The Livestock Shows

Continuing with our visit to the Meaford Fall Fair yesterday, we headed outside to find the livestock.  There were three separate shows, of poultry, sheep and cattle.  No horses sadly, as I mentioned yesterday.  I was told it is the disease 'Strangles' or distempter, a highly contagious and fatal respiratory infection that has kept the horses at home.

 We stopped first for some fries, and later a hot dog to keep up our strength!

And while Mrs. F.G. was waiting for those, I chatted with our volunteer firemen.  I want to suggest that they keep a registry of homes where they might find a disabled person (like me) in case of a house fire.  We had a house fire so I think about these things.

Then it was the poultry show.  I was astonished at the number of birds exhibited.  This rooster was doing his best to welcome the day, even though it was lunch time.

There quite a number of exhibitors in the sheep show too.  These are the adult ('veteran') exhibitors; there were lots of younger exhibitors waiting in the wings. You can see several different breeds of sheep.  Grey County is one of Ontario's bigger sheep raising counties.

There were lots of friendly cows, of the usual breeds (here Holstein, Guernsey and Charolais) waiting for their turn in the show ring.

Exhibitors spend a lot of effort getting the animals ready for showing.  This is the make-up cabinet for one farm family.  When our children were young we used to take them to the Royal Winter Fair and watching the cattle being washed, brushed and spiffed up was always a highlight.  Once we saw a calf being born - that generated some excited kids!

Outside you could photograph the cows' faces, although behind the fences; inside I could only get photos of their butts!

And a feature for kids that I had never seen before was a straw bale maze; the kids were having a ball with it.  But it wasn't wheelchair friendly.