Washington County Enterprise-Leader
A Tradition: Competing At Washington County Fair
Every year at the end of April the focus of the Farmington FFA chapter makes a shift from Career Development Events to the upcoming stock show season and how we are going to tackle it. From buying animals, housing animals to getting those animals ready over the summer months for the show season comes to a head starting with the Washington County Fair at the end of August.
In Washington County, everyone from those involved with livestock to those who are not, looks forward to the county fair as a timeless tradition to wrap up the end of all of our summer vacations. For for those preparing livestock to show it has a much larger connotation. A connotation of hard work finally yielding a result and all of the nerves that go with hoping that the result is good. However, even with the nerves, hard work, and animals never seeming to want to cooperate, the county fair still brings a flood of good memories and stories anytime it’s brought up in conversation. Whether that is memories of the rides, food, and games or show ring stories of wild animals, backdrop pictures, and sale night at the end of the week, for livestock exhibitors county fair is always something to look forward to.
This last year our FFA chapter was fortunate enough to produce multiple class, breed, and overall champions. Just to name a few Justin Calhoon exhibited the Grand Champion Commercial Heifer in the beef barn, Lizzie Mabry fed and showed the Grand
Champion Market Hog and Brynna Drummond showed the Grand Champion Dairy Goat, all representatives of our Farmington FFA chapter. Our FFA chapter was able to have numerous class winners and students selected to be in the Livestock Premium Auction. Every year as the end of the week comes, seemingly far too fast, we all have to pack up our livestock, equipment, and tack and leave the fairgrounds, waiting until that last week in August finally comes again next year.