In the Cattle Barn, Late Nights and Early Mornings Lead to Frequent Naps

Finally, after five days of food, fun and frivolity, I made it over to one of my foremost fair favorites. The barns. And who’s the first person I spot: Mackenzie Brown of Hastings, lying in the straw with her head resting on the neck of a pretty brown calf.

The calf’s name is Sol, a nearly one-year-old Brown Swiss. Mackenzie, a 9th grader, has been working with the calf as part of the 4H program. She arrived at the fairgrounds last Wednesday and has been spending all day and much of the night in the barn with Sol. Hence the little catnap this afternoon.

“The last four days I think I’ve had a total of seven hours sleep,” she said.

Mackenzie and Sol will participate in the open class competition on Wednesday, where human will lead beast in a circle before judges.

“We’ll walk in a circle, then stop, and they want her to stop with one foot in front of the other. Stance is important,” she said. “And we don’t want to walk too fast, or her backbone doesn’t look straight.”
Mackenzie was very tired, so I didn’t push her with more hard-nosed journalistic queries.

Then, walking down the next aisle, I came across another tired cowpoke: Todd Pierson of Lake City. I didn’t wake him, because he looked so peaceful,napping amidst the mingling crowds and mooing dairy cattle.

I’m writing each of these items as I come across them at the fair, but I consider each to be part of a bigger whole. So you can follow along by reading all of my State Fair posts when you click here