Fairgrounds improvements looking good

In May, I was talking to Neil Gerken and he was telling me that he and other volunteers had been working to improve the cattle barn at the fairgrounds.

This was the first time that I had heard that improvements were being made to the barn, although it was in needed. He suggested that I to go to see the improvements.

Last year, a vast improvement was made to the swine barn. It was improved considerably and was in good shape for last year's fair. Some additional work remained to be done for this year. With permanent pens, concrete floor, and metal poles, it is a good facility for swine exhibits. You will not find any better facilities anywhere.

The buildings were originally built because it was better to have a building than it was to use tents. By the time a tent was rented, a building would pay for itself within 3 years. The first livestock building, now the swine building, was built for all of the livestock, swine, beef, dairy, and sheep. It was not long and the building was not large enough and a beef barn was built.

When the beef barn was originally built, I think it was approximately 100 feet in length. A few years later with the large number of exhibits, another approximately 50 feet was added to the building. These buildings were built with volunteer labor.

Years later, the swine and sheep numbers grew, and the number of dairy exhibits decreased. There were restrictions placed on how many steers could be exhibited by each exhibitor. It was necessary to move the dairy projects to what had been the beef barn.

Now all of the cattle exhibits are in the same building.

In last Thursday's edition of the Nevada Daily Mail, an article by Rusty Murry, "Old beef barn looks like new" gave an account of the improvements to the cattle barn.

He wrote about the history of the building and gave detailed information about the improvements. Two pictures were also included. When I saw the article, I knew that I had to get out to see the improvements.

What an amazing change from the before to what it is at present. The building had served a great purpose, but now it is modern, is strongly constructed, and looks great.

Knowing that several have worked on the building and have put in a great amount of skill and time. It is amazing to me what volunteers accomplish. These are busy people, yet they took their time to developed the building to what it is now. This is a source of pride for everyone in Vernon County.

When the fair was located at the present location, the fair board wanted the grounds to be used the year around, not just the few days of the fair. This certainly is a building that will be desirable for breed shows and other special shows. The current fair board and all of those involved are to be complimented for this accomplishment. There have been also many donors who have made contributions to make this possible. Here is a building that will be there for several years.

Not only is this great building now a part of the fairgrounds, but there have been other accomplishments. The pop shack, former location for the diner, for example, has been redone.

The metal fence which replaced the wooden fence that was there for several years has been painted and the entire facility looks attractive.

The youth fair is a major event for several youth in Vernon County and for their families. At this time all of these individuals are making final preparations for the fair.

The Vernon County Youth Fair, although it is a youth fair, is larger than many other fairs in the state.

Information obtained from the University of Missouri Extension Center is that there have been 2,329 exhibits pre-entered. This is up about 200 from the number of pre-entries last year. They will not all show up, however.

The number of exhibitors pre-entered is 427. By fair time this number may be only 400. Verifications are being made to determine if all are eligible to participate and some will not get their exhibits to the fair.

One project that has seen growth in recent years has been goats. They are rapidly becoming a major animal project. There have been 91 pre-entered. I expect the number of goats to increase in future years -- this is a trend in our country.

The number of poultry is sizable -- 81. Rabbit numbers seem rather large, with 91 pre-entered At one time, dairy was a major enterprise in the county. This is no longer true, yet 36 head of dairy have pre-entered. Sheep account for 94 of the pre-entries.

Beef continues to be popular with exhibitors with 133 head pre-entered. The steers account for 83 of this number. Swine has the largest numbers with the plans to show 222. Of this number 206 are barrows.

The auction on Saturday night is expected to have a large number of livestock. This is an important event for a large number of these exhibits. Each year it has been a highly successful sale.

All conference judging will be held in the home economics building. In the past some of them have been held in what has now become the sheep barn. The exhibitors are to check in at the diner on Monday night.

This year a super teen contest will be held on Monday evening. This will provide different competition.

There will be a large number of non-livestock exhibits at the fair. All of these exhibits are important and provide a good experience for the exhibitors.

It is great to see the improvements that have been made to the facilities.

The fair to be held next week promises to be another good fair, keeping the tradition going of the Vernon County Youth Fair.