Fair is over and schools a coming!

 Wow fair went by so fast this year.  Beef show day was soooooo busy.  We started with feeder showmanship at noon and didn't stop for long until after the grand drive.

Sprout won light weight feeder calf and intermediate feeder calf showmanship.  She was confident and ready for the day.   In the break between the feeder and steer show she got called to the arena and won rate of gain.  This is how much the steer gains between spring tag in/weigh in and the weigh in at the fair.  There is some money for this one.  She's won it twice in 5 years.  Then she got a break since dairy steers were really late in the schedule.  My nephew and his wife were visiting for the day and they took her for ice cream and to see things around the fair.

Her dairy steer looked good.  He was a little jumpy in the air conditioned arena, but Sprout handled him wonderfully.  She just kept setting him back up and was calm and collected.  There aren't many that show dairy beef in our county so the competition wasn't huge but she showed very well.  Her only problem was she glanced over at her dad during beef showmanship because someone else was having a problem with their animal and she was nervous.  The judge caught her and that was just enough to eliminate her.  Competition is tough and she knows it.  At least this year her steer was totally under control.  The last time she did beef showmanship there was a heifer in heat next to her steer and he got away from her and drug her a bit.  It was scary for this momma, but not this year.  She was on it and had total control.  We've decided to have a different trainer for showmanship next year.  She needs to move to the next level and a few sessions to perfect things will go a long way.  She's come a long way since the beginning, but she's out paced us on her training.

 

Sheep were so so this year.  She didn't spend nearly as much time with them as the cattle and it showed.  It is a learning experience to get all of her livestock to the same level.  I'll be there to direct more next year so we just chalk it up to a learning experience and keep moving.

I don't have a good pig picture, but they were also not quite where we want them to be.  I think we need to look at the feed more next year and she and I can work on what we think we need to do over the winter.  Plus we bought a treadmill that we can walk sheep and pigs on.  That will help with their muscle development next year.  It's hard to have time to walk everyone for as long as they need so the treadmill will help.

All in all it was a good fair.  We can't complain about 3 plaques.

Sprout gets a bit of a breather, but cheer practice starts on August 2nd and school on August 10th.  She misses her friends so I think she is ready to go back just for the social aspect.  Over the summer I got a new sports bag for her that is big and water proof so that she can use it for cheer and swimming.  She was finding having the school backpack and a backpack for sports too hard to get on the bus.  Now she has a duffle and a backpack and it should be easier to navigate the bus aisles. 

Where did the summer actually go?  I can't believe it's almost August.  I really need for time to slow down.