No misters at Illinois State Fair

[elliottcattleco]

ISF exhibitors don't need to panic. Generators are still allowed in the open and junior barns as always. They simply need to be parked in the designated areas with the proper use of grounded extention cords. Misters have not been allowed for several years now. The State Fire Marshall made the ruling to not allow butt fans or generators in the tie outs, not the beef Supt. for the obvious reasons. Imagine hundreds of fans, generators, and miles of extention cords scattered everywhere. A recipe for disaster.

 

[twistedhshowstock]

I thought the chorded clipper rule at Houston and San Antonio were only for the Jr Show, and I dont think the purpose behind their rules to only allow chordless clippers was necessarily a power issue.  The Jr Steer Shows for both are slick,and they expect that to be done before you come to the show. The Jr Heifer Shows are blow and go, so your not going to be doing a lot of fitting which means the majority of your clipping can be done prior to leaving home, and all you should need to do at the show is maybe a little touch up.  Most chordless clippers are not going to stay charged long enough for an entire clip job anyway.  My view of the purpose of those rules was to encourage exhibitors to do the bulk of their clipping prior to coming to the show, and only need to do touch ups there.
Not all shows that ban fans are because of power either, such as the Houston Scramble barn I think doesnt allow fans, its not an issue of power, its an issue of space.  Most of those shows that dont allow fans also dont allow fan cages.

 

[The Show]

It is only for the jr. shows. I dug back a little bit, and found an old post from Chambero that pretty much sums it all up. Houston could go back to full fit if they wanted to, but there's NO way San Antonio could. We had trouble running blowers at the open show this year with hardly anybody there. We were having to take calves to other end of the barn and find plugs out side just to keep from throwing a breaker. 

I've been showing in Houston since 85 and remember the transition clearly.  We benefitted greatly and had the Champion Maine Steer the first slick year in 93.

There were several things going on that led to the change - most of which have already been mentioned.  The ag teachers in particular with some county agents had been lobbying really hard for some kind of change for a while - partly due to the perception of the professional fitters and largely due to the fact that big programs had more calves than the teachers could keep up with.  When Houston had hair, the few people with cool rooms had a huge advantage to help hang onto hair for Houston.  And the ag programs didn't like it.  The use of twine, etc. had also gotten really absurd right before the change.  You really couldn't tell what was calf and what was "other".

The safety issue was absolutely a big one also.  Our major show officials caught he** (and still do to some extent) from fire marshalls with all of the electrical issues and blowing of breakers, crowding due to the jillion trim chutes that would be put up, etc.  That was a real serious issue with threats of some really big fines against our shows.  Fort Worth solved part of that by doing away with fans.  Houston and San Antonio just did away with hair.

 

[twistedhshowstock]

What thread was that from...I dont guess I ever read it but looks like it could be interesting

 

[The Show]

I think it was called slick vs. hair. It was a pretty good thread

 

[vc]

We have not been able to use fans for the last 6 years, misters were never an option, can not bring genorators, they supplied the large diesel type but with half the needed outlets for a while. You can not guess how many people think you can run 2 blowers off of one 20 amp breaker. We have been blow and go since the drought in the 80's, you can only rinse in the morning between 6 and 9 (public comes in at 10) Safety is their reason they stop it at 9, a pain but makes since after you see how ignorant most people are.
About 5 years ago our fair grounds updated the barns, old barns where from the 40's, they built one big barn to take the place of 4 barns. Granted our fair grounds are on the coast and the outside temp stays around 70 to 75 during the day, but the old barns had low ceilings, with no air flow, it would get up to the 90's inside during the day.
The new barn has the giant dairy ceiling fans in it, once they figured that if they run them all night to cool the barns the temp would stay at 70 to 75 inside during the day. Barns get a little to cool at night forthe Lambs but that's why they have covers. 80 percent of the calves do not have hair anyway, the ones that do seem to do OK after they acclimate over a day or 2
Biggest concern is liability, fans, geneorators, misters require cords, cords equal tripping hazards, tripping hazards equal law suits. Since the fair is for the public that is usually the fairs first concern, exhibitors are there so the fair goers have something to see, plus the state gives them money. If they did not have the youth livestock exhibits, than it would be more of a carnival and not a fair. It is usually all about the money first and safety second.
We have had several of the breeders that come down from up north to watch the shows state they wish the State fair was at our facility, State fair is on the Delta and is usually in the 90's and humid, some years it is in the 100's and 80's at night.

 

[cowboy8733]

I have some insight after working the Junior show for over 20 years. (Now retired.)

The cattle barns are not wired adequately to supply power to all of the fans, blowers and misters that are being used today.  A full upgrade cannot be justified due to the infrequent usage of the barns.  Upgrading them would not bring any more business either.  Power usage must be limited somewhat.

Misters create another problem.  It is reasonable to foresee that excess water on the floor and bedding, together with power cords, create a safety hazard.   Misters also blow across the fence and affect other cattle along with people and their possessions.

Fans in the tieout areas are not closely monitored.  Fans fall over, are stolen or damaged.  A generator must be used to power them.  Once again, these are not continuously monitored so they get stolen/damaged or can throw a spark to cause a fire.   

I suggested years ago the ISF go to a slick show format.  Imagine how much more comfortable the cattle would be and how much less equipment exhibitors would have to bring to the fair.  That type of show is what the buildings were originally designed for.



slick show format will only cause a number of more problems,  like the kids will not work the animals and it will be a cluster, i have seen this taken place at numerous county fairs that have tried this method. it just doesn't work well.