The Nebraska State Fair kicked off its 11-day run on Friday. This is the second year for the fair at its new location in Grand Island. After what was considered a very successful debut in 2010—when it drew 309,000 people—there’s a lot of interest in how Nebraskans will respond in year number two. We discussed that topic and others with Jana Kruger, a farmer from Arlington, Nebraska and president of the Nebraska State Fair Board.
State fairs are known for being family events attended by generations of people over the years. Brownfield talked with a woman who has never missed the Iowa State Fair. Cumalene Carroll lives in Missouri but she was born and raised on a row crop farm in south central Iowa, between Sheraton and Knoxville.
She tells Brownfield, “I have to go ahead and say, I AM 86, and I’ve never missed one. And, I was born on the 7th of August and I went on the 23rd of August on that year. We have done all of our babies ever since like that. You just take the babies and you go and you camp.”
Cumalene and her family camp at the Iowa State Fairgrounds every year and she tells me that’s her favorite part. What are her best memories as a kid?
“I didn’t really want to see the cows, I was scared of ‘em. (laugh) I think probably I remember more the foods, oh, just the smell of the fair. They had a little train that went all through the fairground that we rode.”
Aside from the camping experience that she loves, Cumalene says she enjoys seeing all of the flowers at the Ag Building every year.
Cumalene has been going to the Iowa State Fair every year of her life and tells Brownfield she has no intention of skipping a year, “There was never a question that I wasn’t going to go to the FAIR.”
Cumalene has her two camping spots reserved at the Iowa State Fair for next year and intends to keep those in her family for the next generations to enjoy.
Executive director Joshua Remington and donor development manager Dan Hansen are both fairly new to the Iowa FFA Foundation, but they are both very experienced with FFA. At the Iowa State Fair, we visited with Joshua and Dan about some of the programs they are working on in support of FFA.
The 2011 Indiana State Fair concluded on Sunday, August 21. Preliminary figures for this year’s fair have attendance pegged down 8 percent from the 2010 state fair with a total of just over 870,000 for the 17 day event.
The final day concluded with the announcement of the 2012 Indiana State Fair theme, the “Year of the Dairy Cows”. The 2012 Indiana State Fair will run August 3 through the 19th.
The Missouri State Fair annual Sale of Champions Saturday raised $114,050 to benefit Missouri youth involved in agriculture.
The Grand Champion Steer was exhibited by Bailey Dent of Rolla. The 1,325-pound Crossbred steer sold for $20,000 to Edward Jones & Associates, according to a news release issued by the Missouri State Fair. The steer was donated to the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Youth in Agriculture and hometown supporters participated in all of the Sale of Champions purchases.
The 274-pound Crossbred Grand Champion Barrow, exhibited by Emily Tallman of Archie, was purchased for $19,000 by Monsanto and Farmland Foods. The barrow was donated to the Missouri 4-H Foundation.
Troy Sloan of Cameron exhibited the 137-pound Hampshire Grand Champion Market Lamb and sold it for $14,000 to Edward Jones & Associates, the Missouri State Fair Concessionaires and Commercial Exhibitors.
A new Iowa Corn CyHawk Series football trophy was unveiled Friday morning at the Iowa State Fair.
The CyHawk Series is the annual football game played between the Iowa State University Cyclones and the University of Iowa Hawkeyes. It’s a big event in Iowa and starting this fall, Iowa Corn—the Iowa Corn Growers Association (ICGA) and the Iowa Corn Promotion Board (ICPB)—will become the main sponsor of the event.
The trophy features a farm family scene depicting dad, mom and kids around a bushel basket of corn.
Our audio includes comments made prior to the unveiling of the new CyHawk series trophy and interviews with ICGA president Dean Taylor and ICPB chair Dick Gallagher.
One man’s love of agriculture provides a unique experience at the Indiana State Fair. 
For the past twelve years Jim Williams, a farmer from Franklin, IN and his wife have had their “Farm in a Barn” on the Indiana State Fair Grounds, the last two of those twelve at USDA’s booth in the Pioneer Our Land Pavilion. Williams says the barn is 6 ½ feet wide and 21 feet long and inside you can see many different scaled models of farms. He says inside you’ll find 1/64 scaled farm equipment on replicas of grain, hog and dairy operations but notes it is never put together the same.
Williams says it takes several people five days to hand assemble the exhibit. The collection has grown significantly over the years. He says this exhibit is a great way to reach out to the fair goers to educate them about Indiana agriculture. Williams notes it isn’t like the real thing, but says people can come in and see farms in a miniature form and the visual helps them to understand, a lot.
Jim Williams says he loves agriculture and what the industry does and this is just another way to tell its story.
While the 2011 Indiana State Fair’s celebration of “The Year of the Soybean” has concluded, preparing for the 2012 fair has begun. In an announcement Sunday, the Indiana State Fair and the American Dairy Association of Indiana declared the 2012 Indiana State Fair the
“Year of Dairy Cows.” ADAI General Manager Deb Osza says it is an opportunity to educate fairgoers about the dairy industry.
Osza says they want to focus on two things. First, the dairy farmer and the hard work they do every day caring for the animals and the land while they are producing milk. She says the second story is the great nutrition news about milk and milk products. Osza says milk is loaded with essential nutrients like protein and calcium and says they will utilize the 2012 Indiana State to help tell that story. She says planning has already begun for next year and says they plan on incorporating some ideas with the cheese sculpture but the rest “you’ll just have to wait for the surprise next year”.
The 2012 Indiana State Fair will be August 3 through the 19.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack held a White House Rural Forum Friday at the Iowa State Fair. As chair of the White House Rural Council, Vilsack discussed the council’s new policy recommendations, which focus on the areas of need in rural America. Afterwards, he answered a broad range of questions from the audience.
AUDIO: Vilsack’s rural forum at Iowa State Fair (55:00 MP3)
The Missouri State Fair reopened this afternoon after being shut down after a strong storm blew through Sedalia last night. Gates opened at 3:00 o’clock. Some tents and power lines were knocked down at the fairgrounds. No injuries of people or livestock were reported.
Fair Director Mark Wolfe says the grounds are “up and running” and all activities have resumed. That includes ALL scheduled events tonight.
Wolfe says with “seamless coordination” with the Missouri Highway Patrol and Fire Safety, they were able to make the public aware of the storm threat early and safely evacuate everyone to safe buildings on the fairgrounds.
Missouri State Fair reopens
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