Rookie or old pro, fair experience is always special
By Jodelle GreinerArticle Photos
CANBY - Everybody's got to clean their cows, no matter how long they've been in 4-H.
Just outside the cattle barn at the Yellow Medicine County Fairgrounds is a fence where competitors tie their cattle to do the cleaning chores.
Nicole Kamrath, 9, of Porter is in her first year as a full-fledged 4-Her, said her mother, Anna Kamrath, as she helped Nicole open a bottle of baby shampoo. Nicole poured the golden liquid onto a brush and began to scrub her steer calf, Milkshake, who was already soaked from a good hosing down.
"You're supposed to find something that doesn't irritate their skin; that's why the baby shampoo," said Anna Kamrath.
She nodded to a bottle sitting on top of a nearby fence post.
"He's got a bottle of dish soap," she said.
Jordan Wiesen, 17, had tied his almost six-month-old black calf just a few feet from Milkshake, but he's got 10 years of experience on Nicole Kamrath.
"When I was younger, I came here and saw people with the cattle and thought that was the hardest thing, so I wanted to do that," Wiesen said.
Now, he brings his own cattle to the fair.
His calf doesn't have a name and neither have any of the other 30 to 40 cattle he's raised over the years, "so it's not so hard when you sell them," Wiesen said.
He's had a lot of experience with cattle - he grew up on a beef farm between Canby and Hendricks and he's been in 4-H for 10 years.
"All I do is cattle," he said. "It's the reason I joined and I do a lot of it.
"I wouldn't do it if I didn't enjoy it," he added with a laugh.
Plus, there's a practical side. "It gets our cattle out there, so when it comes time to sell, people have seen what kind of cattle we raise. It actually helps."
He also enjoys the intangibles.
"Just the reward of working on it since the day you got out of school," he said. "Hopefully, you make it to the state fair. (I) get a sense of accomplishment."
