By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
County fairs give city kids a chance to learn about farms and the livestock raised on them. The fairs also give country kids a chance to work on their patience when city folk ask some rather inane questions.
In the beef barns, a lot of people meandering through mistake the steer for cows. That’s a real elementary lesson for farm kids, who know that cows are females and the beef barns have male steer and young calves.
“It’s not a cow,” Rebekkah Schober, 12, of Walbridge, said with a hint of exasperation as she explained the difference. But most of the time she doesn’t bother to go into detail for people wandering through the barns. “I feel like that would be rude. Besides, they won’t remember that by tomorrow morning, so it would be a waste of time.”
Some people also mistake the steer for big pets.
“They’ll touch them without asking,” said Macey Fix, 17, of Gibsonburg. “They are sweet animals, but be careful around them. If it kicks someone, it would really hurt bad.”
AnnMarie Nietz, 12, Walbridge, gets the same “cow” questions. “Only girls are cows,” she said as she tended to her steer. Then there’s the “do they bite” question, to which she sternly replies, “no.”
Helping her was Amelia Leiser, 10, who said some city folk ask why her steer is so dirty. “He lays in his own poop, for pete’s sake,” she said.
Amelia is pretty protective of her steer, and doesn’t let strangers touch him. “I don’t where your hand’s been,” she tells people who ask.
In the next barns over are the swine, many of them sleeping soundly in the middle of the afternoon. These are not the cute little piglets of storybook lore, but hefty creatures weighing up to 300 pounds. Brady Ziegler, of Bloomdale, explained that he has to practice walking his pig to prepare for showing him at the fair. That is no easy feat considering the only aid he can use to keep the pig on the right path is a stick to tap it behind the ears.
“Even a very well behaved pig can go bonkers,” said Brady’s dad, Matt Ziegler.
Elsewhere in the swine barn, other kids were making their first acquaintance with swine.
“They’ve never been on a farm,” said Nicole Sheeks, of Wayne, whose children were carefully reaching into a pen to pet a pig. “He’s very shocked that pigs aren’t soft,” she said of her son.
The next barn over was full of sheep, though some city slickers aren’t sure what they are, according to Pat Schudel, who brought eight sheep to show from Metamora. “People ask whether they are sheep or goats.”
“And they always ask us why they have their coats on,” if they haven’t been sheared lately, she added.
Sheep are the most difficult animals to exhibit at the fair, according to Macey Fix who has also shown steer, goats, pigs and chickens. “The hardest to show is sheep. They don’t cooperate.”
Schudel disagreed with that assessment, and said the pigs were more difficult since they have to be controlled by taps of a stick compared to the sheep which wear halters during showing. But Trinity Vielch concurred that sheep don’t always cooperate. “They’re stupid,” she said.
Over at the horse show corral, Gail Nagel, of Portage, said most people don’t realize the personality quirks of horses. Nagel’s three daughters grew up riding horses and competing at the fair. If horses are only run hard for competitions and never worked slowly, they go “sour.”
They are all different, with some being nervous and others calm as can be. “You can take her anywhere,” Nagel said about the horse standing next to her as she watched the competitions.
But another of the Nagels’ horses gets jittery if she’s not paired up with the calm horse. “She thinks she has to be with her. She’s a nervous wreck without her.” To calm her, they rub lavender oil on her nose.
Some horses love affection – others, not so much. “Some are like, feed me and leave me alone,” Nagel said. “They are just like people. They are all different.”
