show exhibitor numbers & the economy

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chippie

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I am curious.
How do the number of exhibitors in the club calf shows and youth exhibitors at the fairs compare to last year?

The reason I ask is that we just had our district 4-H horse show. It has always been a big show, however this year the class numbers are less than half than last year. Classes that would have 80 to 100 + exhibitors had about 40. The number of horses entered was less than half than previous years.

I am the chairman of our fair's roaster show and my husband the chairman of the broiler show. The number of exhibitors has dropped considerably. The roaster show usually averages about 70 kids. This year there are 44.

Thanks.

ETA: concerning the poultry shows. There are families whose kids have shown every year (and are still eligible) who aren't participating because of the rising cost of feed.
 
It's about the same here, there are only 70 steers entered this year. We normally have around 110 or more. The lambs went down considerably, there are usually 300 plus lambs and this year there are around 100. We hope our auction will still be good, you never know.
 
It might depend on the area. Our county 4-H beef club has 40 members. We had 6 new members join this year, with 5 new last year. Each member is allowed to have three steers, but sell one at 4-H fair, on at county fair and one at PA farm show. We had 50 steers at our last show along with 30 heifers. That is more than last year. The goat,swine and lamb clubs always have alot of members. These clubs seem to get bigger every year.
 
I'll be curious to see how it affects the national Junior shows. I know our state show dropped in numbers this year from about 140 to 90 head.
 
National Simmental show is the largest it has been in awhile.

TJLA may be in trouble. They have lost a lot of their major sponsors. Hopefully, they find a way to survive.
 
we've been to a dozen shows this year and they have all been as big or bigger than other years. Going to Tulsa this weekend for the JNHE so we'll see how that is. Our county fair weighed in about the same and our enrollment is dropping every year.
 
Our local and regional shows up here have certainly dropped off. A couple of the fairs raised premiums in an attempt to get people to come out but most don't see it as worth it unless they have kids that are showing. Either that or people are just going to the fairs right nearby.
 
ffamom":34bghbxu said:
National Simmental show is the largest it has been in awhile.

TJLA may be in trouble. They have lost a lot of their major sponsors. Hopefully, they find a way to survive.

TJLA has picked up some new major sponsors so that shouldn't be a problem, the problems going to be the members. Have you looked at how few members they have this year, considering the extra points that they were giving out for becoming a member early. Some heifer breeds don't have but 8 or 10 members.
Numbers are way down.
 
I'm sure that numbers are down in the TJLA partially because of the economy. But, then some of it may be that the political games that they play have finally caught up with them. I know of several families that have had older kids go through the TJLA and they are not going to let the younger ones do it, because at the Belt Buckle and Fall Classic it's all politics on who wins. ex. a kid who's father arranges sponsorship of the classic heifer show, comes in with a heifer pulled out of the pasture, not in show shape and a heifer that is limping, and that kid pulls grand and reserve of the breed. another, a certain ranches heifer's always win in their breed, because the owner of the ranch and his kids that showed through TJLA all are friends with the ones that put it on.

In fact, my son was going to go to the Belt Buckle, then he decided that he wasn't going to because his heifer was so consistent at the spring majors, 7 class wins, 5 grand divisions, 2 reserve division, Reserve National Champion, that he didn't want to show her and be pushed down in class or put at the bottom of the class, so that certain kids could win. He said that he didn't have to deal with the politics and that he wasn't going to. He didn't need that wool jacket right now in this 100 degree heat that he would be getting tonight at the banquet, they could just ship it to him.

mom
 

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