fair really gets going in a big way July 9. I will have more details about the main fair schedule in next week's column. July 10 features judging of almost all of the inside exhibits as well as the ag mechanics. Some of the judging begins as early as 10 but some exhibits aren't judged until mid-afternoon so check the fair book for the complete schedule. You can still check in perishable items from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. Something new this year July 13 will be a beef barbecue instead of the 50 years of traditional chicken. It will be at lunch instead of supper. Anyway, we would like to take this opportunity to invite people from all counties in Kansas as well as Barton County to exhibit in our open class at the county fair. We have classes for beef cattle, sheep, horses, poultry and rabbits in the livestock division. We also have shepherds and ladies lead. We have an open dog show as well. You can also show crops, gardening, flowers, arts and crafts, woodworking, agricultural mechanics and photography, just to name a few. It's not too late to enter the market wheat and alfalfa show if you hurry. You can also bring flakes of hay or gallon jars of wheat to the fair. Live plants from this year's summer crops as well as grain from last year's fall harvest can be entered. Wheat does have to be from this year's crop. These days the best way to get information about the fair is on the Internet. The website is www.bartoncountyfair.com and it is best viewed in Internet Explorer. Just click on the Fair logo there and it will lead you where you need to go. If you would like information about particular class areas, call 620-797-3247 and leave a message. You can pick up a copy of the fair book at many public and business locations in Barton County. The Extension office will be closed most of that week. To find us, come to the fair. So, how is the county fair like harvest? Well, it's like this. We had a thunderstorm move through our area about two weeks ago knocking out the electricity for about two minutes. The bad part about that lightning strike was that it "fried" our telephone system permanently. So for 10 days we had no phones. I e-mailed the K- State system that we had no phones. One of my co-workers e-mailed me back and jokingly said--a county agent's dream, the phones don't work. The second--no more county fairs. Some of you may be shocked that he said that. But there is a lot of work and headaches to say nothing of the backaches that go into putting together a county fair. That is true for 4-H families, volunteers and fair board members as well as extension agents. The phones went out the day the 4-H fair entries were due. As many people as were physically coming into the office, it gave us a little break not to have phone interruptions. Just try calling a farmer in the middle of harvest. Then you might have to cover your ears. Although farmers look forward to harvest, they are glad when it is over. You have to get the equipment ready which takes a lot of labor and money. Then you have equipment failures--breakdowns and weather delays. It's like that with the county fair, it will try your patience but in the end, it's all worth it--for the kids and for the community. 7/7/08 Date: 6/30/08 Advertisement
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