The Warren County Fair ended on Saturday.
He said the cooler temperatures would be welcome this year as last year the heat made things miserable for fair-goers, exhibitors and the animals.
“It’s pretty comfortable out there today,” he said. “Maybe Mother Nature will be nice to us this year.”
Turner said many people worked hard over the past few days dodging recent rain showers to get the fairgrounds ready.
“It didn’t affect us because we knew it was coming,” he said. “We’ve been setting up all week and it’s been hot and heavy starting Thursday. We had board members hanging banners until 1 a.m. Saturday to avoid the showers.”
The 167th Butler County Fair opened Sunday as the showmanship competitions for local youth started with a number of shows featuring their animals and livestock in many of the barns. Elsewhere at the fairgrounds various exhibitors and vendors were readying their booths on Sunday afternoon before the rides opened at 4 p.m. Sunday’s main event will be an Antique Tractor Pull at the Grandstand.
Turner said there were more than 1,000 exhibitors and another 200 4-H special interest exhibitors participating in the 2018 fair.
In the Junior Fair Swine Barn, the Born and Raised Hog Show featured more than 200 pigs with 125 pigs in the Junior Fair competition, said Amy Darner of the Butler County Swine Breeders Association. During the Junior Fair competition, judge Jamie Payton of Jeffersonville, Ohio closely watched the youth and their pigs go through their paces.
In a nearby barn, seven other competitors were putting their market lambs through their paces in the Pee Wee Showmanship competition.
Josh Robinson, Senior Fair sheep superintendent, said there were five classes of lambs competing with 300 market lambs in the open competition and another 75 in the Junior Fair competition.
After the lambs were shown in the barn, judges Mike Fox of Tipp City and Linda Couto of Hamilton followed that up by judging the quality of the fleece of each lamb which were in large bags at one end of the barn. Families and friends watched the youth compete with their lambs from bleachers in the barn.
At the end of the competition, Fox and Couto, spoke with each of the youth competitors to offer encouragement and suggestions on how they could improve, Robinson said.
The Butler County Fair runs through July 28 at the fairgrounds in Hamilton.
About the Author
