Youths get animals ready for SEMO District Fair

Kids throughout Southeast Missouri are getting their livestock in trim for the SEMO District Fair, set for Sept. 6 through 13 at the fairgrounds at Arena Park in Cape Girardeau.

Entry clerk Patty Turner said about 100 youngsters from a 23-county area are expected to show their animals. Gabe Ruehling of Perryville, Missouri, and twins Andrew and Nathan Aufdenberg of Gordonville are among them.

A barn kitten visits with Andrew and Nathan Aufdenberg's heifers and steers, Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2014. (Laura Simon)

For Ruehling and the Aufdenbergs, it's not just about trophies and ribbons; it's about having fun and showing the hard work that went into preparing their animals for the event.

Ruehling, 14, started riding mules at age 6 and showing them at 7. Now he exhibits horses, sheep, swine, beef, chickens and rabbits.

"What's fun for me is I get to go out there and meet new people, [and] make new friends," Ruehling said. He added he also learns every time he shows.

"It's all just really fun. It's not about getting the ribbons or winning the awards, it's about doing your best" and employing the skills he's learned taking care of the livestock, he said.

His parents and grandfather have farms where he keeps his animals. He bought a show heifer this year named Sissely.

"She's really a good girl," he said.

Without the support of his family and brothers Gavin and Gradon, he said he wouldn't be showing right now.

Having raised livestock much of his life, Ruehling said it has taught him responsibility. The same is true for the other youngsters in 4-H, FFA and on area farms.

Andrew Aufdenberg, right, and his twin brother, Nathan, walk their Hereford heifer Wednesday. (Laura Simon)

"They need to have food and water all the time," Ruehling said of the animals.

He added that the more time and attention given to the animals, the better they'll perform at livestock shows. Most of the time, he sells one pig each at the SEMO District and Altenburg, Missouri, fairs, but usually keeps most of his animals and places them in a herd.

He doesn't do it for the money.

"I feel like it's worth it every step of the way. You know you're not just selling something you raised and not getting nothing out of it," he said.

Ruehling, who attends Immanuel Lutheran School in Perryville, said he's looking forward to this year's fair.

"I'm ready to go at it and have fun and learn a lot more," he said.

Andrew and Nathan Aufdenberg, 16-year-old sophomores who attend Saxony Lutheran High School, raise cattle, and primarily show Herefords and some crossbred cattle. This is Andrew's eighth year showing and Nathan's second.

To prepare the cattle, Nathan said it takes 10 to 12 eight-hour days in the summer and two hours of feeding per week. The brothers split up the latter chore.

Nathan said he'll periodically wash his cattle, blows its hair and combs it the way he wants it to lay. They also have to teach the livestock to walk the way they should in the ring and work their feet with a show stick.

"Their first time at the fair, it's a whole different environment for them," Andrew said. "It takes them a while to get used to it. You work with them here; you get them halter broke; you try to expose them to new people; try to expose them to everything you're going to do at the fair and hope they're going to act well, but sometimes they don't."

Andrew said they usually sell the steers at the fair and keep the heifers and breed them back.

Fair board president Darrell Aufdenberg, who oversees the livestock area, said banks, feed stores, individuals and others gather for the livestock auction, which is set for 4:30 p.m. Sept. 11 at the livestock arena at the fairgrounds.

Auctioneers have a base price on each species to start off and after the animal is sold, they ask the buyer if they want to resell. The buyer can purchase the animal outright, or decide they want to resell and pay what's called a premium so the child may keep the animal.

Either way, proceeds go to the kids. Aufdenberg said no scholarships go with the sale.

rcampbell@semissourian.com

388-3639

Box information:

SEMO District Fair livestock competitions and judging

Sept. 6

1 p.m.: 4-H poultry, rabbits and guinea pigs (poultry tent)

4 p.m.: Draft horse and mule obstacle course (ball field No. 7, fairgrounds)

4:30 p.m.: Senior draft horse/mule hitch challenge (ball field No. 7)

Sept. 7

11 a.m.: Draft horse judging (Livestock Arena)

1 p.m.: Poultry and rabbit dress-up contest and children's rooster crowing and hen clucking contests (4-H/FFA goat tent show ring)

2 p.m.: 4-H dairy bucket calves, 4-H dairy and FFA dairy judging (livestock show arena)

6:30 p.m.: Draft horse/mule hitch judging (arena grandstand)

Sept. 8

8 a.m.: Ayrshire, with milking shorthorn and Jersey to follow (livestock show arena)

9 a.m.: Open class and FFA field crop judging (FFA barn)

9:30 a.m.: Draft mules with Jacks and Jennets to follow (ball field No. 7)

1 p.m.: Holstein with Brown Swiss and Guernsey to follow (livestock show arena)

Sept. 10

8 a.m.: 4-H beef bucket calves judging with 4-H and FFA steer judging to follow (livestock show arena)

8:30 a.m.: 4-H/FFA market swine carcass judging contest, 4-H/FFA market swine, open class market swine and open market swine carcass judging (swine tent show ring); 4-H goats with FFA goats to follow (4-H/FFA goat tend show ring); and 4-H sheep, FFA sheep, open sheep judging (sheep tent show ring)

1 p.m.: 4-H/FFA combined beef show (livestock show arena)

5 p.m.: Charolais judging (livestock show arena)

Sept. 11

8:30 a.m.: Guinea pigs, pigeons, poultry and rabbits (poultry tent)

9 a.m.: Hereford judging with Simmental to follow (livestock show arena)

4:30 p.m.: 4-H/FFA livestock sale: barrows, steers, lambs and goats (livestock show arena)

7:30 p.m.: Draft pony and mini mule hitches judging (ball field No. 7)

Sept. 12

9 a.m.: Angus judging (livestock show arena)

9:30 a.m.: Mini mules judging (ball field No. 7)

1 p.m.: Other breeds of beef cattle with commercial heifers to follow (livestock show arena)

1:30 p.m.: Draft ponies judging (ball field No. 7)

3:30 p.m.: 4-H draft horse, draft mule, mini mule and draft pony judging (ball field No. 7)

7:30 p.m.: Draft ponies and mini mule hitches judging (ball field No. 7)

Sept. 13

10 a.m.: Mini mule and draft pony obstacle course

2 p.m.: 4-H horse show (ball field No. 7)

Source: semofair.com