Fair season is arguably one of the best seasons of the year and it kicks off this week in Kewaunee County.
Prior to the big event, we caught up with a few of the kids showing with the Pilsen Skylighters 4-H Club including the club President Megan Salentine, her brother Caleb, and younger sister Molly. The three are showing their hogs on Thursday and for the first time, dairy on Friday. “This is all of our first year showing in dairy. We met a lot of dairy people along our 4-H journey, so this is something we wanted to take on,” Megan said. She mentioned how they bought the cattle in April and have been working with them ever since to prepare for this week. “We just need to get them accustomed to us so that they’re friendly and they’ll walk nice in the ring for us.”
As for the hogs, one of their goals is to get them to gain about two pounds per day in order to be market-ready for show day. The other goal is to train them to walk using a cane, pipe, or whip. “I know a whip sounds really bad, but it’s really not. It’s like a twig,” explained Caleb. The “whip” is very light and is only used to tap the hogs on the side of their jaw area so that they learn to turn one way or the other. I recommend seeing the pig show for yourself to get a better idea of how the process of walking a pig works. It can be very entertaining, to say the least.
Their younger sister Molly has shown in the past in kiddie-showmanship classes, but this is her first year in the actual junior show. She talked about how she’s been practicing with her calf Wrangler for a while now, especially when it comes to making sure she doesn’t side-step too much and she keeps her head up in the show ring. Molly explained that one of the best parts about showing is learning from other people and seeing how they do things so that you can perfect how you show your animals.
Megan and Caleb brought up how the days leading up to the fair can be stressful and during the fair, you don’t get much sleep, but it’s all worth it. “Animals are a lot to take care of at the fair. They are a demanding product that needs your attention. They depend on you to get fed and cleaned, so there are lots of late nights and lots of early mornings.” Megan said. “I love the fair because it’s a big community gathering, there’s a lot of people that I don’t see all the way throughout the year until the fair.” She joked how the county fair is basically a family reunion where everyone’s sleep-deprived.
With show day being right around the corner, Molly and Caleb had some advice for anyone bringing an animal to the fair this year. “Try your best and don’t give up if they don’t cooperate with you,” Molly explained. Caleb added, “don’t let one little thing get you down. You always have to keep on going and don’t worry about the past or what happened at other shows or what happened at home…Just keep on truckin’.”
The Kewaunee County Fair opens up to the public on July 8th and runs until the 11th with animals, the rides, the bands, and Caleb’s favorite part, the three-meat sandwich from the Algoma food stand.
You can hear the full interview with the Salentine’s on our podcast page. We talked a little more about how the three got involved in 4-H, how the county fair is for more kids than just those who grew up on a farm, and what a day at the fair looks like for someone who’s showing animals. Happy fair season!
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