Beef

Scholarship Opportunity: Fairfield County Cattlemen’s Scholarship – due 1/15/2024

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Once again in 2024 the Fairfield County Cattlemen will be awarding scholarships to high school seniors and undergrads who have experience raising and exhibiting beef cattle. Since the FCCA college scholarship program was begun in 1999 more than $35,000 in scholarships have been awarded to local youth. Scholarships are funded by the FCCA and, in part, through a donation from the Sally Grimm Community Fund in memory of past FCCA President Greg DeWitt.

Youth can find more scholarship details and apply on-line at: go.osu.edu/FCCAscholar.

Beef Performance and Carcass Quality Contest Rules Released, Application Portal Open

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Apply to participate by January 12th

As it was announced in early November, in 2024 the Junior Fair Beef Performance and Carcass Quality contest entries – also known as BPCQ or the ‘carcass contest’ – will be harvested and evaluated hanging on the rail. Much like the other local county carcass-based program participants, youth in the BPCQ contest will now have the opportunity go into the meat cooler prior to Fair and see first hand the quality grade of their animal and learn how yield grade was evaluated.

In an effort to update the contest and base it on current day profitability factors, the details for scoring will also change in 2024. While still evaluating a combination of growth, performance and carcass characteristics, the final BPCQ contest rankings will be based on Continue reading →

Scholarship Opportunity: Fairfield Co. Cattlemen’s – due 1/15/2024

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Once again in 2024 the Fairfield County Cattlemen will be awarding scholarships to high school seniors and undergrads who have experience raising and exhibiting beef cattle. Since the FCCA college scholarship program was begun in 1999 more than $35,000 in scholarships have been awarded to local youth. Scholarships are funded by the FCCA and, in part, through a donation from the Sally Grimm Community Fund in memory of past FCCA President Greg DeWitt.

Youth can find more scholarship details and apply on-line at: go.osu.edu/FCCAscholar.

New Livestock Tagging/Weighing and MQP Dates for 2024

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Several dates including tagging, weigh-in, and MQP conclusion have changed!

A Greek philosopher once said, “the only constant in life is change.” If you plan to participate in large animal market livestock projects at the 2024 Fairfield County Jr. Fair, that couldn’t be truer.

Due to a quirk in the 2024 calendar, some historic calendar conflicts, and the move to harvesting the Beef Performance and Carcass Quality animals in 2024 several adjustments have been made to the calendar for goat, lamb, swine, beef and dairy feeder project participants. In 2024 weigh-in and tagging will be held the last Saturday in June, and the schedule for the MQP projects will also change. Specifically, the dates for 2024 that were approved by the Sr. Fair Board at their November 4th meeting include:

March 9:  Market Beef weigh-in

May 18:  Goat MQP weigh-in

June 29:  Dairy feeder weigh-in, market goat tag check-in, market hog (including MQP) tag check-in, market lamb (including MQP) tag check-in.

August 25:  Goat MQP conclusion

September 1:  Lamb MQP conclusion

September 8:  Barrow MQP conclusion

September 24:  Beef Performance & Carcass Quality (beef carcass contest) conclusion

October 1:  If participation exceeds capacity for the 24th, date for second Beef Performance & Carcass Quality (beef carcass contest) conclusion

Place these dates on your calendar and more information and detail about tagging and weigh-in will be released as soon as it becomes available.

New Livestock Tagging/Weighing and MQP Dates for 2024

by

Several dates including tagging, weigh-in, and MQP conclusion have changed!

A Greek philosopher once said, “the only constant in life is change.” If you plan to participate in large animal market livestock projects at the 2024 Fairfield County Jr. Fair, that couldn’t be truer.

Due to a quirk in the 2024 calendar, some historic calendar conflicts, and the move to harvesting the Beef Performance and Carcass Quality animals in 2024 several adjustments have been made to the calendar for goat, lamb, swine, beef and dairy feeder project participants. In 2024 weigh-in and tagging will be held the last Saturday in June, and the schedule for the MQP projects will also change. Specifically, the dates for 2024 that were approved by the Sr. Fair Board at their November 4th meeting include:

March 9:  Market Beef weigh-in

May 18:  Goat MQP weigh-in

June 29:  Dairy feeder weigh-in, market goat tag check-in, market hog (including MQP) tag check-in, market lamb (including MQP) tag check-in.

August 25:  Goat MQP conclusion

September 1:  Lamb MQP conclusion

September 8:  Swine (barrows or gilts) MQP conclusion

September 24:  Beef Performance & Carcass Quality (beef carcass contest) conclusion

October 1:  If participation exceeds capacity for the 24th, date for second Beef Performance & Carcass Quality (beef carcass contest) conclusion. (UPDATE: October 1 is confirmed as the cattle collection, weighing and photograph date for half of the BPCQ cattle.)

Place these dates on your calendar and more information and detail about tagging and weigh-in will be released as soon as it becomes available.

Beef Performance and Carcass Quality Contest Cattle to be Harvested in 2024

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In 2024, Jr. beef exhibitors will get into the cooler and actually see what they produced!

In 1995 the Fairfield County Cattleman’s Association created a contest that allowed local junior beef exhibitors the opportunity to participate in a real-world beef production contest that rewarded participants for added market value traits. Continuing since that time the Beef Performance and Carcass Quality (BPCQ) contest has evaluated entries based on a combination of growth, performance, and carcass characteristics.

In the beginning the carcass characteristics of economic significance were evaluated for the contest in the Bay Packing meat cooler after the animal was harvested. In recent years the carcasses have been evaluated using ultrasound technology. In 2024 the carcass evaluation will return to the meat cooler.

While ultrasound technology has served the contest well for several years, it prevented youth from having the opportunity to see firsthand the meat quality of the animal they had raised. Much like the other local county carcass-based program participants, youth in the BPCQ contest will now have the opportunity go into the meat cooler prior to Fair and see first hand the quality grade of their animal and Continue reading →

Stay Connected at Fair – Junior Fair Department Social Media Pages

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Junior Fair Horses

  • Join Remind101 using code @jfhorse

Junior Fair Swine

Junior Fair Beef

Junior Fair Poultry

Junior Fair Rabbits

Junior Fair Pygmy Goats

Drug Use Notification Forms – due at NOON, Friday, October 6th for Market Beef/Dairy Market Feeders/Lactating Dairy Cows & Dairy Goats/Market Hogs/Market Goats/Market Lambs

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Animals must be drug free by weigh-in day of fair. Each member must complete a Drug Use Notification Form (DUNF) (http://go.osu.edu/fairfielddunf) form online for each animal they plan to exhibit prior to weigh-in at the fair. If the forms are not correctly completed, exhibitors will not be permitted to show. The link to the form will open on Monday, October 2nd (as forms should be completed more than 5 days before fair weigh-in).

  • Animals requiring a DUNF indicating the animal is free from any/all drugs in its system on fair weigh-in/move-in day are:
    • Market Beef
    • Dairy Beef Feeder
    • Dairy Cow (lactating)
    • MQP Barrow
    • Market Barrow
    • Market Gilt
    • Market Goat
    • Dairy Goat (lactating)
    • Market Chicken
    • Market Turkey
    • Market Duck
    • MQP Lamb
    • Market Lamb
    • Market Rabbit (new for 2023)
  • Forms should be completed no sooner than 5 days prior to animal weigh-in to be sure that their animal is drug free during fair.
  • Forms submitted prior to that timeframe will be deleted and exhibitors will be asked to resubmit the DUNF form closer to their animal’s weigh-in. All animals being brought to the fair requiring DUNF forms will need to submit their forms by 12:00 p.m., Friday, October 6, 2023.
  • The only EXCEPTION to the Friday deadline will be Market Poultry and Market Rabbits who will complete DUNF Forms AFTER they receive tags/leg bands so they have identification information to enter into the DUNF Form. One form per pen of animals should be completed for Poultry and Rabbits. Deadline for poultry and rabbit exhibitors is MIDNIGHT on Saturday, October 7th.
  • Animals tagged with an EID 840 (15 digit tag) should include the last 6 digits in the identification field of the form.
  • Scrapie Tag numbers DO NOT need to be entered for market goats and market sheep – please use the last 6 digits of your EID 840 tag.
  • There should be ONE form submitted for each animal Exception: Each pen of rabbits and each pen of market chickens will need a form per pen.
  • Turkeys exhibitors will put N/A in the identification field.
  • Market Chicken exhibitors will put all 3 leg band numbers in the same identification field for their pen of chickens.
  • Market Rabbit exhibitors will put both tag numbers for their pair of rabbits in the identification field for their pen of rabbits.

Open Show Arena for Beef Cattle Exhibitors, September 10 and 24

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An opportunity to acclimate your beef cattle project to the Fair environment before the Fair.

For many Junior Fair beef exhibitors, the week of the Fair is the only time a project animal has been away from home since it was tagged or weighed in at the beginning of the project. The opportunity for project animals, especially large animals like beef cattle, to get away from home at least once or twice before the Fair goes a long way in allowing both the animal and the exhibitor to more easily acclimate to the Fair environment when the time comes.

With that in mind and knowing there’s precious little time to acclimate beef cattle to the Show Arena after arrival at the Fair, beef cattle exhibitors have the opportunity on September 10 and again on September 24 to bring their project beef animals to the Fairground for “Open Show Arena.”

The Feeder Creek Show Arena will be open from noon until approximately 3 p.m. on Continue reading →