4-H Club wraps up its part of the Cass County Fair

Jul. 16—For the first morning since Monday, the Cass County Fairgrounds were fairly quiet in Friday's drizzle.

The individual 4-H animal contests were over, leaving the 4-H parade of champions and premier livestock showmanship contest for Friday night and the auction at 1 p.m. Saturday.

For the first time, 4-H'ers this year were able to take their animals not going to auction back home from 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., instead of waiting until 10 p.m.

Friday night's activities, including carnival rides, were canceled due to rain, but overall, the fair's return was a success after last year's cancellation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Attendance-wise, it exceeded our expectations," said Lynn Korniak, Cass County Extension director and 4-H Youth educator. "Wednesday was huge."

There was an hourlong wait for the wood fired pizza vendor, she said.

And the carnival stayed open until 11 p.m. because with the lines of people, the carnival management did not want people to be waiting in line that long and then not get to go on many rides.

Wednesday was also the only day without storms, although attendance was also strong on the other days.

"Enthusiasm has just been much higher — even with the rain," Korniak said.

Although the two commercial buildings weren't full, there were new vendors.

"It'll take a while to build that up again," she said.

There was a lot of support from the community, including from Cass County Towing, which helped extricate vehicles from the parking field on Tuesday and Thursday at no cost because of mud.

"They came out because they wanted to," she said.

Cass County 4-H President Bryan Kistler said the parking lot was the second worst he's seen it, the worst being in 2003.

For many of the participants, the fair still went well.

"If it wouldn't have rained, it would've been better," said Jackson Temple, 14, who showed swine.

A 4-H'er for six years, he felt the fair was the same as others in the years before 2020.

Sherri Gehlhausen of the 4-H Board was surprised at the number of people, "muddy or not."

"I don't think it bothers kids," she said. "People wanted to get out to the fair."

The fair did get to do Monday's rodeo and Wednesday's hot air balloon rides, she added.

Kinsey Mennen, 15, who is in her sixth year of 4-H and showed multiple animals, said the fair was still fun despite her concerns.

"I was worried about it being hectic with COVID and everything," Mennen said. "I feel this was one of our smoothest years as a family."

Her sister Kyla and brother Kade showed this year, too.

Reshma Green, 13, who showed goats for five years now, said getting to come to the fair was exciting, and returning after a year off was "different but fun."

Her favorite parts were seeing people she hadn't for a while, making new friends, helping friends and "eating, of course."

She helped a friend who had to show a myotonic (fainting) goat, advising him not to be afraid to pull a little because myotonics are more stubborn than other goats.

The gap in fair years also made it seem different for four-year cattle exhibiter Trent Ulerick, 13.

"We didn't get to do it last year, so it seemed kind of weird," he said.

However he still liked showing and had fun.

Ulerick and mother Cory Ulerick and Green and mother Nell Green enjoyed being able to move animals out earlier than 10 p.m., in daylight and before the crowds came, which made it easier to clean.

Caedah Scherer, 16, in the llama and alpaca barn, had misgivings about leaving earlier because people who don't come to the fair until Friday won't get to see all the animals.

The good part of the fair was "it's been a long time since we've seen everybody," she said.

One of the less visible happenings at the fair is that the FFA students participate in judging some animals after each show, a learning experience handled by the Lewis Cass Schools' FFA.

Korniak said that Cass is the only county fair she knows of in the immediate area that does that.

She likes the program because it teaches the participants critical thinking skills.

Four of the senior 4-H members are going on to focus on livestock judging in college, she added.

Heather Smith, Lewis Cass' FFA co-advisor with Mike Appleton, said the judging is open to any 4-H member from any county.

For 11 years now, the judging happens during every show, usually toward the end, and each animal show has about 25 to 30 judges, although overall the program attracts more than 100 kids.

"They're trying to get closest to what the judge decides," Smith said.

The 4-H'ers are given cards to make judgments on about four animals and a tiebreaker question they have to answer on the back.

There are several awards at the end of the fair for those who do well.

But there's also experience.

Hope Woolover, 8, who showed goats, said she is learning to set up cows, sheep and goats better, and Tylene McKinzie, 14, said while watching the cattle show, she figured out what to look for in beef cattle.

McKinzie did better judging sheep because "I've been around sheep for a while, and I got used to seeing the better ones," she said.

Scarlette Mayhill, 10, said "it was kind of scary" judging in front of the crowd, but she liked looking at the goats.

Senior 4-H'ers Morgan Minnick, 18, and Kyla Mennen, 18, are both using the experience to help them go on to college.

Minnick, who's participated in the judging contest since third grade, plans to attend South Plains College in Levelland, Texas, and Mennen, who's participated since eighth grade, plans to attend Joliet Junior College in Joliet, Illinois.

They're technically majoring in animal sciences with a concentration in animal judging.

Minnick explained the judging is somewhat like an extracurricular sport, and you can't make money at it alone.

Mennen said that judging animals has helped her raise animals.

"You can tell what needs to be fixed in terms of feeding," she said.

And you know what to look for when buying, she added.

The judging isn't the only impact the FFA groups have on the fair.

Lewis Cass's students run a lemon shake-up stand near the exhibition building, and the students have the Tom Small building near the dining pavilion.

The events there introduce younger children to animals and farming concepts.

Smith said that Logansport's FFA, which is still fairly new, had exhibits this year.

Korniak said that the Logansport FFA students also covered open shifts in watching over the exhibits in the Community Center.

And all three schools' FFA students worked together on a swine show that raised $11,000 for the fair.

Korniak said she doesn't know other counties where the schools' FFAs work together like that.

Reach James D. Wolf Jr. at james.wolf@pharostribune.com or 574-732-5117

Twitter @JamesDWolfJr