The author is the director for communications for Midwest Dairy Association based in Cold Spring, Minnesota
Seeing your animal at the fair may be as close as consumers get to a farm - make it a positive experience.
Nothing gets dairy youth more excited than the time spent at a fair showing cattle. It's an experience most of you wait for all year long, and once you arrive the focus is squarely on the competition and the fun of spending time with your dairy friends.
But it's important to realize those few days at a fair can also be a tremendous opportunity to connect with dairy's consumers, and, in many cases, it might be the only connection with dairy that a consumer gets to make. Their impression of how we care for cattle, and what kind of people supply the dairy products on their table, might be formed in those few minutes walking through the fair's dairy barn.
Here are some ways to leave the best impression you can with fairgoers:
Evaluate your display from a consumer's eyes. Do your cows look "happy"?
Are you willing to talk with people? Step up to the plate and have a conversation
When you must medicate, breed, or otherwise handle an animal in a way a fairgoer might not understand, do so at times when fairgoers are not present, or consider moving the animal to an area blocked from public view.
While fitting and grooming, consider talking about what you're doing with those who pass by or watch, or have another youth do so while you work.
Always manage your temper in spite of a poorly behaved animal.
Read more in the July 2010 Hoard's Dairyman, page 494
Seeing your animal at the fair may be as close as consumers get to a farm - make it a positive experience.
Nothing gets dairy youth more excited than the time spent at a fair showing cattle. It's an experience most of you wait for all year long, and once you arrive the focus is squarely on the competition and the fun of spending time with your dairy friends.
But it's important to realize those few days at a fair can also be a tremendous opportunity to connect with dairy's consumers, and, in many cases, it might be the only connection with dairy that a consumer gets to make. Their impression of how we care for cattle, and what kind of people supply the dairy products on their table, might be formed in those few minutes walking through the fair's dairy barn.
Here are some ways to leave the best impression you can with fairgoers:
Evaluate your display from a consumer's eyes. Do your cows look "happy"?
Are you willing to talk with people? Step up to the plate and have a conversation
When you must medicate, breed, or otherwise handle an animal in a way a fairgoer might not understand, do so at times when fairgoers are not present, or consider moving the animal to an area blocked from public view.
While fitting and grooming, consider talking about what you're doing with those who pass by or watch, or have another youth do so while you work.
Always manage your temper in spite of a poorly behaved animal.
Read more in the July 2010 Hoard's Dairyman, page 494
