2007 Ag Expo

I visited the Ag Expo again this year. You may remember my visit from last year. Even though the Expo is three days long I visited the Expo only on Friday - the final day - as I spent the preceding days riding a bicycle to take advantage of the good weather before the cold and wind came. And come it did! Brrr!!!!

The North Dakota State Fairground buildings were used and they were full of vendors. I signed up at a number of vendors giving away a free prize. None have contacted me so I doubt I won anything - just got my name and address on marketing lists. I passed on the giveaway contest of a free shotgun. No desire to have one.

As usual lots of big farm machinery. One combine looked to be the size of a small house. I guess some of the kid on me has disappeared as I had no desire to climb up in any cabs to sit behind their steering wheels.

One difference from last year is there were more vendors selling cattle squeeze chutes and other cattle supplies. I see some nice, well thought-out, squeeze chutes selling from $3500 to $4000. Out of my price range.

I gathered brochures and literature. Nothing was on display that I needed or was interested in. I spoke with a few vendors but Kalispell is out of range as the nearest vendor locations were well east of the mountains.

Mainly I walked around and occasionally took a piece of candy from the ubiquitous bowls to entice you to get closer to the vendor's sales pitch. It was Friday afternoon, near the end before the vendors were done and many seemed to be tired and sat listlessly.

After checking out the vendors my brother and I went over to the livestock barn to see the cattle competition. We entered the building as a competition ended so we had to wait while the cattle were led from the pen back to their resting areas. Three bulls that won the "Pen of 3 Bull" competition were waiting to be photographed. I also took a photo of them.


The cattle in the building were calmer than I expected and most were calmly standing or laying, some chewing their cud. The main activity were the people preparing their animals for the next competition. These people were actively vacuuming the wood chips and sawdust off their cattle. Other people, having finished vacuuming, were using an electric razor to trim the cattle's fur.


Even though the outside air temperature was chilly, and the indoor temperature wasn't all that warm, fans were all around blowing air to keep the cattle cool.


Among the hubbub I noticed a young girl somehow laying and sleeping on a chair.


I notice some cattle's tails were shaved. They looked to be big French poodles.


My brother and I stayed to watch the final competitions of the day. These were the overall Supreme Champion heifer and Supreme Champion bull. To one side of a pen created by portable cattle panels were metal bleachers. One had to be careful when sitting as people earlier had tracked mud and manure onto the bleachers.

As we entered the bleachers we were handed a ballot for us to vote on which animal we thought was the best. My brother and I didn't vote as we didn't feel qualified. It appeared a minority of people voted. I did notice most of the audience seemed to be family members or friends. Wonder if that had an impact on the result? I do know the audience favorite for the heifers agreed with the judges earlier choice. And the overall winner, again was the same heifer. She did well having won $2000 total in what I saw. She must have won more as this event was composed of the earlier winners of each bread.

The winner is the girl and heifer second from the right.

First were the heifers. There were 12 contestants representing the best of the various breeds.

1. Angus
2. Charolais
3. Chiangus
4. Commercial
   
5. Gelbvieh
6. Hereford
7. Limousin
8. Lowline
9. Maine Anjou
10. Red Angus
    
11. Shorthorn
12. Simmental

Seven of the twelve heifers were managed by young women. These heifers weighed from 800 to 1600+ pounds. First the animals were lined up and stood a bit. Then they circled the pen a number of times so the three judges could see them move. Then all stopped and stood in the circle while the judges walked around each animal. Once that was done another circle of the pen before they lined up again for a final inspection and a wait for the results.

I was surprised at how well these animals behaved. The animals had to be bored with lots of standing then being led around. At some time or another the handlers had to circle their animals around to get them back into position so they'd stop figiting. Some animals needed more circle turns than others.

The handlers would use their staff to touch the animals legs to get them to move their legs so as to stand a certain way. Or the handler would use their foot and touch the animal's hoof to get them to move their front leg back slightly.

Otherwise they stood there and stroked the animals belly with their staff to calm them.

The photo on the right show show the handler used his foot to get the animal to reposition his leg.

Most all the animals looked great, and I couldn't say why one was better than the other. They all had straight backs, long bodies and round rumps.

There were only 9 bulls competing. Of the 9 bulls only one was handled by a woman. The bulls had the same size and weight range as the heifers. And the bulls seemed to be docile.

Examples of circling the animal around, and stroking their belly. This bull was tired of standing, then tired of being led around in a circle as you can see the handler had to pull to get the bull to circle.



Once the competition was over, and the prizes awarded, it was the end of the expo. It was a quarter to six and most of the vendors had packed up and gone. Mainly what was left was the machinery to drive out or remove from the building.

Upstairs the food court area still had a number of people sitting around the tables. Most of the Expo attendees were men. Most were middle aged and looked like North Dakota farmers and ranchers. Most tables had a number of beer bottles as beer was sold at this food court.

Here are some photos...