State Fair of Virginia - part 3

Continuing and completing our day at the State Fair of Virginia...

As we were heading back to the livestock area, we saw Regina and Jimmy, Ashby, Brent, and Ricky heading toward the tunnel to the other side of the fairgrounds. We got a picture of them with the State Fair of Virginia sign.

We had headed back to watch the "Wolves of the World" show -- it was pretty interesting, though made difficult to view because of the bars between the area with the wolves and the audience. They had wolves from different locations and different types. At the beginning of the performance, they played an audio with information about how the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone changed the landscape of the national park -- I didn't find exactly the audio that they played, but the concepts are addressed in a couple of videos that I found: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFHmtVNu97E and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWblV23OeQc.

Things I learned about wolves -- I knew that they lived in packs, but I learned that the pack is led by an alpha female and an alpha male, who are the only ones who mate and reproduce. The other wolves in the pack help to raise the pups, and females other than the alpha female may develop milk to feed the pups. Within the specific pack of wolves in the Wolves of the World group, they recently lost both of their alpha wolves (I think it was within the last year). One of the wolves is identified as being the new alpha female, and they had a "lone wolf" male which the handlers of the show thought could be a candidate for the new alpha male, but the female wasn't having it -- so he is still in the show as a lone wolf. There are two youngsters that have bonded with the lone wolf, but one of them may eventually become the alpha male.

While we were watching the Wolves of the World show, we heard some shooting going on, so went over to see what that was about... 

There was a mounted contest going on with the riders directing their horses on a specific course and shooting balloons along the course as they rode by them -- Mounted Cowboy Shooting (https://www.youtube.com/embed/EbUxoaI8gCg?rel=0). It was very interesting to watch.

I had seen in the schedule that the goat youth costume class was supposed to happen at 6:30pm -- so we headed over to the goat barn. It turned out that the schedule was incorrect, but we did get to see a couple of classes being judged. We also walked around some of the goat pens and got some fun pictures...

Neat coloring!

Pretty!

Probably part of a FFA or 4-H project to answer questions that are commonly posed to goat owners

This one winked at Carl when he took its picture!

I thought this was funny -- the area where the goats and sheep were located was evidently funded in some part by the Virginia Pork Council -- or this was a very strange looking pig!

I had a small goat, Belle, when I was a teenager. She had SO much personality and energy! Some pictures of Belle that I scanned in years ago:

Such interesting markings

 

Checking out what might be edible on this bush

She *loved* to climb! Note me with my horse in background.

 

This isn't Belle, but a picture of what was going on in the background of that earlier picture -- I was sewing braids into Pickles' mane, no doubt in preparation of some upcoming horse show.

Belle out with me working with my horse Pickles and his colt -- next to the horse trailer. I may have been working with Pickles to get him to load more easily. Belle was like a dog with me outside -- when I'd come out the back door, she was right with me wherever I might be going. I remember her jumping up on a metal cylindrical tank that was stored above ground between the house and the barn -- her little hooves echoing as she trotted down the top of the tank, and then she'd launch herself off with all four legs splayed out, hitting the ground and springing up again. 

A story about Belle and my Granny -- Granny did *not* like goats -- she had evidently been butted by one around a yard or up some steps when she was young. One time when Granny was visiting us, Belle figured out how to get into the house through the screen door (literally *through* the screen door as my cats had made a hole in it and Belle enlarged it). Belle trotted through the house and up onto the couch next to Granny who was reading the newspaper. The next thing I knew, I heard Granny yelling from the house -- I was down in the woods with my horse, and came running back. As I got closer, I could hear her saying, "There's a wild animal in here, there's a wild animal in here!" I had no idea what was in the house, but headed in where I found Belle, lounging on the couch while chewing her cud.  

We don't know what happened to Belle... she just disappeared one day, we never found any carcass or remains. Dad was magistrate in our county, and people came by the house to swear out warrants -- sometimes additional people who may have been with them waited in the car. She was such a friendly animal, she may have jumped into a car and gone home to become cabrito for someone's dinner. 

Ok, enough pictures and stories of Belle already!

Carl and I got our dinner at Block and Bridle Club of Virginia Tech -- we had pork barbecue sandwiches and they were delicious! 

While we were eating, there was a beautiful sunset going on to the west!

We got to enjoy ice cream with the folks in the dairy barn before heading back to the farm. What a fun day!

State Fair of Virginia - part 2

Continuing on our State Fair journey in Virginia...

Virginia tobacco production

Economics of tobacco production

Virginia Peanuts

"you just can't beat 'em!"

We headed over to the hit and miss engines -- this display was, I think, all from the collection of Jason Talley, of Mechanicsville, VA (I talked with him briefly -- no known relationship that we know of but I'm sure somewhere further back, we are related (my maiden name was Talley for any who do not already know that!)).

Some of the uses of these engines

Hearing these engines always draws Carl to them -- if you'd like to listen in, here are a couple of videos that he took at the fair: https://youtu.be/aaafGt8f1xQ

When we were at Field Days of the Past the previous weekend, we saw a hay press --

At the State Fair of Virginia, there was a 1/3 scale model of a Steam Traction Tractor...

... along with a 1/3 scale Hay Press -- the fellow there was loading hay into it and tying off the bales with wire as they came through. Jimmy had explained to us how the hay press worked, and so I had seen it in my mind, but it was neat to see one in action.

We wrapped up our time on the other side of the fair watching the "Disc Connected K9s" -- 

This is a group of rescue dogs performing with their trainers and frisbees...

https://www.k9frisbee.com/rescue

More to come in part 3!

State Fair of Virginia -- part 1

Friday, September 26, we visited the State Fair of Virginia. Regina had gotten us tickets through her livestock exhibitor status (Thank you, Regina!). We had a big day!

We were lucky that the parking attendants directed us to parking very near the livestock area, so we were able to go in the livestock gate. I kind of remembered where the dairy barn was from several years ago, so we made our way there... 

Regina's girls there for the fair... Madeline and Morning Glory were okay with the rear shot (udders are a big deal in dairy cattle), but Georgia wanted her pretty face to show!

Regina has a display with all sorts of information about cows in general, milk and dairy products, and Jersey cows.

A short genetics lesson on why cows have horns or not

Sorry for the blurriness -- I guess I zoomed in too much! "An average cow produces 90 glasses of milk a day." and "A cow chews her cut 6 to 8 hours a day."

Some more fun cow facts!

 

I got some directions from Regina on getting to the other side of the fair...

... and off we went!

Another fair-goer took our picture at the entrance.

Jimmy won first place for his alfalfa hay!

Other winning entries -- the gourd artistic displays were interesting...

What interesting shapes!

I liked the little yellow ones with the white stripes on the sides -- they looked like ceramic bells to me!

Then we headed over to Young McDonald's Farm -- sheep and lambs...

"Hey, wait, Mom! I want some milk!"

Turkeys -- I think these were indicated as being for sale -- there was a group of 2 and a group of 3.

More in another post!

Some more "doings" on the farm

On Wednesday, Jimmy asked if we were available for a little walking, moving the mamma cows and some newborns to a new pasture... uhm, we must not have messed up enough on Tuesday to be ineligible to help with cattle...

Our primary responsibility was to watch to be sure none got left behind -- particularly the little ones.

Even though the fields are not "spring green", the red Hereford (or Hereford crosses) look so pretty agains the green.

This little one was struggling to keep up but she made it.

Mom was happy to get onto fresh pasture, and baby was glad to get a drink of milk! This one is so tiny she can walk underneath mom's belly to get to the udder on the other side!

The mamma cows are glad to be on new pasture -- our job to watch out for any lagging calves was because sometimes mamma can get her mind on fresh pasture and not think about baby for a bit -- and if baby was bedded down in the former pasture, that could be a problem.

As Carl and I were watching the back of the group, a couple of the calves got under the fence into the pasture with the dairy cows. One in particular took off to join the dairy cows in their lot. The dairy girls were interested in this new little thing and he/she was interested in them... I went over to try to get that one back -- even though he is only a few days old (maybe as much as 10 days old), he was *very* quick! I just tried to get him heading the right way and hoped that he would realize that momma was beyond that fence that he had so quickly gone under a few minutes before. He caught on -- I think momma may have been waiting or calling -- and took himself back under the fence and joined up with the rest of the herd. Whew!

Some "doings" on the farm

On Tuesday morning, Jimmy asked if we were available to "help" (we're not much help!) with the yearling beeves. These are the ones that have been weaned and were in a pasture on "this" side of the road, but would now be moved over to be with the other beeves who are being fed out on grass and grain on "the other" side of the road.

Our jobs were to get the calves closed in the handling system -- it was not as simple as it might sound... this may have been their first experience with the handling system, and they were very cautious about getting into it. As a result, we had to have both front and back gates open. In the past with the group on the other side of the road, we would have the back gate open and front gate closed, and I just have to close the back gate once the calf is in the system -- but these young ones were too nervous to go in if they couldn't see a way out. With both open, Carl had to wait until the calf was in the stall, and close the front gate (but not too soon because they would freak and not come all the way in if he tweaked it before they were all the way in!), and then I had to quickly close the back gate before they started to accelerate backwards! Needless to say, we didn't succeed all the time -- one calf hit the afterburners as soon as it was in the system and flew through before Carl got the gate closed. The photo above shows a success... 

Meanwhile, Regina was washing the dairy cows...

... so she could clip them in preparation for the Virginia State Dairy show coming up Thursday-Sunday.

More of the beeves in the handling system.

Once a baseline measurement was completed on all the beeves, Jimmy put them onto the trailer and he and Carl carried them over to the pasture across the road to be with the other feeder calves.