By Bob Strohm
bstrohm@wbcowqel.com

Cows may jump over the moon in nursery rhymes, but on Wednesday they jumped into the pen of the arena at the Crawford County Fair for the Dairy Beef Feeders Show.

Beginning at 4:30 p.m. the arena resembled that of a Rorschach test as the mostly black and white spotted bovines took to the arena starting with the Senior Showmanship portion of the show.

Taking Grand Champion for the Senior Showmanship was Andrew Geiger, while reserve went to Megan Lyons. Lyons would go on to take Grand Champion in the Senior Skillathon competition for dairy beef feeders. Lyons explained what it took to receive the Skillathon championship.

“It takes a lot of hard work,” Lyons said. “You have to know your animals as well as study a lot, there is a lot of information to go over.”

Lyons explained that the skillathon is right up her alley with college plans.

“Honestly it is just seeing how much I know and challenging myself,” Lyons noted. “I love to learn new information, I am a pre-vet major at the University of Findlay, so this stuff is right up my alley.

“After college I would really like to continue to work with county fairs, because I have seen the huge impact it has had on my life, and I want to continue to see that in other people’s lives,” Lyons added.

Following the showmanship the Dairy Beef Feeder Show began. Going across 17 classes in the Lightweight, Middleweight, and Heavyweight divisions, Junior Fair members showed off their work in hopes to be named the Overall Grand Champion.

As the final contestants paraded their cattle, the judge took to the microphone explaining that he had already made up his mind on Grand Champion. The overall champions matched that of the middleweight class as the Grand Champion went to Ethan Strouse, and the Reserve Champion went to Taylor Lutz.

As he exited the arena with his two-time Grand Champion of the day dairy calf, Strouse explained what it took to raise a champion dairy cow.

“You just got to walk them a lot and take your time with them,” Strouse said.

Strouse spoke of his favorite part of raising his calf.

“Getting them day one and milking them every morning,” Strouse explained.

Strouse added that while getting up early every morning to milk his cow was his favorite part of raising the calf, it was also the most difficult.

Results
Senior Showmanship:
Grand Champion – Andrew Geiger
Reserve Champion – Megan Lyons

Intermediate Showmanship:
Grand Champion – Megan Rhodes
Reserve Champion – Emma Rhodes

Junior Showmanship:
Grand Champion – Ryley Kantzer
Reserve Champion – James Schiefer

Lightweight:
Grand Champion – Tyler Link
Reserve Champion – Lane Rike

Middleweight:
Grand Champion – Ethan Strouse
Reserve Champion – Taylor Lutz

Heavyweight:
Grand Champion – Rodney Rike
Reserve Champion – Emma Rhodes

Overall:
Grand Champion – Ethan Strouse
Reserve Champion – Taylor Lutz

Senior Skillathon:
Megan Lyons

Intermediate Skillathon:
Brandon Mann

Junior Skillathon:
Lane Rike