Two 4-Hers swept the Dairy Show awards at the Antelope County Fair on Thursday afternoon.
Stacy Snodgrass and Trevin Hanson claimed all of the titles in the show ring. Dairy Show results: Stacy Snodgrass - champion, junior showmanship and champion, non-producing dairy Trevin Hanson - champion, senior showmanship and reserve champion, non-producing dairy It was a night of fierce competition as the annual ag olympics were underway Tuesday night.
Competitors had to complete an obstacle course that included rolling a barrel, stacking wood chip bags and tires, gathering eggs and throwing hay. The following is the list of results from the competition: 4-6 Year Olds 1. Hannah Elder & Lane Furstenau 2. Dylan King & Ellie Suckstorf 3. Laikley Planer & Addilynn Frey Also competing: Hunter Sternberg & Tabitha Dewey, Olivia Mortensen & Allison Dewey and Lauren Krause & Sam Kuhlke 7-10 Year Olds 1. Andrew Henery & Corben Hoefer 2. Bennett Flenniken & Dylan Furstenau 3. Haley Johnnson & Breanna Dewey Also competing: Abby Negley & Sadie Thiessen, Stacy Snodgrass & Emmett Blakeman, Micah Hughes & Cason Hoefer, Tyler & Wyatt Reinke, Jordan & Jackson Gallagher, Beau Krause & Jake Zuhlke, Casey King & Tyler Suckstorf, Carson King & Jason King, Emett Booth & Cooper Mueller, Lilly & Olivia Mortensen, Decklan Planer & Carson King, and Sara Hemenway & Cassidy Booth 13-18 Year Olds 1. Josey Booth & Morgan Erhardt 2. Gage Thiesen & Jacob Henery 18+ 1. Damien Knight & Sadie Smutney 2. Crystal King & Julia Suckstorf 3. Heather Johnson & Kara Johnson Also competing: Robert Dewey & Tyler James, Gage Thiesen & Jacob Henery and Randy & Keith Hermit crabs, Guinea pigs, frogs, turtles and more took center stage at the 2019 Small Pet Show as 4-Hers and Clover Kids showcased their animals during the Antelope County Fair on Tuesday afternoon.
Results of the 4-H Small Pet Show: Cody Qualset, Champion, purple Ashley Caballero, Reserve Champion, purple Emma Qualset, purple Cassidy Frey, blue Well-groomed cats and adorable kittens made their appearance at the 2019 Antelope County Fair Cat Show on Tuesday.
The cat show was held inside the 4-H exhibit building at the fairgrounds and featured more than 20 4-Hers and Clover Kids. Check out the 4-H cat show results here: Senior Showmanship: Champion- Taylor Bolling Reserved Champion- Gracie Park Junior Showmanship: Champion- Caydence Schumacher Reserved Champion- Kaylee Frey Overall Kitten: Champion- Samantha Durre Reserved Champion- Taytumn Clouse Overall Cat: Champion- Caydence Schumacher Reserved Champion- Taylor Bolling The Dog Show kicked off the 4-H events at the Antelope County Fair this week. 4-Hers and their furry friends took to the arena at the Antelope County Fairgrounds on Tuesday morning. Dog show winners were: Junior Showmanship Abe Johnsen, Champion, purple Cassidy Frey, Reserve Champion, purple Tyler Suckstorf, blue Senior Showmanship Sadie Smutny, Champion, purple Novice Obedience Sadie Smutny, Champion, blue Novice A Cassidy Frey, Champion, blue Tyler Suckstorf, red Novice B Abe Johnsen, Champion, blue “Did I just see what I think I saw?”
Fairgoers may do a double take this year as they see goats dressed in costumes walking around the fairgrounds. But it is all part of a newly added contest at this year’s Antelope County Fair. Eleven 4-Hers have signed up their goats for this event. A goat costume contest is just one of the fun new additions and changes that are in store for the 2019 Antelope County Fair, according to Tessa Hain, 4-H Youth Development Coordinator. “That will be a fun class to see, absolutely,” she said. “Im looking forward to seeing that.” Hain said she is also excited for the major change in the first-year bucket calf show, which has seen a significant growth spurt over the past few years. “This year we have 38 first year bucket calves for the 8-12 year olds, and for Clover Kids we have another 30,” she said. The 2018 numbers were some of the largest the fair has seen in recent years, but this year’s numbers have grown even more. Last year, Hain said the beef superintendent, 4-H council, fair board and extension staff got together to discuss ways they could improve the bucket calf show “because we have so many.” “We thought about the safety standpoint and also giving them the time they deserve — more one on one time with the judge,” she said. The young 4-Hers will now show their calves at a separate time from the rest of the beef entries, allowing them more time in the show ring. In addition, their record books will be judged in advance so judges have more time to offer feedback. Another big change for the fair is moving up the photography entries and interviews from Tuesday night during the fair to the Friday before the fair starts. “It will free up quite a bit of space in our exhibit building, so we have more space for our Clover Kids interview times there,” Hain said. “And it will also get rid of some of that stress on entry day too, hopefully.” See below for a full list of 2019 fair changes and additions: Livestock Show Times: •All livestock must be in place by Thursday, Aug. 1 at 10 a.m. •Horse show time has been changed to 11 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 1. •Bucket calf show will be on Thursday, Aug. 1 at 3 p.m. •Rabbit and poultry shows will occur at the same time on Friday, Aug. 2, starting at 8:30 a.m. (both shows will take place in the show ring) •Small animal round robin has been moved up to 1 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 2. •Goat show will be moved up to 2 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 2, followed by the sheep show Livestock: •Option for early weigh in for non-rate of gain participants on Wednesday, July 31 from 6-7:30 p.m. •Clover Kids will get their own special stalls for their animals that stay the duration of the fair •Wood chips: Spot clean stalls only. No making lounges, no hoarding excess amounts of wood chip bags. Only take what you will use. Bucket Calves: •2nd year bucket calves will be separated from the regular Market Beef Carcass Contest •1st year bucket calves will be shown on Thursday, Aug. 1, starting at 3 p.m. (This is only for Clover Kids and 4-H members. Open class peewee bucket calves will still show on Saturday.) •Record books will be turned in prior to fair so the judge has sufficient time to review them. They need to be taken to the extension office on Monday, July 29. •New this year, 4-Hers will interview about their bucket calf projects before they show. The interviews will happen on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, July 31 and Aug. 1. •The record book, interview and the show components will each be tallied for a cumulative score, which will decide the overall winner. Additional awards will be presented for outstanding record book and interview. Goats: •Goat show time has been moved up to 2 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 2. •The Angora Class has been changed to Fiber Goat Class. •Breeding Goat Class has been changed to Breeding Doe Class •Market Deo and Market Wether classes will be separated. •Dairy producing and non-producing will be separate classes. •Several classes will be added: Market Goat Pen of Three, Club Group of Five Market Goats and Dairy Goat Herd Class (kid, yearling and producing doe). •There will be a Goat Costume Contest. Goats will be paraded around on Thursday from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. A photo of the goat will be on display in the exhibit building throughout the fair so the public can vote for their favorite. Winners will be announced Sunday at the awards ceremony. •Exhibitor may bring four goats in each area instead of just three. Horse: •Thursday’s horse show will now start at 11 a.m. •Several classes have been added: Ranch Riding, Hunter Seat Equitation, Hunter Under Saddle (Jr. and Sr. divisions). •Western Riding has been eliminated. •Trail classes will now show on Friday, Aug. 2. Photography: •The photography entries will be brought in and interviewed on Friday, July 26 from 9 a.m. to noon in the courthouse basement, the same day as the fashion revue day. •Antelope Memorial Hospital is hosting a photography contest this year with one entry per 4-Her. The Nebraska-related photo may also be used from their 4-H photography exhibits. •State Fair Photography Class: Unit 3 photographers are invited to exhibit a N150 theme print demonstrating how the University of Nebraska has impacted them, their family or their community. Other Classes: •Horticulture is adding a pea class. •The county-wide project challenge this year is a project using mason jars. •Sewing for Fun will be for beginning sewers only. •Sewing exhibits no longer need to be brought to judging day with a clear plastic bag. •State Fair Stepping Stone Showcase: 4-Hers are invited to show their creativity and University of Nebraska pride by making a stepping stone that represents the N150 milestone. One stepping stone from each county will be chosen for the state fair. Clover Kids: •Clover Kids will have a maximum of 10 static entries, a maximum of three vegetable and three flower entries each and maximum Lego entries of one large (7 inches or more) and two small. •Clover Kids will receive one wearable ribbon with a medal, instead of rainbow ribbons for each exhibit. Release Times: •The release times for Sunday, Aug. 4 have been extended to 2:30 p.m. for static 4-H exhibits and 3 p.m. for livestock. All entries must be picked up by 4:30 p.m. that day. Antelope County will be painted John Deere green when Joe Diffie headlines the fair on Friday night, Aug. 2.
Diffie will bring a high-energy show packed with hit after hit to the stage in Neligh. “I think just the atmosphere of it,” Diffie said was the reason he enjoys playing county fairs. “There’s rides and animals and events and things and stuff going on. I just like the whole atmosphere of it.” The Oklahoma native told the Antelope County News that fans can expect some of their favorites, including “Third Rock from the Sun,” “Pickup Man,” “John Deere Green” and “Prop Me Up Beside the Jukebox,” as well as a mix of newer songs like, “I Got This.” “I don’t like doing too many new ones at a set,” said Diffie, who has five No. 1 singles and a dozen top 10s to keep the crowd on their feet with familiar tunes. “I got a great band. I’ve been lucky to have a lot of hits to choose from, so we do a lot of those. We just try to have fun and we hope that everyone has fun as well.” Diffie told the ACN that he enjoys playing county fairs after growing up attending his local fair when he was younger and is excited about coming to Northeast Nebraska again, especially since seeing a surge in his popularity after Jason Aldean and Chris Young recently paid tribute to him in the respective hits, “1994” and “Raised On Country.” “It was a nice shot in the arm and it’s amazing to me the impact that it’s had. A lot of fans are coming to my shows now to see who the dude is that Jason and Thomas are talking about,” Diffie says, noting that Thomas Rhett co-wrote the song and often plays it in his shows. “The really amazing thing is the fans know every song that I sing. We’ll go to a place and they’ll be a bunch of younger people and they’ll know every single word. Obviously, they’ve gone back and done some research or downloaded something. It’s pretty cool.” Diffie is set to take the stage Friday, Aug. 2, at 8 p.m. Ticket books are still available and can be purchased online at www.antelopecountyfair.com. “We will have a lot of fun,” Diffie guaranteed. “I hope a lot of folks come out, and we’ll just hang out together.” Tickets are available for the Antelope County Fair (July 30-August 4) online at antelopecofair.com, as well as:
Neligh - Cubby’s, Casey’s, Thriftway, Pitzer Digital, & Neligh Chamber of Commerce/Economic Development Office Elgin - Dean’s Market Tilden - JB Mart & Tilden Bank Brunswick - Brunswick State Bank Royal - Royal One Stop Orchard - Dusty’s Ready, aim, fire!
Shooters of all ages pulled the trigger on the 4-H shooting sports season on Sunday. From BB guns to archery, 4-H competitors kicked off the first events of the 2019 Antelope County Fair by shooting all disciplines. Results will be available at fair time. See photo gallery below: In what has become an Antelope County Fair tradition, a flag team can be seen performing before the team penning every year on Wednesday night.
The flag team performs various maneuvers on horseback while carrying flags, all set to music. This year’s musical selections included “Run Wild Horses” by Aaron Watson, “Thunderstruck” by ACDC, “Copperhead Road” by Steve Earle, “County Fair” by Chris LeDoux, and the Star Spangled Banner. About eight years ago, Fred Anderson had the idea for the flag team. “When I was on the fair board, it just kind of came to mind that maybe we need to spice some of this up a bit. That’s kind of what popped into my head, and it just went from there,” he said. “My first thoughts, when this was all just kind of formulating in my mind, was, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to have a group of girls that did this at our fair and get the word out far enough that, all of the sudden, other rodeos and other places were calling us to come do this.’” However, Anderson doesn’t think the idea will come to fruition. “These girls, now a days, when they get to being a little further along in high school, they’ve got other things coming up, and a lot of other responsibilities,” he said. “You have girls that have part-time jobs, you have people thinking about college. They’re being pulled so many different directions, that I think this will probably stay here at the Antelope County Fair.” Anderson started the group by asking 4-H girls in Antelope County if they would be interested in being on a flag team. “They were just jumping,” he said. “And it wasn’t the idea of making money, it was the idea of fun.” “The girls’ names on the team will pretty much change year by year. I have some that this is their second year. I have some that have been with it for four years,” Anderson said. “But those girls are getting to be like seniors in high school or just out of high school, and next year they probably won’t be around. The girls I have are anywhere from 8th grade to just out of high school.” There is no age limit, however. “It’s pretty much if their parent thinks they’re old enough and good enough on a horse and be able to ride like we do holding a flag,” Anderson said. This year, the flag team consists of seven girls, six of whom performed at the Antelope County Fair on Wednesday night. The team includes: Emily Ahlers, 13, Clearwater; Taylor Bolling, 16, Clearwater; Bailey Lehr, 17, Columbus; Brooke Lehr, 14, Columbus; Macy Zentner, 18, Cedar Rapids; Morgan Erhardt, 15, Clearwater; and Ashleigh Nelson, 16, Tilden. Bobie Shabram also helps Anderson with the team. Nelson is considered to be the team captain. “She’s the one that has been helping a lot with this,” Anderson said. When she was younger, she watched in awe and wanted to be a part of it someday. “The rodeo queen was in it, and she was really pretty, so I wanted to be with her. I thought it was super cool,” Nelson said. “And then the next year, I got asked to help with it, and I was like, ‘Yeah.’ And here I am, at least five years later, doing the exact same thing.” As team captain, Nelson helps the rest of the team. “I’m just here to tell people what’s going on, kind of explain how the pattern goes, and then yell at people to make their cones and everything, make their corners, use the arena, and just have a fun time,” she said. Every year, the Clearwater Rodeo Queen is invited to be a part of the team. Team member Bailey Lehr was one of the Clearwater Rodeo Queens who took advantage of the opportunity, and now has been with the team for at least four years. “She hasn’t stopped coming. She’s made a lot of friends up here and likes to be around some for the fair, and all of the sudden, her little sister, a couple years ago, we were short, just hopped on a horse and helped us out,” Anderson said about Lehr. The 2018 Clearwater Rodeo Queen, Macy Zentner, also took advantage of the opportunity to be on the team this year. “This is my first year on the team. I was invited because I won Miss Clearwater Rodeo 2018. I agreed to the team because when I was little, I had always wanted to be on a drill team. I thought they were pretty cool, so to get invited as a queen, I was like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m totally doing that,’” Zentner said. This is Morgan Erhardt’s second year with the team. “Fred came to me and asked if I would like to be a part of it last year, and then this year, I’m just a returning member,” she said. “It’s just fun to be here with a group of girls, working with their horses, doing something cool like this, representing the flag.” Many things go into making the patterns that the girls ride. “There wasn’t really anything to go by besides me watching some other flag teams around the country and searching online and finding patterns other people have made,” Anderson said. “The first time we had the pattern, besides what we just drew out in the dirt, I put it together from everything else I had seen, and since then, every girl on the team has input, ‘What do we want to change, would it be any better doing this?’ That’s kind of what our practices are,” he explained. Both Anderson and Nelson’s goal this year was to start practices as early as the weather turned nice enough to ride outdoors. However, weather prevented that from happening. “This year, it kind of seemed like every time we wanted to practice, it rained or the arena was flooded,” Anderson said. “I think so far this year, we met at my house one time and started going over some things.” The team practiced for only the third time with horses right before their presentation on Wednesday night. “It’s a really good idea to run through it once or twice before everybody gets there,” Anderson explained. “Every time you have practice, the first time around doesn’t look so good.” He said that by about the third time around, the horses are warmed up and in the right frame of mind. “You can’t just write it down and say, ‘OK, do this.’ It’s timing,” Anderson continued. In order to get the timing down, the team added a whistle this year. “As we’re changing, going from one pattern to another, you try to make it as seamless as you can. We’ve got horses here waiting, we’ve got this one coming and when this one gets here, the whistle blows and then the rest of them follow,” Anderson explained. The horses also need time to get used to the flags. “I actually believe (Tuesday night) was the first time we carried flags this year,” he said. “Most of the horses we have here have done it with flags before, but … they hadn’t seen one for a while, so it took a little coaxing, little rubbing the flag over them until they finally realized, ‘I know what this is, this is no big deal.’” Although Anderson doesn’t ride much anymore, his background lends itself well to working with the team. “I can verify that I’ve been bucked off more horses than most people have ridden,” he said. His background includes team roping and bareback riding, competing at a few college rodeos, as well as local rodeos. He and his dad were also paid to train horses for people “way back in the day on the farm,” and he showed horses in 4-H when he was a kid. If anyone were to ask Anderson why he continues to work with the flag team, his reply will be, “It’s just because I love doing it. It might be a little crazy.” |
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