2018 fair-print

Page 106 2018 Logan County Fair Lincoln Daily News July 29 - August 5, 2018 Champion Award was sponsored by Irwindale Farms with the Reserve Award sponsored by Phil Wilson, Atlanta Ag Center. Before releasing the two competitors, the judge spent a little bit of time speaking to them about their showmanship techniques and offering tips to the second place winner to help that young man with his future shows. Showing cattle of any kind is not as easy as one might think. First it is good to remember that even with the younger animals, the kids are dealing with an animal whose weight equals or far exceeds their own. Leading the cow around the arena takes concentration and strength, as well as an animal that is accustomed to the process. A good showman will always position his or her self so that she is facing the judge. That is quite a dance when the judge orders the animals to be walked about in circles. Kids work from the left to the right side of the animal, looking over its rear or over its head, all depending on where that judge is in relation to the cow. And, not only is the cow moving, so is the judge, making that task all the more difficult. Dawn, the youngest of “the Irwin girls” makes this look easy, but watch her carefully and she has tells. When the animals is less than perfect she can stare it down with one of those “if looks could kill” expressions that makes us bet that the animal shudders just a bit before deciding she better darn well start behaving. After the showmanship competition, the Open Dairy Show began. Here we would see Dawn return along with that other Irwin girl – Sarah. The Open Show is larger and the girls faced some tougher competition, but still did well. For the Irwin family, dairy is a way of life and something that travels through the generations of the family name. The same is true with the Irwin family and the Logan County Fair. In the open show, Dawn and Sarah’s granddad and dad are the superintendent and assistant superintendent. Wednesday morning, granddad John Irwin was asked how many years he has been involved with the dairy show at the Logan County Fair. John laughed and said perhaps it has been so long he’s lost track. But on a serious note he said that he has a fair book at home from 1962 and in it he is listed as the assistant. That has been 56 years of helping at the Logan County Fair, if not more. He said he thought he was an assistant for a few years, so maybe he has been the superintendent for around 50 years. CONTINUE 00