4-H Fair to be held July 17 through 19

Hill County Extension is proceeding with plans to hold a virtual 4-H Fair on the Great Northern Fairgrounds starting July 17, with it’s animal shows running through the morning of July 19, after which they will host their sale.

Hill County Extension Agent Jasmine Carbajal said the event will not turn away people who decided to attend the shows in person, but she and her fellow extension agent Tom Allen are strongly encouraging people not to do so.

“We are asking that people join us virtually for the shows,” Carbajal said.

The shows can be attended virtually on Facebook live at https://www.facebook.com/MSUHillCountyExtension, a link which will be posted to the Hill County Extension Website before the shows begin.

Carbajal said one of the reasons they chose Facebook live was because people don’t need a Facebook page to watch it there.

“We know that virtual things can be intimidating,” she said.

She said if virtual attendees have a page she encourages watchers to like and follow.

“Everyone is welcome, we’re not going to not have the public involved if they really wanted to show up, they absolutely can, we’re just asking that they follow guidelines,” Carbajal said.

She asked that people that do attend the shows in person comply with the roped-off areas of the bleachers, stay 6 feet from other groups, and wear a mask if they can.

“We expect them to follow those same guidelines that our 4-H members and families will be following,” she said.

Allen said the event would start Friday morning at 10 a.m. with the horse show, then the dog show at 4 p.m., and end with the beef show at 6 p.m.

Saturday will begin at 8 a.m. with the swine show, followed by sheep and goats at 1 p.m. The round-robin showmanship event will be at 3 p.m.

He said Sunday at 10 a.m the small animal show featuring cats, chickens, rabbits and other similarly sized animals will be held.

Carbajal said the Hill County 4-H Chuckwagon will be closed, so the normal variety of concessions will not be available, but the events will not be free of refreshment.

“We will have the Pepsi Wagon which has a much more limited menu,” she said.

Aside from soda, she said, the Pepsi Wagon will serve simple foods like taco-in-a-bag, pretzels, nachos and other similar kinds of food.

The sale which will take place Sunday afternoon will be in person, though Allen asked that people who want to participate but are maybe uncomfortable attending call the Extension Office and they will make arrangements for a proxy bidder.

“That’s not a problem,” he said, “we can always work something out so you can buy an animal. We’re not gonna turn any buyers away, that’s for sure.”

Allen said he’s expecting the shows turn out to mostly be made up of the families of 4-H members participating in the show, but he expects the sale to draw its normal crowd.

Despite this expectation, he said, buyers, regular and first time, might not feel like they have the resources to buy an animal, so he is encouraging them to work together to make purchases if they have the opportunity.

“We know it’s been a tough year for a lot of businesses in town, farmers, ranchers, so we want them to team up more than usual” he said, “find someone to share an animal with to keep their costs down.”

He said this might attract new buyers in an otherwise challenging year.

Allen said buying from the 4-H fair has an advantage that many are looking for as beef processors become backlogged.

“There’s a lot of people looking to buy beef right now, but you can’t get it processed,” he said, “ya can’t get it in to the butcher to get it cut. Well we already have reserved spaces at the meat processers, so if you buy a 4-H animal you can get it cut up and into your freezer.”

He said because so many things are different this year due to the pandemic, Extension wants to pre-register buyers, so they know who’s going to be there for planning purposes.

Allen and Carbajal said Extension has had to put in some extra legwork getting the event running safely, and while things seem to be falling into place now, there has been a lot of adaptation needed along the way.

Allen said it has been somewhat difficult dealing with the uncertainty of everything, esspecially before the official cancellation of the Great Northern Fair and trying to anticipate if a phase change before the event is a serious possibility. But, he said, for the moment, things are going well.

“You make plans and hope everything falls into place, and it looks like it’s going to,” he said.

Carbajal said the 4-H participants have been dealing with the situation very well.

“Our 4-H community has been very resilient through that uncertainty,” she said. “They’ve been very open to going forward with the things that we need to do to make sure that we have a safe event, so we’re very happy that our 4-H community has really stepped up.”

She said making sure they’re staying within the guidelines of the governor, Hill County and Montana State University has presented an interesting challenge.

“We had to rethink the way that we do things,” Carbajal said, “… And I think there will be a lot of work when it comes time to set up for the shows.”

She said the plan for the event was approved by the Hill County Health Department with no major changes, and said the department was a pleasure to work with on the matter.

“It was actually a very smooth process,” she said.

Allen encouraged people who have questions about the event to call the Extension Office at 400-2333 and they will provide answers.