‘Fairadise’ continues at the Jasper County Fair

COLFAX — Little Squealers took over the show arena at the Jasper County Fair Tuesday as children ages 3-9 got their chance to show swine for a judge at the fairgrounds in Colfax.

After each participant was paired with their show buddy, the youth broke into their classes, which were divided by age. The 9 year olds kicked off the show, leading each of their pigs around the arena for the judge.

While the competition wasn’t judged like a normal show, the youngsters were still able to practice being in the ring and hearing comments from the judge.

Nine-year-old Jackson Merten was one of the participants in the first class of the Little Squealers. Swine judge Hunter Shoemaker said all of the youth did a fantastic job in the show ring but he made mention of Merten’s skill with showing.

“Jackson sure knows how to show these pigs. I think he could have beat some of the older kids,” Shoemaker said.

Tuesday marked the final day for heats in the ever-popular Oreo Stacking competition in the Open Class building. There were five heats of eight contestants, all vying to gain a spot in the Grand Stack competition Wednesday. The winner of the Grand Stack competition gets two tickets to Adventureland.

All competitors can only stack Oreos with one hand and the other must remain behind his or her back. With a minute on the clock, each contestant tries to stack as many cookies on top of the other, without the stack tumbling down.

In the Youth Exhibit building, Karla Jordan was keeping an eye on her 4-H club’s display, making adjustments as things shift after days on display.

“I’m going to have to do something different. By the end of the fair, tape starts wearing out,” Jordan said.

She is the leader of one of Monroe’s 4-H clubs, the Lucky L’s. She has been a leader for 49 years and has been on the Jasper County Fair Board for 25 years. Needless to say, she is well involved with fair activities.

Jordan said the fair has changed over the years, particularly when it comes to youth projects.

“A project that has grown is woodworking and home improvement entries as well. Judges attribute that to Pinterest,” Jordan said.

She pointed to several entries in the building that make use of pallets to be crafted into art pieces or shelves. Jordan looks forward to all of the different ideas the area youth come up with year after year. That and the people at the fair is what she thinks makes fair time so special in Jasper County.

“Seeing all the new projects and seeing grandkids show and great-grandkids show. People of course, you see people over and over,” Jordan said.

Also featured in the Youth Building Tuesday was the Commodity Carnival. New to the fair this year, the booth’s goal is to teach kids the cost it takes to raise a steer and bring it to market. Each child would take a golden egg, representing the steer they were raising. The kids would then fill it with grain to represent feed costs. Then they would add different color chips to show the costs of the animal care and transportation.

The goal was to fill the egg and make the “steer” heavy enough to bring to market. The final task would be to put a chip in a plinko-style board to see if the steer made money at market.

The prize at the end for participants was a cow shaped hat and a blue ribbon for participating.

The Jasper County Fair will continue in Colfax through Thursday. For a list of events, visit jaspercofair.com.

Contact Pam Pratt at 641-792-3121 ext. 6530 or pampratt@newtondailynews.com