By ELIZABETH HEITKAMP
Farm World Intern

GREENVILLE, Ohio — The Great Darke County Fair houses nine different animals: dairy, beef, swine, goats, sheep, poultry, rabbits, horses and dogs. Attendees can regularly see junior fair participants busy caring for their animals – even by sitting in a lawn chair near the stable or pen – or in the show arena earning different awards.

One smiling and proud animal owner, near her animals and socializing with visitors, was Chelsea Skidmore of Union City, Ohio. She is the daughter of Sandy Skidmore and John Powell. She is a member of the Fun Bunch 4-H Club and has been showing dairy cattle for six years.

This year, Skidmore brought six animals to the fair and will return home with numerous junior and open show titles. Her Brown Swiss cow, Dodger, won Senior Champion for junior fair. Later, the pair returned to the show arena as Dodger was selected as the overall Grand Champion Brown Swiss Cow. Dodger was also chosen as Grand Champion and Senior Champion Brown Swiss and Best Udder winner during open show.

Skidmore also found success with two heifers by winning the Reserve Champion Holstein Heifer and Reserve Champion Brown Swiss Heifer for both junior fair and open show.

“I felt very excited to know that all my hard work paid off,” said a proud Skidmore.

Besides having winning animals, Skidmore also proved to have knowledge of the dairy industry by earning first place in the Intermediate Skill-a-thon contest, which is a mandatory test given to junior fair participants with questions that range from naming animal body parts to identifying different feeds.

Skidmore also earned first place in the Senior I Showmanship, which is a contest where contestants are judged on how they show their animal.

Another recognized junior fair participant is Jodi Schmitz, who is the daughter of Gordon and Melissa Schmitz of New Weston, Ohio. She is a member of the Mississinawa Valley FFA chapter and has been showing for nine years.

Schmitz genuinely smiled when speaking of her winning animal Whitey, and she said her drive to continue showing dairy “runs in the family.”

“I knew the competition was tough,” Schmitz said, but she was “relieved” when the judge chose Whitey as the Grand Champion Dairy Steer on Aug. 23.

This is Schmitz’s third year in a row of bringing the Grand Champion Dairy Steers to fair. She sold Whitey during the Junior Fair Sale on Aug. 26.