Lee Pulaski, lpulaski@wolfrivermedia.com
Leader Photo by Lee Pulaski Hannah Cerveny, 12, of Gresham, checks the water supply for several pigs, including two of hers, at the swine barn Wednesday morning. This is Cerveny’s first time exhibiting animals at the Shawano County Fair.
Leader Photo by Lee Pulaski Trucks with animal trailers were lined up Wednesday near the animal barns as exhibitors moved expeditiously to unload their animals.
There will be hundreds of animals on display over the six-day Shawano County Fair, but behind every animal is an owner spending countless hours making sure it is cared for properly.
The fair officially opened Wednesday evening with a ceremony and a few other events, but animal exhibitors were at the fairgrounds bright and early to get their animals into their pens. The colorful displays describing the animals only take a few minutes to set up, but the needs of the animals themselves can be an around-the-clock effort.
Just ask the Breitrick family from Tilleda. Kerry Breitrick said her two daughters, Skye, 13, and Brooke, 17, have six beef steers, three pigs and a dozen rabbits entered in this year’s fair, and there will be very little rest for the girls as they participate in the various animal shows over the next few days.
“My daughters stay here at the Super 8 with their dad so they can get here right away in the morning,” Breitrick said. “They’re feeding them and checking on them throughout the day. We’re pretty much here from before it opens … and then they’re here well after dark, 10:30 or 11 at night.”
The girls, both members of the Tilleda Timberwolves 4-H Club, spent a large portion of their morning washing the steers that will take part in the fair’s beef show, which starts at 5 p.m. Thursday in the Coliseum. Washing the animals can run anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour, depending on how cooperative they are, Breitrick said, and then the day of the show, another 15-20 minutes will be spent blow drying the animals prior to bringing them into the arena.
“You want to do a really good job,” Breitrick said. “You regularly wash them and get them adjusted to the process during the summer. I would say two to three times a week (prior to the fair) they wash them.”
The family brought 200 pounds of grain and nine bales of hay to feed the animals.
“We’re hoping that’ll suffice for the fair,” Breitrick said.
Hannah Cerveny, 12, estimated she would be spending a few hours each day caring for the two pigs she entered in this year’s fair. Cerveny, a member of the Gresham FFA, is exhibiting for the first time.
Cerveny said she was enjoying taking care of not only her pigs but also the ones belonging to friends. She spent part of Wednesday morning checking to make sure the animals had plenty of water.
“You have to make sure they’re cared for,” Cerveny said.
Cerveny said she gives her pigs a type of feed that is 18 percent protein with the rest containing corn. She said each pig consumes at least five to six cups of feed per day.
Although animals were not allowed on-site until the opening day of the fair, Kelli Posbrig, 11, of the Country Korner 4-H Club, was there with her family Tuesday night, cleaning up the area where her animals would be displayed and ensuring plenty of sawdust was on the ground for their comfort.
“I’m here every day,” Posbrig said. “You make sure they’re fed and bedded, and you have to make sure they don’t make a mess. We’re here as much as we can, from the time we get to the fairgrounds to the time we go home.”
Posbrig is entering beef, swine and poultry this year. Although she has entered the fair previously with other animals, it is her first year showing beef.