LIMA — The traditional finish of the Allen County Fair was held Wednesday at Keystone Meats with the Allen County Junior Fair Carcass Show.
Hundreds of FFA and 4-H members had the meat of their rabbit, hog, steer, chicken, lamb and goat fair projects on display and collected their hard-earned checks for their efforts.
Judges for the fair praised the projects as winners were announced in the categories with comments such as “we were pretty impressed with the lamb and goats, there was only a 3 percent spread from top to bottom” and “all of the pork carcasses were acceptable, none of them were ‘pork soft.’”
“This is the grand finale of the fair and the students get to show off their hard work and their product,” said 4-H educator Kelli Coble.
The participants’ names were displayed on their products and hundreds of parents and other friends and relatives journeyed through the refrigerated rooms to admire them. Emma Dues, 17, of Harrod, was happy with her efforts. She learned that she placed sixth place with her beef carcass and had a check for $1,586.
“It was my third year and I would say it was a successful year,” Emma said. Her steer had also placed 11th in the live placing.
Emma said she has three elder brothers who had showed animals at the fair for years and felt that had helped her out.
Austin Heffner, of Westminster, was also happy with his showing but felt he could have done better. He said he has won at the fair before. This year, his beef carcass placed fifth and was 10th in the live placing. He said he learned from this year.
“If I started over I think I would hold back on the feed a little bit,” Austin said. “It was a little big.”
Winners in each category were: Rabbit Carcass, Riley Stark; Poultry Carcass, Jared Meyer; Goat Carcass, Carson Kruse; Lamb Carcass, Chase Miller; Pork Carcass, Coleton Shilling; Dairy Beef Carcass, Olivia Conley; and Beef Carcass, Logan Core.
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