The animals on Wednesday were large in number on
the whole. While the individual breed shows were small in number,
the number of breeds and classes per breed made the show the biggest
4-H animal show of the season thus far.
The day began with the gilts, starting with spotted breed. After
spotted came Yorkshire, Chester White, Hampshire, Duroc, Berkshire,
AOB, and Commercial Gilt.
The largest breed class of the day was the Berkshires with eleven
gilts shown by eight 4-H youth.
The next largest class was the Commercial Gilts with 10 animals
shown. The Grand Champion Gilt shown and owned by Hollis Scheets
also came from this class.
While the gilt shows don’t seem to draw as much fanfare as the
barrow shows, they are still quite important to society because we
need to remember that without the girls, there would be no boys.
In the barrow show, there were also several animals shown with the
largest breed class being the Crossbreds. The Crossbred breed
produced the Grand Champion as well as the Reserve Champion Barrow.
Claire Bobell took Grand, while Hollis Scheets earned the Reserve.
This year the judge was Jenna Wheeler. She told the audience that
she spent 16 of her 21 years actively involved in swine production.
She showed in 4-H and also Open Swine, and has memories of showing
in the Open at the Logan County Fair.
Wheeler said she was not one to waste time pondering placement of
animals. She knew what she liked and she would be making her choices
and moving on. Indeed she did keep things rolling along at a quick
pace. Even so because of the number of breeds, classes and animals,
the show took about three hours to complete both the gilts and
barrows.
Present during the judging were the new 2021 Miss Logan County Fair
Caroline Ahrends, Junior Miss Jaelynn Anderson and Little Miss Sofia
Farmer. Junior Miss Jaelynn and Little Miss Sofia had to move on to
other business before the end of the barrow show, but Queen Caroline
helped with the grand champion presentation.
Little Miss Sofia especially needs to be commended for how brave she
was all day. There were times when she was clearly intimidated by
the pen full on pigs running all over the place, but she handled it
like a trooper, only a time or two stepping behind her larger
counterparts for protection.
[to top of second column] |
The best part of her day was the dispersing of ribbons and plaques,
she along with Queen Caroline and Junior Miss Jaelynn clearly
enjoyed giving out those awards to well deserving 4-H members.
The show did move quickly and pretty well without any hitches right
down to the time that all the winning barrows would be called in for
the selection of a Grand Champion.
Just at the end of the Crossbred show, the power went out to
portions of the building. Some lights were put out and worst of all,
the sound system was impacted.
While several people worked to restore the lost power, it was 4-H
member and swine exhibitor Reed Naughton who came to the rescue.
Reed may also be a boy scout as it seems he came prepared for this
week at the fair. He left for a moment and soon returned with a
portable sound system that he just happened to have with him. A good
power source was located, and the show went on with only a few
minutes delay.
Claire Bobell was announced as the Grand Champion Barrow. This is
Claire’s third year winning the championship as she did so also in
2018 and also in 2019 at the last Logan County Fair. In addition to
her Grand Champion banner, Claire was presented with the Don Crane
Memorial Traveling Trophy by Linda Crane and her grandson, and also
a plaque sponsored in memory of Brett Conrady.
Claire, holding the purple ribbon, solicited the help of her sisters
who held her plaques and banner during the Grand Champion photo.
As winner of the Grand Champion Gilt, Hollis Scheets also received
the Gilt Traveling Trophy in memory of Don Crane and the Conrady
plaque.
[Nila Smith] |