Jason Arndt, jarndt@shawanoleader.com
Gary Retzlaff
Raising livestock for the Shawano County Fair takes months of preparation and dedication.
Approximately 150 young people will display their pigs, lambs and cattle at this year’s junior livestock show and auction. The youngest participants are third-graders; the oldest have been out of high school for a year.
Gary Retzlaff, of Shawano, who has been a livestock key committee member for 25 years, estimates 66 percent of the animals are pigs.
“Swine are relatively easy, beef are the challenge,” Retzlaff said. “(Beef) takes the most effort and the most time. Their projects last a year and a half to get to the weight.”
According to Retzlaff, the ideal weight for steer is 1,300 to 1,500 pounds. Swine weigh in up to 280 pounds, while lambs reach up to 150 pounds by the time they are sold at the livestock auction.
“When I started 25 years ago, the ideal weight of pigs was at 225, then it went up to 270-280,” said Retzlaff. “It’s the genetics.”
The Retzlaff family has raised swine for generations. Retzlaff passed on his animals to his 36-year-old son, Nathan, to raise. Gary Retzlaff’s 4-year-old grandson, Ray, will enter a pig in this year’s open livestock show.
Concerns that the spread of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus (PEDv) might endanger swine shows at county fairs this year have not materialized.
The livestock committee in April outlined new rules affecting swine shows because of PEDv. The state veterinarian with the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, for example, banned any return trips back to the farm for swine; they instead will head to the slaughterhouse.
Pre-fair weigh-ins for swine, as well as for sheep due to concerns of cross-contamination, were also banned. There will also be no breeding swine or feeder pig show at this year’s fair.
Retzlaff, however, said he could count on one hand the number of exhibitors who backed out because of the PEDv concerns.
The livestock auction begins at 6:30 p.m. Friday. Retzlaff, in addition to supervising the livestock entries and pitching in where needed, is the announcer.
Children are educated at an early age that livestock are raised for slaughter, Retzlaff said, but occasionally it is difficult for a youngster to accept that when it comes time to sell their animal.
“There are a lot of times when children raise an animal their whole life that it gets to them,” Retzlaff said. “There is a quite a bond between an animal and child.”
A few years ago, he recalled, a girl elected to keep a steer she raised due to the strong bond.