Music.
a week away?
from the Richland County Fair, actually less than a week when we talk about getting entries in.
Joining us today, we're going to put a little spotlight on the Richland County Fair before everybody gets so busy next week.
They won't be able to talk to us.
We have fair coordinator Lyrica Marks here.
We have Tim Woodman in the studio.
He's going to be talking about next week's meat animal sale.
And we'll talk about projects with Kaylee Manning and Bristol Nielsen who are both here.
Jason Cleppy will be in to talk a little bit about the truck and tractor pull, which is happening one week from tonight at the Richland County
Here we go again.
Well, hi there.
It's your third go around here.
This is my third fair season now.
I'm very excited.
Let's talk about Crawford County Fair just completed.
How did it go?
It went very well.
Um, there were a few days I was a bit nervous with the weather.
There was some rain, but it turned out to be one of our best years yet.
So that just goes to show how much people love the county fair
attendance was good then.
Oh, very good.
We had grandstands packed every night from the Thursday night bull riding, the truck and tractor pull, the demo derby.
There was just people everywhere.
Well, that's good to hear that.
And hopefully that bodes well because your coordinator at Crawford and your Crawford in Richland as well.
And I guess what, as you look at the weekend, what excites you about the fair this year in Richland
County?
So much excites me when you look at the fair, whether it's just the community coming in and just seeing everybody bond over something so big and just like.
traditional.
But we do have, you know, all of our exhibits, all of our shows coming in.
We also have the entertainment.
We have the truck and tractor pull, which you already kind of touched on.
And then we also have the demo derby coming back.
Um, which I know is a crowd favorite, but you know, just being able to see everybody make memories and come together.
Indeed.
And so things are coming together.
Are there, are there changes this year that you'd like to talk about?
Um, nothing too big.
One of our bigger changes that I've got a lot of questions on is our website.
We are in the process of getting a new website and taking down the old one.
However, when you look us up.
It does come up to the old one still, but if you go to the Richland County government website and to departments, we are under there now.
It looks much better.
There's a picture of the cow right when you click on it.
So it's very fun and it looks nice.
Oh, that'll be good for people to know that.
We'll put them in that direction.
I know you couldn't do it without the fair board.
They're working hard for you.
Oh yeah, the fair board is actually stepping up quite a bit this year.
We are stepping back from having a lot of the county help us out and relying a lot on their fair board and they've been doing so good.
We have some new members this year, so it'll be fun to see them go through their first fair season, because I remember when it was mine, and you never really know what you're stepping into until you're there.
But it will be a lot of fun bonding, you know, all the good stuff, and it takes everybody to come together for this.
And we want to give a shout out to Sandy Campbell, who's been doing lots of work, hasn't
she?
Sandy Campbell is an amazing person, and if you know the fair, if you've been to the fair, you know Sandy.
She is one of our
longest running members, but also she has retired from the extension office and now has moved in with me full time.
Um, so every time I'm there, she's there.
She's actually running at the office right now.
So I'm very thankful for everything she does.
She's a prime example of people.
I know that they work harder in retirement than they did when they were, and they worked hard when they were working too.
So,
oh yeah, she's a tough one there.
So thank you, Sandy.
Tim Woodman is here as well.
Tim, uh, here we go again.
It's about that time of year.
It's fair season, Phil.
It doesn't feel like it, though, does it?
Well, a couple of weeks ago, we were thinking, boy, you know, like Lyric was saying earlier, with the fair being a week later, maybe we'll get them cooler temperatures.
But here we are, you know, 80s and pushing 90 and the animals aren't really liking it, but.
it's fair season yeah the extended forecast does cool down a little bit at the end of next week so we'll we'll keep thinking that's going to happen
yeah that's what we'll pray for better
for the animals right yes yes all along so some things that you'd like to talk about here today
yeah so i'm i'm here representing the meat animal sale committee um just a quick briefing on what the sale committee is um our president is Mike Huffer he's a representative of the beef Chad Imhoff is our vice president and he represents hogs
Earl Wallace is our long, long, long time secretary-treasurer.
Earl probably has more time on the sale community than anybody, and he's kind of a rock, and he represents hogs.
Like I said, I'm the rabbit representative.
Julie Porter represents poultry, and Steve Banker and Jamie Nielsen represent sheep, and then John Schweiger and Ken Anderson also represent beef.
So that's the committee.
The purpose of the committee is we put on the sale, we raise funds to give back to 4H and 1.5FA members, excuse me, that exhibit and sell a meat animal at the Richardson County Fair.
So that could be in the form of scholarships.
This year, we were able to increase our scholarship number from $500 a scholarship to $750 a scholarship.
And we gave those scholarships out to seven different 4H and FFA members throughout the county from different schools.
We only charge a 2% commission on the sale of all animals.
So that's dropped.
We've done very well with the tremendous support of the community.
So we've dropped that recently from 5% down to 2%.
We've also put back thousands of dollars into different renovations in the livestock buildings at the fair, anything from electrical upgrades to wash racks to whatever needs done in the barns.
We'll step forward and help out with that.
If you've ever been to the sale, it's a great time.
It's a great way to support the 4-H and FFA members of the county.
We have a little bit of a change this year with the sale.
And that being, we are going to sell Briggs Maxwell's hog towards the beginning of the sale.
And most of you know that Briggs is an Ithaca student who recently lost his life due to a farming accident.
We continue to send out prayers to the Maxwell and Nelson families.
But we're gonna do this in the golden gallon format.
So if you've ever been to the sale,
When the golden gallon sells, it's basically anybody can raise their card and bid and throw out a number.
We just want to be able to support Briggs and the Maxwell and Nelson families as much as possible.
So we are going to sell that pig towards the beginning of the sale and there will be no commission charged on that animal.
Um,
that's awesome that you guys did that.
So you got together as a group and kind of decided how to handle
that.
Yeah.
And I got to give a special shout out to Jeff Munson on that.
Uh, Jeff has kind of been spearheading this.
He's, uh, you know, he's, if anybody knows Jeff, he raises hogs and he's, he's helped a lot of the, the kids that show hogs at the fair over the years.
And, and, um, he's, he's been kind of helping get that going and, and, uh, try to, you know, get different ideas and how we can, how we can proceed with this.
Um, cause you know,
We just wanted to make sure that, you know, was in the family's interest.
They wanted to have Briggs's hog at the fair.
And we want to, you know, do the best we can for him.
So that, that was great that Jeff stepped up and kind of spearheaded this and we're going to, we're going to get it done for, for Briggs.
Awesome.
And that'll be
right away.
The meat animal sales start at the same time as always.
Yeah.
So the meat animal sale registration starts at four and get there, get signed up.
And then we also have a buyer's appreciation meal at the sale.
And if you've attended before, you know what I'm talking about.
Steve Banker makes just the best pork and all the trimmings, and it's great to get there, get signed up, grab some food, socialize with people you might have not seen over the last year, and then get ready for the sale, which starts at five.
And we'll start at five o'clock with what you usually do, the national anthem.
and then we'll go into some small items.
We usually have some gift baskets donated by area businesses and then we'll go into the sale.
So that's kind of how the layout is there.
And indeed in which animals will you be selling first then this year?
Cause I know you kind of rotate there.
You know, out of all the notes I put on here, that's one thing I forgot to put
down.
I knew I could stump you.
And we just talked about it at our last sale committee meeting.
So I'm not a hundred percent sure.
I want to say it.
It's possibly beef this year goes first.
Um, I could be wrong.
I'm sure Mike Huffer's sitting there going, no,
no, no, no, no.
We'll find out.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So
great.
Right, so the meat animal sale is then a lot of preparation goes into that and you just need buyers, don't
you?
Just need buyers and I'll tell you what, I get to a lot of different county fairs because I do judge rabbits at other county fairs and I can be a little bit biased but I see the support.
There's a lot of great counties around but
when it comes down to it, Richland County truly has some of the best support out there.
For sure.
Well, and you think about all that you give back to the community, how important it is, and not only for scholarships, but upkeep.
And it's important to keep this fair going for people like these two over here, Kaylee and Bristol.
Oh, absolutely.
I mean, some of the best memories.
you know as a kid growing up is county fair and just the experiences, the relationships, the life lessons that you learn being a 4-H and FFA member.
I still tell people to this day 4-H and FFA are two of the best youth organizations that kids can be involved in.
There's just so many great lessons and you know
just a lot of good comes out of these two programs.
Where did you gain your expertise in rabbits?
Well just as a child growing up was introduced to showing rabbits and raising rabbits and so I guess my dad, my dad got me going in that and just started in 4-H and as I got older I branched out to state shows and national shows and then became a judge so
just kind of the apple didn't fall too far from the tree.
And Richland
County is well represented because if you go over into that area there's a lot of rabbits in those
places.
Oh yeah, we've got a lot of kids that show at our county and I'm sure Bristol and Kaylee will say in their species too that a lot of kids from our county just don't show at County Fair.
They'll go to the state shows, they go to the national shows, they're all over the place so the kids that are involved in our fair are very active
outside of the county as well.
Well traveled rabbits then.
Yeah.
Kayleigh is here as well.
Kayleigh Manning.
Do we have to give you a pass to get you out of study hall to be here today?
Yeah, kind
of.
Well, good morning.
You're into your senior year at Ithaca.
Yeah.
Yes.
And the time has gone by fast.
Oh yeah.
Tell us a little bit about your project this
year.
Well, so this year at County Fair, I'm going to be bringing two steers, so two market steers.
And I will, you can sell one, so I'll be selling one market steer.
And that animal is one that I think I purchased back last October and I've worked with it till now.
So it's a year plus long project that you work with.
And I'm also bringing a homegrown animal, which is something that's like really special to me because that's one that we've raised and we've had it since it was a calf and we've helped pull the calves.
And you know, it's just something special to me to be able to bring my own.
my own cows to the county fair and to be like, yeah, I've raised that one and something you can't beat.
That's awesome.
And any idea, I mean, if you ever wrote down the number of hours that you spend.
Well, so for FFA, I do a beef SAE thing, a production thing.
And it's a lot.
I don't think people realize how much it is until you like look at it.
You look at feeding, washing, you know, any like,
going to these extra shows, like how many hours you will put in a week with these cattle.
I mean, my goal, I rinse them in the morning and then I can leave early from school.
So I go home and rinse them in the afternoon and then I wash them after practice.
So it's, I mean, just thinking probably about an hour each and at night I like to blow dry.
So that's another hour.
And it's just probably right now, like an average of four hours a day.
just with that steer.
Crazy.
These these animals don't know how pampered they
are.
How did you do it at State Fair?
In my performance class I ended up getting second and then the rest of the week was a little bit rough but I think the getting second in the performance which is like a live carcass show kind of is how we describe it was probably the highlight I've never gotten second before and just being able to bring a steer there and so
That also goes into the aspect of the meat part, you know, what I'm selling my animal for it.
If they're saying it looks good, hopefully it ends up doing good at the sale, which is my main goal.
Cause all the money that I get goes back into my college.
Right.
And what about college?
Have you made a decision yet?
Well, I'm planning on applying to UW-Platteville.
I'm taking college classes through UW-Platteville now.
And then I want to go and do pre-vet and,
animal science and hopefully one day become a veterinarian.
It's been a lifelong dream since probably sixth grade.
I've watched my first ever show heifer had to have a C-section and I think that really just opened my eyes and I'm like this is what I want to do and then I kept working and I've always had an influence with cattle since I was born.
I mean with the Manning Farm and then our own intermediate family.
We've always had a herd of cattle and it's just
It's always been something I want to continue to do.
That's amazing because we need good people in that field, that's for sure.
And in terms of this year, talking about the fair, the state level, and then here, what do you get more nervous for?
Because there's a big stage at Milwaukee or West Alice, but then also more people probably know you back
here.
I don't know.
I try not to get nervous because I'm my animals nervous and I'm more of a, I guess I would say I'm a really nervous person in general, but I feel going out in the state level for me this year was more nerve wracking because my steer had never been to a show before.
So it was making sure he was calm and not trying to run me over.
And I mean, it went really well for the most part.
I try not to get nervous, but you're right.
Being here in Richland County, there's a lot of people that know you.
I don't want to say, like, impressed, but you want to impress everyone, and be like, oh, this is my steer, you know?
so
take us through then next week the week of the fair then do you do anything special getting ready
awful so monday i will clip my homegrown steer because he will be a slick steer so that means the hair can only be two inches so he'll get slicked on monday i'm pretty sure either monday or today i'm not whenever i feel like it and then um monday and tuesday they'll get washed and rinsed
and then we'll get my other steer clipped up, and then Wednesday we'll take in-steers around afternoon, and then Thursday is the Heifer show, which I won't be taking a Heifer, but my little brother will be taking a little bottle calf that we had this year that tried to die on us twice, and she's the sweetest little thing ever.
So he'll be taking her and showing, but I'll still be going there in the morning to feed, rinse, dry so my steers look good throughout the day because I'll have a volleyball game that night so I won't be able to be there at night.
And then Friday will be the steer show for me, so I'll show twice.
with both my steers and, you know, I'll be there all day again because the wash, the rinse, the preparing for the show.
And then we do showmanship after and then Saturday we'll have the sale.
But it's kind of nice to be there all day because a lot of the little kids go through and typically we do like an educational thing to get them to learn more about beef and other species like that.
And then we have to get all our pens ready for when buyers walk through and then the sale.
And then Sunday is takedown day and
I mean, it sounds like it's a lot, but it truly goes by so quick and you blink and it feels like it's over.
Very true.
Is this going to be your last Richland County Fair?
Do you think you're going to come back
next year?
I'm hoping to come back next year.
I did not have any steers this year from my herd personally, so I'll have to figure that out.
But I would like to continue to show as long as I can.
It might be hard with going to Platteville, but I know I have a good support system that'll help me.
get a steer ready if I really want to go.
Sure.
They probably only keep a steer in your dorm.
Join us as well as Bristol Nielsen.
Bristol, good morning.
Morning.
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
So I'm bringing five sheep to the county fair and one dairy steer.
They are four of them I raised by myself and one I brought from, bought from Southern Illinois.
And I have two weathers and
three U's and one steer.
Are they all named?
Yes.
One is Magnus, Ricky, Raven, Nora, and Hank.
Hank, that's good.
Putting you on the spot a little bit here.
So any idea how many hours that you spend with all
of those hours?
I usually spend most of my time with my weather.
He's such a sweet boy.
I really don't know.
I spend a lot of time with him.
Mostly I really like to spend my time growing his leg hair.
It's a really popular trend.
Think about like you have trends in the industry with like your clothes or anything like that.
You really want your leg wool like big and fluffy and all that.
You really want to get that leg wool big and it like makes the legs look bigger than they
So you really want to get that leg will big And so I really like to spend my time rinsing those legs getting them clean Putting product in those legs to get them really conditioned and wrap those legs So he doesn't chew the leg will off.
So I really do that every other day to Like I said, um Get his legs clean.
So I would say like maybe 15 hours a week
That's crazy.
So you mentioned that it's kind of an industry trend to kind of focus on the legs a little bit more.
Yeah, definitely.
I have with my you also, she is from one of my use that I showed last year.
And I, she has pretty big leg wall as well.
I don't do her as much as I do my weather.
I showed my weather at Stay Fair.
So I worked with him more.
but she also has pretty big like as well.
So you're involved in this.
It seems like a full time deal.
Do you bring any other projects to the fair?
Um, my dairy steer, I used to be involved in the beef, but I didn't really like it as much as the sheep.
It's a lot of irons in the fire, isn't it?
Yeah.
Let's talk about this, this warm weather.
How are the sheep handling that?
It's really hard to keep them cool.
All my mamas, they have a whole bunch of wool.
It's really hard to keep them cool.
I have like seven fans on them in the barn.
So it's full time kind of worrying about them too,
isn't it?
Yeah, it's very hard.
Right.
So what are your favorite subjects in school?
Um, probably ag.
I'm not surprised.
It's a long ways off.
Have you thought about a career?
Um, probably ag business.
Good for you.
So, and you're, you're hoping to, to do well.
Uh, do you, is it bittersweet at fair time, knowing that you're going to part with some of these, uh, these animals?
Yeah.
I'm probably going to sell my dairy steer.
I'm taking my weather to American Royal.
It's one of the biggest shows in the country.
And I hope to do good, really good.
Where's that show at?
Kansas city.
Wow.
That's a long trip.
Yeah.
So again, I asked Kaylee this too, but do you get nervous for the county fair aspect or
sometimes like she said it's Nervous wrecking to know that some of your friends are watching you and some of your family members are watching you hoping you do good and also like Knowing some of your community members.
Hope you do good as well
Kaylee mentioned that the animal can sometimes tell if you're nervous.
Do you find that with with sheep?
Yeah, they have pretty good senses that
So I hope they don't notice that I'm nervous, but also I just try to calm myself down.
Well, good luck.
I hope you do well at the fair.
Thank you.
And Kayla, I didn't ask you what are the names of your steers.
So I'm just curious.
Um, my steer that I bought for Monica Kirschner, his name is Willie.
He's a red short horn steer.
And then, um, my homegrown steer is named Duke and he's a tan crossbred knees.
So
look for William Duke at the Richland County Fair.
Tim, anything that you want to add this morning?
Yeah, I just I got a message here.
Mike sent me a message on the sale order.
So our sale order this year is lambs, goats, poultry, beef, golden gallon,
rabbits and then swine and then like I said that rotates every year but that's that's the order for this year.
Thank you Mike.
Yeah thanks
Mike for bailing us out there.
That's good stuff.
Lyrica you can always look for volunteers for the fair.
Yes we are still looking for more volunteers like I said we are really relying on a lot of people this year.
One of our fair board members actually suffered an injury Gary Dever sadly and he is pushing he is really wanting to get right back out there but
as of this year he's going to be around but we are still looking for people to help with garbage with gates and they're welcome to contact me uh... if they're interested at all
okay and uh... as far as uh... the the order of business next week uh... you
know when
does everything really get started
everything gets started
as soon as Tuesday Labor Day and then Tuesday, we will be setting up the fairgrounds as soon as we can.
But for entries, we have the photography, flowers, all of those fun departments coming on Tuesday evening because they will be starting to get judged at bright and early Wednesday morning at 9 a.m.
Otherwise, the animals, we do have all of them coming in on Wednesday as well, where Dr. Christine will check them that evening with her wonderful team.
And then you still have some entry fee, not entry fee, entry tags,
right?
We do still have some entry tags.
Sometimes people wait until the day of to pick them up.
They are welcome to come and pick them up now if they want though and save some time later when they are checking in.
They are at the office available.
And the office will be open again today.
It will be open again today, at least until five PM.
Sure.
And the fair is later this year.
And then of course labor day.
So, you know, don't let that kind of catch up on you and fully a little bit.
Yeah.
No, it is the weekend after labor day every year.
Um, and like we said, the weather this year is much warmer than in years past, ironically enough.
Right.
Good.
Well, here's to a good fair Lyrica and we'll be in touch with you as well.
Tim.
Good luck this year.
Yeah, thanks for everything you do, Phil.
Yeah, no problem.
We'll be out there talking to some more of the kids and some of the 4-H.
You know, Karleen Craddock has lined up some really good guests here, so we look forward to that.
And Kaylee, memories of the fair?
Anything that you can recall when you were a youngster?
Any
favorite things?
Oh, I think some of my favorite memories are being with my friends like late night in the barn, you know.
Sometimes when we're done, it's like 9, 10 o'clock and
Obviously the derby is still going on so we just like to wander and I think that's one of my favorite memories is just being with my friends or playing football in the pig show pen or you know and getting shavings all over but I think that's just one of my favorite memories just being with my friends and messing
around.
Yeah and that you know you bring up a lot of points a lot of people out there listening can relate to that because they did the same thing when they were young I'm sure.
What about you?
I'm just making more friends than I would because I'm not in my school and just being able to show my animals and showcase them to the whole county.
Where's the best place to get food other than the 4-H stand?
They have baked potatoes, but what about any other favorites?
Oh, the beef producer stand.
Oh, that's a good one.
Good call.
Bristol.
The beef producer stand.
Yeah, I think so too.
Steak sandwich.
All right.
Thanks for coming in today.
Thank you.
Good luck at the fair.
Kayleigh Manning, Bristol Nielsen joining us and also Lyrica Marks, fair coordinator and Tim Woodman, who is the rabbit guru and he's talking about the meat animal sale here.
Coming up, speaking of gurus, he's got a lot of pull.
Jason Kleppy is coming up next.
On this portion of the morning show, we have Jason Cluppy in the studio to talk about upcoming tractor pull and kind of the end of the last month of the season here.
So let's tell us a little bit about the upcoming pull at the Richland County Fair,
Jason.
Richland County Fair on the Friday night, September 11th, Southwest pullers will be coming in with our show and putting on the event that night.
That'll be towards the lineup at the end of our season and going into the points races where everybody is getting tight.
They'll be bringing in the 10 classes.
There'll also be two other classes that we will be adding that night for some local people to be a street stock right off the street, diesel truck class.
None of the guys that pull in the club can enter in that class.
It's just people that are from off the street.
They can come in from the gate and they can pull their truck and then we will be having a
12,500 pound farm class for guys to run in.
Also where the club members cannot pull in that.
It's just guys that around the area, if they want to come pull their tractor that don't go pull these groups that we run with all the time can come in and pull and enjoy the fair.
Hopefully
that's kind of exciting as cause you kind of have all levels of pullers, don't you?
Yes, we will.
We'll have a, you know, there'll be stuff from past farm stock classes all the way up to the class like I run and the diesel truck classes where we'll be hitting speeds close to 30 mile an hour going down the track.
So you mentioned it's getting down there for the point season.
There's a little bit more meaning behind some of these polls, right?
Yes, it gets a lot more meaningful now and, you know, making things count and making a good, good A to B pass down the track.
And, you know, it's, uh, some of the classes are really tight points races.
Um, there's some that are, there's the leaders are out there pretty good, but it's, there's all the points count right now and making good, good hooks going down the track for everybody.
Seems like there's an event nearly every weekend
during the summer and the fall.
Is that the
case?
Yes, we, we do a lot of running.
Um, we travel a lot, you know, this past weekend we were in Gays Mills in Highland.
Um, you know, in this following come up coming weekend, we'll be in, we go to mineral point, Wisconsin with a tri-state truck and tractor pullers and then Southwest pullers will be in Kendall Friday night and we go to Brooklyn, Wisconsin and then bring the rich and center.
So it's, it's a lot of running and gunning and
and making sure if, you know, the only way you get in these points races, you got to make all these polls.
So they have a lot of the regulars.
Do you have people coming in from quite a ways
away for these polls?
We will have Delby guys coming.
We got guys that, um, for instance, in my class, I got a guy, a real good friend of mine.
He comes from Milledgeville, Illinois, and he runs with our club just cause he likes running with our club.
He likes the guys that he pulls with.
And so, I mean, he's, he's got just a rich and center three, three and a half hours.
And sometimes we go from here, another two, he'll meet me a lot and we travel from here two to three hours sometimes.
So when I think I'm tired and I get home, he's got another three hour drive ahead of him.
So I mean, and the diesel truck guys will get a, they'll get a really good turnout of guys that come from all over
the state too.
How much work goes into it?
Uh, you know, kind of behind the scenes in the weeks leading up to it.
Uh, are you, are you wrenching on them quite often or not?
Hopefully you're not.
Hopefully you're not now and there's a lot of maintenance that goes with it.
Um, you know, you check things over every week, you know, with technology and everything in today's day and age, you know, on my tractor loan, I got a computer on there that I can, I read cylinder temps.
I can, you know, everything, how everything's working fuel pressures, oil pressures.
So I can go back through that and see, and if something's not normal, then I know I got to start looking things over or stuff like that, you know, routinely oil changes, you know, and stuff like that.
But.
with technology also comes more things you got to concentrate on or you don't think about before that you know so it's it can be a maintenance thing it's basically if you keep up on your maintenance and things go well and hopefully you don't have any major breakdowns you've got major breakdowns then you have you could have some busy time ahead of you to keep going in the points race.
It's going to get one of those computers for my super C, you know, to check the valves.
I bet we could make it.
I bet we can figure something out and get a hold of the guy at back 40 and he'll make it happen.
It's amazing what you do.
A lot of times, you know, the bodies are like the older tractors, but you've got, you know, brand new engines in a lot of them, right?
Yup.
Yup.
Yup.
That's for sure.
Yeah.
What, what type of tractor is your favorite then?
Which one do you pull with usually?
I got an international that I pull and that has a DT 466 motor in it.
Um, I can say I'm, I'm not.
Partial partial to the international, but the international seems to be it was the way to go for us and we farm with John Deere and international and it's To me there's a lot more readily parts out there available and you know, it's just maybe that's my feeling but Everybody has their kindly like and
that's just where we landed Absolutely this I know you pull all over the place But the one at the Richland County Fair is near and dear to you.
Isn't it Jason?
It's very near
and dear to me.
You know, I uh
I ran this pole for 17 years and I stepped away as the kids got older and sporting events and now the kids keep getting older and uh there it allows me to have more time and you know they didn't have a tractor pole to fair last year and I really it kind of hit me pretty hard I'm like we got to do something here and we got to get in and I met with the fairboard and I'm back on board to run the tractor pole again so it's it is near and dear to me because I think
I think back when I was a kid and it was always the Richland County Fair was a huge big deal to me.
We look forward to it all year long.
You go to the tractor pole or even the rides or whatever, you know, and it showed how rich we were in community and stuff like that.
And I think we really need to get back to that.
And people need to know what goes on at the fair and what goes on in our community.
Yeah, very true.
I think when I was growing up, I want to say the tractor pulled us on Thursday night, maybe at least the farm classes, because you go out there and see somebody that you knew, you know, coming right out of the field with them.
Absolutely.
It was Thursday night because I remember we never had school on Fridays and we, and entry day was always Thursday of the fair.
And it was, it was a hurry to get the cattle to the fair.
And if we were going to pull the tractor, we drove the tractor to the pulled fair then, you know, um, yeah, it was a big deal that in, yeah.
And that's when I started doing this.
Um, I try, I, I wanted to go back to addition and we did Thursday night and we did Thursday Friday nights and it just, we, but it's just landed where it works better Friday night for the club.
Um, I know we'd conflict with football games and stuff like that, but it's, it's just how it's going to have to work.
Yeah.
And I think you gotta, you know, for the most of the people that are coming in here, uh, you got to do it when you can get the most people in here, right?
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
And so it'll be a entry gate fee, but then is there extra money to pay to get into the grandstand?
So you'll pay a gate fee to come in as $5 to get into the gate and get into the grounds and the fairgrounds.
Um, the grandstand to get into is another $5.
Um, if you want to come into the pits, which you're welcome to come into the pits, you can come in, sit in the pits, get right down by the action, walk around the polling vehicles and look at them.
It's $15 to get into the pits.
that's pretty good deal though
it is awesome deal you know and you can get around you can walk around you can still go in and enjoy the fare if you want so you want to come out early and look around and look at the vehicles you know and these guys are good about letting people look at their stuff and say you got a young kid you want to sit on a tractor or something like that squip and ask them and they're going to say hey absolutely you want to get a picture that way or that these guys they love having people come look at their equipment and explain it
You pull at some other county fairs as well during the year and are they all kind of similar then?
Very similar, yeah.
A lot of it's similar where we go and you know people come around and walk around and a lot of times it's always you usually pay a little more to get into the pit entrance and see the vehicles than what you would normally to sit in the grandstand but that's you know it's everybody's cup of tea and I think a lot of people enjoy being closer to the action than being further away
too.
Yeah, very true.
Um, and then let's talk about the, the season.
We talked about it being maybe a month now as you get into the final weeks of this, where some other places you're going to be pulling Jason.
So after the Richmond County fair, we'll, we'll have a week off and then we will actually be at some of the classes with Southwest Polars will be at the Viola host called show, not all of them, but some of them.
Um, and then our final wrap up will be on October 3rd.
That's where all the points champions will be decided up in Hillsborough fireman's park.
And rain or shine usually, right?
Hopefully not rain.
Well, as long as we don't get too much rain, you know, it's sometimes I can detour it and you get, you can't build the track and then you're done.
But yeah, normally it's, yeah, clouds don't stop us.
I prefer that.
Yeah,
sure.
Cooler than wrong.
Right.
And then at the fair, maybe there's some people you'd like to thank because it does, it does take a lot to get the track
ready.
It does take a lot.
And I wouldn't be able to do it all myself.
And I do got some tremendous support, you know, on Randy Olson and Logan Olson.
They've ever since I ever started doing this stuff at the fair have always supported me huge Anything I asked they're always there and you know, I get we got different equipment I got Farner there I get a water truck from and they bring me a roller Slammy equipment Don slum up at Hillsboro is very good about donating equipment and
Jim here at Simpsons, Johnson Tractor, they've donated.
I got Matthews Farms bringing the tillage equipment down.
Troxel Farms has helped me with stuff too.
Huff Nelson Farms, they're very good about helping with equipment and helping whatever I need.
And Kevin Jasper, I can't forget old Kevin over there.
He's always whatever you need from Kevin.
And when it's all said and done, you know, we got to top these fuel tanks off on this stuff and everything, Vesbac Oil and Verroqua, they donate fuel to keep everything filled up when we take it back.
Now that's awesome.
It takes kind of an army to put this on, doesn't it?
Yes, it does.
And you know, I got the whole crew.
I, it was really surprised, you know, you know, when I started making phone calls in February, before I went to the fairboard, I wanted to make sure I had people that was going to help me do this.
And, and they're all like, Oh yeah, we'll come help you.
You
know,
on site gets, they're different.
They're genuine people that help, you know, and you find out in a hurry that they care about their community too.
Yeah, well, and hopefully it's a start.
Again, you want to kind of try to get the fair back to where it used to be, and this is a start, isn't
it?
Yeah, absolutely.
You know, and that's where I want to encourage people to come out to the fair and see what goes on in our community, see what these kids are doing, you know, and to keep this fair.
I think a fair is an important part of a young child's life and see what goes on in family time, you know, and just
Just like any fairs, they're all, they're all struggling to survive.
You know, the money is just not out there like it was, but we got to support it.
You know, and like I said, it's, let's be part of the solution, not part of the
problem.
I heard from some of the 4-H years that numbers, in fact, Carleen Craddock told me the numbers in 4-H original County are up this year.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I see it a lot.
My daughter shows cattle and the, the barns will be full.
And you know, and it's, you know, it ain't like it was when I was a kid, you know, it was a,
The dairy barns, they didn't have enough room to put all the dairy cattle, but the dairy industry has shifted to a different, you know, but a lot of these same families that had these dairy farms, they still are showing.
They're just showing a different animal or a different species, you know, um, but it's, it's still, you've got the same.
Group core.
I mean he goes back a lot of tradition a lot of history You know family names and that stuff you can see at that county fair if you look on stuff for over the years
you bet and the dairy Jody was in Jody Cornell and they're having a display about all the history of Richland County dairy That's gonna be on display too, but see a lot of names and pictures of people from the past
It's that's awesome to see and that's people need to see that you know come out and look at that and appreciate what we got in this county and Let's let's make it better
Is there some
big money involved for some of the pullers on Friday night?
Well, there will be one class with a two six diesel truck class that night will have a shootout.
Southwest pullers puts this on, they got a traveling trophy and they picked the community where the event we're going to have it at every year and it's usually towards the end of the year and they
I when I decided I was gonna do this and I'm part of the board with Southwest Polars I said to the guys I said I really like do this in Richmond Center You know we have the parking we have the you know the event area to do it and they're like yeah, let's do it and so these guys will get the two six competitors from all over the state It's a hundred dollar entry fee for them guys, but it's a thousand dollars to win and it's broke down through that and They they they'll show up
be probably 20 plus trucks in that class that night, I would say.
So it starts at 630 that
night.
630 registration will close that night at six.
Probably goes until what, 1030?
I would like to be done by 10, 1030.
That's my goal.
So it's not past your bedtime?
No,
that's my goal because you generally see that with any tractor pull we go to a three and a half hour show, you get much over that, you start to lose your crowd and
people get tired, you know, you can sit so long and they're ready to go home.
Somebody's interested in any aspect.
How can they get a hold of you, Jason?
Um, anybody can get a hold of me.
They can call me.
Um, my phone number is 608-604-5803.
Um, get a hold of me and anything, any question, don't be afraid to call and ask.
Um, and we'll answer them and go with that from now on.
So, and I also, I want to contribute.
I had a,
Persons come up and they donated their title sponsor to we got two big sponsors, but Heather Clark She was Heather Paul.
She grew up in Richland Center and her husband Dan they own a diesel shop in bluit was there living bluit now and They are they come on as a title sponsor for this event and they really stepped up and really made a lot of this possible she goes I
favorite place bowls the rich and county fair and I want to see this happen and Jason Schultz was sold Schultz mortgage to you know he contributed a ton to help this happen and amongst all their sponsors so I just I gotta give them guys credit because they really stepped up and when I said I was gonna do it they came right to the
front and soul.
Yeah.
Well, I appreciate it.
Appreciate what you're doing too.
You know, bringing it back to the community and kind of trying to perk things up there again on Friday night.
So Jason, good luck to you during the fall.
Thank you, Phil.
And thanks
to
all
you guys for everything you do here at WRC.
It's truly appreciated.
You bet.
Jason Cleppy joining us again, the truck and tractor pull at the Richland County Fair Friday, September 11th, getting underway at 6 30.
Music.
a week away?
from the Richland County Fair, actually less than a week when we talk about getting entries in.
Joining us today, we're going to put a little spotlight on the Richland County Fair before everybody gets so busy next week.
They won't be able to talk to us.
We have fair coordinator Lyrica Marks here.
We have Tim Woodman in the studio.
He's going to be talking about next week's meat animal sale.
And we'll talk about projects with Kaylee Manning and Bristol Nielsen who are both here.
Jason Cleppy will be in to talk a little bit about the truck and tractor pull, which is happening one week from tonight at the Richland County
Here we go again.
Well, hi there.
It's your third go around here.
This is my third fair season now.
I'm very excited.
Let's talk about Crawford County Fair just completed.
How did it go?
It went very well.
Um, there were a few days I was a bit nervous with the weather.
There was some rain, but it turned out to be one of our best years yet.
So that just goes to show how much people love the county fair
attendance was good then.
Oh, very good.
We had grandstands packed every night from the Thursday night bull riding, the truck and tractor pull, the demo derby.
There was just people everywhere.
Well, that's good to hear that.
And hopefully that bodes well because your coordinator at Crawford and your Crawford in Richland as well.
And I guess what, as you look at the weekend, what excites you about the fair this year in Richland
County?
So much excites me when you look at the fair, whether it's just the community coming in and just seeing everybody bond over something so big and just like.
traditional.
But we do have, you know, all of our exhibits, all of our shows coming in.
We also have the entertainment.
We have the truck and tractor pull, which you already kind of touched on.
And then we also have the demo derby coming back.
Um, which I know is a crowd favorite, but you know, just being able to see everybody make memories and come together.
Indeed.
And so things are coming together.
Are there, are there changes this year that you'd like to talk about?
Um, nothing too big.
One of our bigger changes that I've got a lot of questions on is our website.
We are in the process of getting a new website and taking down the old one.
However, when you look us up.
It does come up to the old one still, but if you go to the Richland County government website and to departments, we are under there now.
It looks much better.
There's a picture of the cow right when you click on it.
So it's very fun and it looks nice.
Oh, that'll be good for people to know that.
We'll put them in that direction.
I know you couldn't do it without the fair board.
They're working hard for you.
Oh yeah, the fair board is actually stepping up quite a bit this year.
We are stepping back from having a lot of the county help us out and relying a lot on their fair board and they've been doing so good.
We have some new members this year, so it'll be fun to see them go through their first fair season, because I remember when it was mine, and you never really know what you're stepping into until you're there.
But it will be a lot of fun bonding, you know, all the good stuff, and it takes everybody to come together for this.
And we want to give a shout out to Sandy Campbell, who's been doing lots of work, hasn't
she?
Sandy Campbell is an amazing person, and if you know the fair, if you've been to the fair, you know Sandy.
She is one of our
longest running members, but also she has retired from the extension office and now has moved in with me full time.
Um, so every time I'm there, she's there.
She's actually running at the office right now.
So I'm very thankful for everything she does.
She's a prime example of people.
I know that they work harder in retirement than they did when they were, and they worked hard when they were working too.
So,
oh yeah, she's a tough one there.
So thank you, Sandy.
Tim Woodman is here as well.
Tim, uh, here we go again.
It's about that time of year.
It's fair season, Phil.
It doesn't feel like it, though, does it?
Well, a couple of weeks ago, we were thinking, boy, you know, like Lyric was saying earlier, with the fair being a week later, maybe we'll get them cooler temperatures.
But here we are, you know, 80s and pushing 90 and the animals aren't really liking it, but.
it's fair season yeah the extended forecast does cool down a little bit at the end of next week so we'll we'll keep thinking that's going to happen
yeah that's what we'll pray for better
for the animals right yes yes all along so some things that you'd like to talk about here today
yeah so i'm i'm here representing the meat animal sale committee um just a quick briefing on what the sale committee is um our president is Mike Huffer he's a representative of the beef Chad Imhoff is our vice president and he represents hogs
Earl Wallace is our long, long, long time secretary-treasurer.
Earl probably has more time on the sale community than anybody, and he's kind of a rock, and he represents hogs.
Like I said, I'm the rabbit representative.
Julie Porter represents poultry, and Steve Banker and Jamie Nielsen represent sheep, and then John Schweiger and Ken Anderson also represent beef.
So that's the committee.
The purpose of the committee is we put on the sale, we raise funds to give back to 4H and 1.5FA members, excuse me, that exhibit and sell a meat animal at the Richardson County Fair.
So that could be in the form of scholarships.
This year, we were able to increase our scholarship number from $500 a scholarship to $750 a scholarship.
And we gave those scholarships out to seven different 4H and FFA members throughout the county from different schools.
We only charge a 2% commission on the sale of all animals.
So that's dropped.
We've done very well with the tremendous support of the community.
So we've dropped that recently from 5% down to 2%.
We've also put back thousands of dollars into different renovations in the livestock buildings at the fair, anything from electrical upgrades to wash racks to whatever needs done in the barns.
We'll step forward and help out with that.
If you've ever been to the sale, it's a great time.
It's a great way to support the 4-H and FFA members of the county.
We have a little bit of a change this year with the sale.
And that being, we are going to sell Briggs Maxwell's hog towards the beginning of the sale.
And most of you know that Briggs is an Ithaca student who recently lost his life due to a farming accident.
We continue to send out prayers to the Maxwell and Nelson families.
But we're gonna do this in the golden gallon format.
So if you've ever been to the sale,
When the golden gallon sells, it's basically anybody can raise their card and bid and throw out a number.
We just want to be able to support Briggs and the Maxwell and Nelson families as much as possible.
So we are going to sell that pig towards the beginning of the sale and there will be no commission charged on that animal.
Um,
that's awesome that you guys did that.
So you got together as a group and kind of decided how to handle
that.
Yeah.
And I got to give a special shout out to Jeff Munson on that.
Uh, Jeff has kind of been spearheading this.
He's, uh, you know, he's, if anybody knows Jeff, he raises hogs and he's, he's helped a lot of the, the kids that show hogs at the fair over the years.
And, and, um, he's, he's been kind of helping get that going and, and, uh, try to, you know, get different ideas and how we can, how we can proceed with this.
Um, cause you know,
We just wanted to make sure that, you know, was in the family's interest.
They wanted to have Briggs's hog at the fair.
And we want to, you know, do the best we can for him.
So that, that was great that Jeff stepped up and kind of spearheaded this and we're going to, we're going to get it done for, for Briggs.
Awesome.
And that'll be
right away.
The meat animal sales start at the same time as always.
Yeah.
So the meat animal sale registration starts at four and get there, get signed up.
And then we also have a buyer's appreciation meal at the sale.
And if you've attended before, you know what I'm talking about.
Steve Banker makes just the best pork and all the trimmings, and it's great to get there, get signed up, grab some food, socialize with people you might have not seen over the last year, and then get ready for the sale, which starts at five.
And we'll start at five o'clock with what you usually do, the national anthem.
and then we'll go into some small items.
We usually have some gift baskets donated by area businesses and then we'll go into the sale.
So that's kind of how the layout is there.
And indeed in which animals will you be selling first then this year?
Cause I know you kind of rotate there.
You know, out of all the notes I put on here, that's one thing I forgot to put
down.
I knew I could stump you.
And we just talked about it at our last sale committee meeting.
So I'm not a hundred percent sure.
I want to say it.
It's possibly beef this year goes first.
Um, I could be wrong.
I'm sure Mike Huffer's sitting there going, no,
no, no, no, no.
We'll find out.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So
great.
Right, so the meat animal sale is then a lot of preparation goes into that and you just need buyers, don't
you?
Just need buyers and I'll tell you what, I get to a lot of different county fairs because I do judge rabbits at other county fairs and I can be a little bit biased but I see the support.
There's a lot of great counties around but
when it comes down to it, Richland County truly has some of the best support out there.
For sure.
Well, and you think about all that you give back to the community, how important it is, and not only for scholarships, but upkeep.
And it's important to keep this fair going for people like these two over here, Kaylee and Bristol.
Oh, absolutely.
I mean, some of the best memories.
you know as a kid growing up is county fair and just the experiences, the relationships, the life lessons that you learn being a 4-H and FFA member.
I still tell people to this day 4-H and FFA are two of the best youth organizations that kids can be involved in.
There's just so many great lessons and you know
just a lot of good comes out of these two programs.
Where did you gain your expertise in rabbits?
Well just as a child growing up was introduced to showing rabbits and raising rabbits and so I guess my dad, my dad got me going in that and just started in 4-H and as I got older I branched out to state shows and national shows and then became a judge so
just kind of the apple didn't fall too far from the tree.
And Richland
County is well represented because if you go over into that area there's a lot of rabbits in those
places.
Oh yeah, we've got a lot of kids that show at our county and I'm sure Bristol and Kaylee will say in their species too that a lot of kids from our county just don't show at County Fair.
They'll go to the state shows, they go to the national shows, they're all over the place so the kids that are involved in our fair are very active
outside of the county as well.
Well traveled rabbits then.
Yeah.
Kayleigh is here as well.
Kayleigh Manning.
Do we have to give you a pass to get you out of study hall to be here today?
Yeah, kind
of.
Well, good morning.
You're into your senior year at Ithaca.
Yeah.
Yes.
And the time has gone by fast.
Oh yeah.
Tell us a little bit about your project this
year.
Well, so this year at County Fair, I'm going to be bringing two steers, so two market steers.
And I will, you can sell one, so I'll be selling one market steer.
And that animal is one that I think I purchased back last October and I've worked with it till now.
So it's a year plus long project that you work with.
And I'm also bringing a homegrown animal, which is something that's like really special to me because that's one that we've raised and we've had it since it was a calf and we've helped pull the calves.
And you know, it's just something special to me to be able to bring my own.
my own cows to the county fair and to be like, yeah, I've raised that one and something you can't beat.
That's awesome.
And any idea, I mean, if you ever wrote down the number of hours that you spend.
Well, so for FFA, I do a beef SAE thing, a production thing.
And it's a lot.
I don't think people realize how much it is until you like look at it.
You look at feeding, washing, you know, any like,
going to these extra shows, like how many hours you will put in a week with these cattle.
I mean, my goal, I rinse them in the morning and then I can leave early from school.
So I go home and rinse them in the afternoon and then I wash them after practice.
So it's, I mean, just thinking probably about an hour each and at night I like to blow dry.
So that's another hour.
And it's just probably right now, like an average of four hours a day.
just with that steer.
Crazy.
These these animals don't know how pampered they
are.
How did you do it at State Fair?
In my performance class I ended up getting second and then the rest of the week was a little bit rough but I think the getting second in the performance which is like a live carcass show kind of is how we describe it was probably the highlight I've never gotten second before and just being able to bring a steer there and so
That also goes into the aspect of the meat part, you know, what I'm selling my animal for it.
If they're saying it looks good, hopefully it ends up doing good at the sale, which is my main goal.
Cause all the money that I get goes back into my college.
Right.
And what about college?
Have you made a decision yet?
Well, I'm planning on applying to UW-Platteville.
I'm taking college classes through UW-Platteville now.
And then I want to go and do pre-vet and,
animal science and hopefully one day become a veterinarian.
It's been a lifelong dream since probably sixth grade.
I've watched my first ever show heifer had to have a C-section and I think that really just opened my eyes and I'm like this is what I want to do and then I kept working and I've always had an influence with cattle since I was born.
I mean with the Manning Farm and then our own intermediate family.
We've always had a herd of cattle and it's just
It's always been something I want to continue to do.
That's amazing because we need good people in that field, that's for sure.
And in terms of this year, talking about the fair, the state level, and then here, what do you get more nervous for?
Because there's a big stage at Milwaukee or West Alice, but then also more people probably know you back
here.
I don't know.
I try not to get nervous because I'm my animals nervous and I'm more of a, I guess I would say I'm a really nervous person in general, but I feel going out in the state level for me this year was more nerve wracking because my steer had never been to a show before.
So it was making sure he was calm and not trying to run me over.
And I mean, it went really well for the most part.
I try not to get nervous, but you're right.
Being here in Richland County, there's a lot of people that know you.
I don't want to say, like, impressed, but you want to impress everyone, and be like, oh, this is my steer, you know?
so
take us through then next week the week of the fair then do you do anything special getting ready
awful so monday i will clip my homegrown steer because he will be a slick steer so that means the hair can only be two inches so he'll get slicked on monday i'm pretty sure either monday or today i'm not whenever i feel like it and then um monday and tuesday they'll get washed and rinsed
and then we'll get my other steer clipped up, and then Wednesday we'll take in-steers around afternoon, and then Thursday is the Heifer show, which I won't be taking a Heifer, but my little brother will be taking a little bottle calf that we had this year that tried to die on us twice, and she's the sweetest little thing ever.
So he'll be taking her and showing, but I'll still be going there in the morning to feed, rinse, dry so my steers look good throughout the day because I'll have a volleyball game that night so I won't be able to be there at night.
And then Friday will be the steer show for me, so I'll show twice.
with both my steers and, you know, I'll be there all day again because the wash, the rinse, the preparing for the show.
And then we do showmanship after and then Saturday we'll have the sale.
But it's kind of nice to be there all day because a lot of the little kids go through and typically we do like an educational thing to get them to learn more about beef and other species like that.
And then we have to get all our pens ready for when buyers walk through and then the sale.
And then Sunday is takedown day and
I mean, it sounds like it's a lot, but it truly goes by so quick and you blink and it feels like it's over.
Very true.
Is this going to be your last Richland County Fair?
Do you think you're going to come back
next year?
I'm hoping to come back next year.
I did not have any steers this year from my herd personally, so I'll have to figure that out.
But I would like to continue to show as long as I can.
It might be hard with going to Platteville, but I know I have a good support system that'll help me.
get a steer ready if I really want to go.
Sure.
They probably only keep a steer in your dorm.
Join us as well as Bristol Nielsen.
Bristol, good morning.
Morning.
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
So I'm bringing five sheep to the county fair and one dairy steer.
They are four of them I raised by myself and one I brought from, bought from Southern Illinois.
And I have two weathers and
three U's and one steer.
Are they all named?
Yes.
One is Magnus, Ricky, Raven, Nora, and Hank.
Hank, that's good.
Putting you on the spot a little bit here.
So any idea how many hours that you spend with all
of those hours?
I usually spend most of my time with my weather.
He's such a sweet boy.
I really don't know.
I spend a lot of time with him.
Mostly I really like to spend my time growing his leg hair.
It's a really popular trend.
Think about like you have trends in the industry with like your clothes or anything like that.
You really want your leg wool like big and fluffy and all that.
You really want to get that leg wool big and it like makes the legs look bigger than they
So you really want to get that leg will big And so I really like to spend my time rinsing those legs getting them clean Putting product in those legs to get them really conditioned and wrap those legs So he doesn't chew the leg will off.
So I really do that every other day to Like I said, um Get his legs clean.
So I would say like maybe 15 hours a week
That's crazy.
So you mentioned that it's kind of an industry trend to kind of focus on the legs a little bit more.
Yeah, definitely.
I have with my you also, she is from one of my use that I showed last year.
And I, she has pretty big leg wall as well.
I don't do her as much as I do my weather.
I showed my weather at Stay Fair.
So I worked with him more.
but she also has pretty big like as well.
So you're involved in this.
It seems like a full time deal.
Do you bring any other projects to the fair?
Um, my dairy steer, I used to be involved in the beef, but I didn't really like it as much as the sheep.
It's a lot of irons in the fire, isn't it?
Yeah.
Let's talk about this, this warm weather.
How are the sheep handling that?
It's really hard to keep them cool.
All my mamas, they have a whole bunch of wool.
It's really hard to keep them cool.
I have like seven fans on them in the barn.
So it's full time kind of worrying about them too,
isn't it?
Yeah, it's very hard.
Right.
So what are your favorite subjects in school?
Um, probably ag.
I'm not surprised.
It's a long ways off.
Have you thought about a career?
Um, probably ag business.
Good for you.
So, and you're, you're hoping to, to do well.
Uh, do you, is it bittersweet at fair time, knowing that you're going to part with some of these, uh, these animals?
Yeah.
I'm probably going to sell my dairy steer.
I'm taking my weather to American Royal.
It's one of the biggest shows in the country.
And I hope to do good, really good.
Where's that show at?
Kansas city.
Wow.
That's a long trip.
Yeah.
So again, I asked Kaylee this too, but do you get nervous for the county fair aspect or
sometimes like she said it's Nervous wrecking to know that some of your friends are watching you and some of your family members are watching you hoping you do good and also like Knowing some of your community members.
Hope you do good as well
Kaylee mentioned that the animal can sometimes tell if you're nervous.
Do you find that with with sheep?
Yeah, they have pretty good senses that
So I hope they don't notice that I'm nervous, but also I just try to calm myself down.
Well, good luck.
I hope you do well at the fair.
Thank you.
And Kayla, I didn't ask you what are the names of your steers.
So I'm just curious.
Um, my steer that I bought for Monica Kirschner, his name is Willie.
He's a red short horn steer.
And then, um, my homegrown steer is named Duke and he's a tan crossbred knees.
So
look for William Duke at the Richland County Fair.
Tim, anything that you want to add this morning?
Yeah, I just I got a message here.
Mike sent me a message on the sale order.
So our sale order this year is lambs, goats, poultry, beef, golden gallon,
rabbits and then swine and then like I said that rotates every year but that's that's the order for this year.
Thank you Mike.
Yeah thanks
Mike for bailing us out there.
That's good stuff.
Lyrica you can always look for volunteers for the fair.
Yes we are still looking for more volunteers like I said we are really relying on a lot of people this year.
One of our fair board members actually suffered an injury Gary Dever sadly and he is pushing he is really wanting to get right back out there but
as of this year he's going to be around but we are still looking for people to help with garbage with gates and they're welcome to contact me uh... if they're interested at all
okay and uh... as far as uh... the the order of business next week uh... you
know when
does everything really get started
everything gets started
as soon as Tuesday Labor Day and then Tuesday, we will be setting up the fairgrounds as soon as we can.
But for entries, we have the photography, flowers, all of those fun departments coming on Tuesday evening because they will be starting to get judged at bright and early Wednesday morning at 9 a.m.
Otherwise, the animals, we do have all of them coming in on Wednesday as well, where Dr. Christine will check them that evening with her wonderful team.
And then you still have some entry fee, not entry fee, entry tags,
right?
We do still have some entry tags.
Sometimes people wait until the day of to pick them up.
They are welcome to come and pick them up now if they want though and save some time later when they are checking in.
They are at the office available.
And the office will be open again today.
It will be open again today, at least until five PM.
Sure.
And the fair is later this year.
And then of course labor day.
So, you know, don't let that kind of catch up on you and fully a little bit.
Yeah.
No, it is the weekend after labor day every year.
Um, and like we said, the weather this year is much warmer than in years past, ironically enough.
Right.
Good.
Well, here's to a good fair Lyrica and we'll be in touch with you as well.
Tim.
Good luck this year.
Yeah, thanks for everything you do, Phil.
Yeah, no problem.
We'll be out there talking to some more of the kids and some of the 4-H.
You know, Karleen Craddock has lined up some really good guests here, so we look forward to that.
And Kaylee, memories of the fair?
Anything that you can recall when you were a youngster?
Any
favorite things?
Oh, I think some of my favorite memories are being with my friends like late night in the barn, you know.
Sometimes when we're done, it's like 9, 10 o'clock and
Obviously the derby is still going on so we just like to wander and I think that's one of my favorite memories is just being with my friends or playing football in the pig show pen or you know and getting shavings all over but I think that's just one of my favorite memories just being with my friends and messing
around.
Yeah and that you know you bring up a lot of points a lot of people out there listening can relate to that because they did the same thing when they were young I'm sure.
What about you?
I'm just making more friends than I would because I'm not in my school and just being able to show my animals and showcase them to the whole county.
Where's the best place to get food other than the 4-H stand?
They have baked potatoes, but what about any other favorites?
Oh, the beef producer stand.
Oh, that's a good one.
Good call.
Bristol.
The beef producer stand.
Yeah, I think so too.
Steak sandwich.
All right.
Thanks for coming in today.
Thank you.
Good luck at the fair.
Kayleigh Manning, Bristol Nielsen joining us and also Lyrica Marks, fair coordinator and Tim Woodman, who is the rabbit guru and he's talking about the meat animal sale here.
Coming up, speaking of gurus, he's got a lot of pull.
Jason Kleppy is coming up next.
On this portion of the morning show, we have Jason Cluppy in the studio to talk about upcoming tractor pull and kind of the end of the last month of the season here.
So let's tell us a little bit about the upcoming pull at the Richland County Fair,
Jason.
Richland County Fair on the Friday night, September 11th, Southwest pullers will be coming in with our show and putting on the event that night.
That'll be towards the lineup at the end of our season and going into the points races where everybody is getting tight.
They'll be bringing in the 10 classes.
There'll also be two other classes that we will be adding that night for some local people to be a street stock right off the street, diesel truck class.
None of the guys that pull in the club can enter in that class.
It's just people that are from off the street.
They can come in from the gate and they can pull their truck and then we will be having a
12,500 pound farm class for guys to run in.
Also where the club members cannot pull in that.
It's just guys that around the area, if they want to come pull their tractor that don't go pull these groups that we run with all the time can come in and pull and enjoy the fair.
Hopefully
that's kind of exciting as cause you kind of have all levels of pullers, don't you?
Yes, we will.
We'll have a, you know, there'll be stuff from past farm stock classes all the way up to the class like I run and the diesel truck classes where we'll be hitting speeds close to 30 mile an hour going down the track.
So you mentioned it's getting down there for the point season.
There's a little bit more meaning behind some of these polls, right?
Yes, it gets a lot more meaningful now and, you know, making things count and making a good, good A to B pass down the track.
And, you know, it's, uh, some of the classes are really tight points races.
Um, there's some that are, there's the leaders are out there pretty good, but it's, there's all the points count right now and making good, good hooks going down the track for everybody.
Seems like there's an event nearly every weekend
during the summer and the fall.
Is that the
case?
Yes, we, we do a lot of running.
Um, we travel a lot, you know, this past weekend we were in Gays Mills in Highland.
Um, you know, in this following come up coming weekend, we'll be in, we go to mineral point, Wisconsin with a tri-state truck and tractor pullers and then Southwest pullers will be in Kendall Friday night and we go to Brooklyn, Wisconsin and then bring the rich and center.
So it's, it's a lot of running and gunning and
and making sure if, you know, the only way you get in these points races, you got to make all these polls.
So they have a lot of the regulars.
Do you have people coming in from quite a ways
away for these polls?
We will have Delby guys coming.
We got guys that, um, for instance, in my class, I got a guy, a real good friend of mine.
He comes from Milledgeville, Illinois, and he runs with our club just cause he likes running with our club.
He likes the guys that he pulls with.
And so, I mean, he's, he's got just a rich and center three, three and a half hours.
And sometimes we go from here, another two, he'll meet me a lot and we travel from here two to three hours sometimes.
So when I think I'm tired and I get home, he's got another three hour drive ahead of him.
So I mean, and the diesel truck guys will get a, they'll get a really good turnout of guys that come from all over
the state too.
How much work goes into it?
Uh, you know, kind of behind the scenes in the weeks leading up to it.
Uh, are you, are you wrenching on them quite often or not?
Hopefully you're not.
Hopefully you're not now and there's a lot of maintenance that goes with it.
Um, you know, you check things over every week, you know, with technology and everything in today's day and age, you know, on my tractor loan, I got a computer on there that I can, I read cylinder temps.
I can, you know, everything, how everything's working fuel pressures, oil pressures.
So I can go back through that and see, and if something's not normal, then I know I got to start looking things over or stuff like that, you know, routinely oil changes, you know, and stuff like that.
But.
with technology also comes more things you got to concentrate on or you don't think about before that you know so it's it can be a maintenance thing it's basically if you keep up on your maintenance and things go well and hopefully you don't have any major breakdowns you've got major breakdowns then you have you could have some busy time ahead of you to keep going in the points race.
It's going to get one of those computers for my super C, you know, to check the valves.
I bet we could make it.
I bet we can figure something out and get a hold of the guy at back 40 and he'll make it happen.
It's amazing what you do.
A lot of times, you know, the bodies are like the older tractors, but you've got, you know, brand new engines in a lot of them, right?
Yup.
Yup.
Yup.
That's for sure.
Yeah.
What, what type of tractor is your favorite then?
Which one do you pull with usually?
I got an international that I pull and that has a DT 466 motor in it.
Um, I can say I'm, I'm not.
Partial partial to the international, but the international seems to be it was the way to go for us and we farm with John Deere and international and it's To me there's a lot more readily parts out there available and you know, it's just maybe that's my feeling but Everybody has their kindly like and
that's just where we landed Absolutely this I know you pull all over the place But the one at the Richland County Fair is near and dear to you.
Isn't it Jason?
It's very near
and dear to me.
You know, I uh
I ran this pole for 17 years and I stepped away as the kids got older and sporting events and now the kids keep getting older and uh there it allows me to have more time and you know they didn't have a tractor pole to fair last year and I really it kind of hit me pretty hard I'm like we got to do something here and we got to get in and I met with the fairboard and I'm back on board to run the tractor pole again so it's it is near and dear to me because I think
I think back when I was a kid and it was always the Richland County Fair was a huge big deal to me.
We look forward to it all year long.
You go to the tractor pole or even the rides or whatever, you know, and it showed how rich we were in community and stuff like that.
And I think we really need to get back to that.
And people need to know what goes on at the fair and what goes on in our community.
Yeah, very true.
I think when I was growing up, I want to say the tractor pulled us on Thursday night, maybe at least the farm classes, because you go out there and see somebody that you knew, you know, coming right out of the field with them.
Absolutely.
It was Thursday night because I remember we never had school on Fridays and we, and entry day was always Thursday of the fair.
And it was, it was a hurry to get the cattle to the fair.
And if we were going to pull the tractor, we drove the tractor to the pulled fair then, you know, um, yeah, it was a big deal that in, yeah.
And that's when I started doing this.
Um, I try, I, I wanted to go back to addition and we did Thursday night and we did Thursday Friday nights and it just, we, but it's just landed where it works better Friday night for the club.
Um, I know we'd conflict with football games and stuff like that, but it's, it's just how it's going to have to work.
Yeah.
And I think you gotta, you know, for the most of the people that are coming in here, uh, you got to do it when you can get the most people in here, right?
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
And so it'll be a entry gate fee, but then is there extra money to pay to get into the grandstand?
So you'll pay a gate fee to come in as $5 to get into the gate and get into the grounds and the fairgrounds.
Um, the grandstand to get into is another $5.
Um, if you want to come into the pits, which you're welcome to come into the pits, you can come in, sit in the pits, get right down by the action, walk around the polling vehicles and look at them.
It's $15 to get into the pits.
that's pretty good deal though
it is awesome deal you know and you can get around you can walk around you can still go in and enjoy the fare if you want so you want to come out early and look around and look at the vehicles you know and these guys are good about letting people look at their stuff and say you got a young kid you want to sit on a tractor or something like that squip and ask them and they're going to say hey absolutely you want to get a picture that way or that these guys they love having people come look at their equipment and explain it
You pull at some other county fairs as well during the year and are they all kind of similar then?
Very similar, yeah.
A lot of it's similar where we go and you know people come around and walk around and a lot of times it's always you usually pay a little more to get into the pit entrance and see the vehicles than what you would normally to sit in the grandstand but that's you know it's everybody's cup of tea and I think a lot of people enjoy being closer to the action than being further away
too.
Yeah, very true.
Um, and then let's talk about the, the season.
We talked about it being maybe a month now as you get into the final weeks of this, where some other places you're going to be pulling Jason.
So after the Richmond County fair, we'll, we'll have a week off and then we will actually be at some of the classes with Southwest Polars will be at the Viola host called show, not all of them, but some of them.
Um, and then our final wrap up will be on October 3rd.
That's where all the points champions will be decided up in Hillsborough fireman's park.
And rain or shine usually, right?
Hopefully not rain.
Well, as long as we don't get too much rain, you know, it's sometimes I can detour it and you get, you can't build the track and then you're done.
But yeah, normally it's, yeah, clouds don't stop us.
I prefer that.
Yeah,
sure.
Cooler than wrong.
Right.
And then at the fair, maybe there's some people you'd like to thank because it does, it does take a lot to get the track
ready.
It does take a lot.
And I wouldn't be able to do it all myself.
And I do got some tremendous support, you know, on Randy Olson and Logan Olson.
They've ever since I ever started doing this stuff at the fair have always supported me huge Anything I asked they're always there and you know, I get we got different equipment I got Farner there I get a water truck from and they bring me a roller Slammy equipment Don slum up at Hillsboro is very good about donating equipment and
Jim here at Simpsons, Johnson Tractor, they've donated.
I got Matthews Farms bringing the tillage equipment down.
Troxel Farms has helped me with stuff too.
Huff Nelson Farms, they're very good about helping with equipment and helping whatever I need.
And Kevin Jasper, I can't forget old Kevin over there.
He's always whatever you need from Kevin.
And when it's all said and done, you know, we got to top these fuel tanks off on this stuff and everything, Vesbac Oil and Verroqua, they donate fuel to keep everything filled up when we take it back.
Now that's awesome.
It takes kind of an army to put this on, doesn't it?
Yes, it does.
And you know, I got the whole crew.
I, it was really surprised, you know, you know, when I started making phone calls in February, before I went to the fairboard, I wanted to make sure I had people that was going to help me do this.
And, and they're all like, Oh yeah, we'll come help you.
You
know,
on site gets, they're different.
They're genuine people that help, you know, and you find out in a hurry that they care about their community too.
Yeah, well, and hopefully it's a start.
Again, you want to kind of try to get the fair back to where it used to be, and this is a start, isn't
it?
Yeah, absolutely.
You know, and that's where I want to encourage people to come out to the fair and see what goes on in our community, see what these kids are doing, you know, and to keep this fair.
I think a fair is an important part of a young child's life and see what goes on in family time, you know, and just
Just like any fairs, they're all, they're all struggling to survive.
You know, the money is just not out there like it was, but we got to support it.
You know, and like I said, it's, let's be part of the solution, not part of the
problem.
I heard from some of the 4-H years that numbers, in fact, Carleen Craddock told me the numbers in 4-H original County are up this year.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I see it a lot.
My daughter shows cattle and the, the barns will be full.
And you know, and it's, you know, it ain't like it was when I was a kid, you know, it was a,
The dairy barns, they didn't have enough room to put all the dairy cattle, but the dairy industry has shifted to a different, you know, but a lot of these same families that had these dairy farms, they still are showing.
They're just showing a different animal or a different species, you know, um, but it's, it's still, you've got the same.
Group core.
I mean he goes back a lot of tradition a lot of history You know family names and that stuff you can see at that county fair if you look on stuff for over the years
you bet and the dairy Jody was in Jody Cornell and they're having a display about all the history of Richland County dairy That's gonna be on display too, but see a lot of names and pictures of people from the past
It's that's awesome to see and that's people need to see that you know come out and look at that and appreciate what we got in this county and Let's let's make it better
Is there some
big money involved for some of the pullers on Friday night?
Well, there will be one class with a two six diesel truck class that night will have a shootout.
Southwest pullers puts this on, they got a traveling trophy and they picked the community where the event we're going to have it at every year and it's usually towards the end of the year and they
I when I decided I was gonna do this and I'm part of the board with Southwest Polars I said to the guys I said I really like do this in Richmond Center You know we have the parking we have the you know the event area to do it and they're like yeah, let's do it and so these guys will get the two six competitors from all over the state It's a hundred dollar entry fee for them guys, but it's a thousand dollars to win and it's broke down through that and They they they'll show up
be probably 20 plus trucks in that class that night, I would say.
So it starts at 630 that
night.
630 registration will close that night at six.
Probably goes until what, 1030?
I would like to be done by 10, 1030.
That's my goal.
So it's not past your bedtime?
No,
that's my goal because you generally see that with any tractor pull we go to a three and a half hour show, you get much over that, you start to lose your crowd and
people get tired, you know, you can sit so long and they're ready to go home.
Somebody's interested in any aspect.
How can they get a hold of you, Jason?
Um, anybody can get a hold of me.
They can call me.
Um, my phone number is 608-604-5803.
Um, get a hold of me and anything, any question, don't be afraid to call and ask.
Um, and we'll answer them and go with that from now on.
So, and I also, I want to contribute.
I had a,
Persons come up and they donated their title sponsor to we got two big sponsors, but Heather Clark She was Heather Paul.
She grew up in Richland Center and her husband Dan they own a diesel shop in bluit was there living bluit now and They are they come on as a title sponsor for this event and they really stepped up and really made a lot of this possible she goes I
favorite place bowls the rich and county fair and I want to see this happen and Jason Schultz was sold Schultz mortgage to you know he contributed a ton to help this happen and amongst all their sponsors so I just I gotta give them guys credit because they really stepped up and when I said I was gonna do it they came right to the
front and soul.
Yeah.
Well, I appreciate it.
Appreciate what you're doing too.
You know, bringing it back to the community and kind of trying to perk things up there again on Friday night.
So Jason, good luck to you during the fall.
Thank you, Phil.
And thanks
to
all
you guys for everything you do here at WRC.
It's truly appreciated.
You bet.
Jason Cleppy joining us again, the truck and tractor pull at the Richland County Fair Friday, September 11th, getting underway at 6 30.