It’s good to see a few things getting back to normal.  The recent Covid-19 pandemic has put a damper on a lot of things during the past two years, but this year, the Mountain State Fair was back in swing.

Five Graham County 4-Her’s, Destiny Aldridge, Abby & Lily Lancaster, Pacey Bradshaw and Klancy Stevens, were all selected to participate in the Western North Carolina Dairy Steer Project.  The project, which started in 2014, provides participating youth ages 8-18 with the opportunity to raise and show a dairy steer.  As part of the program, each participant is given a calf, a bottle, milk replacer, feed, a halter and a tote bag.  In return, participants are required to care for the animals and participate in two shows: the Haywood County Fair (unfortunately canceled due to Covid) and the Mountain State Fair.  In addition, all participants are required to take part in two work days, at which the animals are castrated, dehorned and vaccinated.  Grooming and showing techniques are also taught as well.

All five girls had the opportunity to show their steers in both showmanship and weight classes.  In the showmanship class, each participant is judged based on his/her showmanship skills, while the animal itself is not judged.  However, the weight classes allow for the best animals to be selected based on breed characteristics.

Pacey Bradshaw won first place in the showmanship class, while Abby Lancaster came in fourth.  In the individual weight classes, both Pacey and Abby placed second, while Lily Lancaster and Klancy Stevens placed third and fourth respectively.

Graham County is extremely proud of all these girls; both for their hard work and the great job they did in being excellent representatives of the county.  Many thanks to Carroll & Annette Ensley for volunteering their time to work with this group.  Congratulations to all!