The 2020 Farm show is a tradition that my mom and I started back in 2006, that means this year was our 14th consecutive farm show. During my first show in 2006 Buttercup and I were the only Nigerian Dwarf competitors and we were lumped into the AOP division. This year the story could not have been more different. Nigerians have their own sanctioned breed and were by far the largest classes at the show! The show did see a significant drop this year and there were 150 less dairy goats in total that participated, but the attendance from the public was stronger than ever.
Getting to the farm show is a bit of an epic task, because we put our trailer in the mines for storage at the end of October and our truck does not have a cap, this means that we fit all four of our does, our luggage, food for the week, all of our tack and goat feed along with a bale of hay into my husband's ford escape. To say we have to get creative when packing is an understatement. Somehow, we made it all work and we arrived at the farm show after our 4 hour long trekk unscathed by both man and beast. I did laugh heftily during the animal health check in, because the vet staff gave us the side eye for pulling into the animal health checkpoint... they were astonished we were able to fit all of our goats and items into our vehicle.
The following four days were an absolute whirl wind of activities. We settled the girls and set our pens Wednesday night and arrived early Thursday for a full day of goat washing and clipping. We also had the pleasure of seeing our good friends and their son that live on the eastern half of PA and my parents came to visit as well. We capped Thursday off with a nice dinner with my parents and sister. Friday morning was when the true reason for attending came. We prepared the girls for their classes and my entire family assisted with holding them ringside. Stella was the best performer of the day getting 2nd in a large class of 28 senior kids and going on to win Reserve Grand Champion Jr. Nigerian Dwarf. My other does did well, Zoey getting third in her class behind the Overall Grand and Reserve Grand Champions of the day, Moots getting 5th out of a competitive dry yearling class and Ivy placing 8th in her class of 3-5 year old does. We did get to experience our first group class showing Zoey and Stella in Dam and Daughter placing 3rd overall in a class with 26 entries.
We were also excited to share with Life on Beagle Road their first ADGA sanctioned show, with Zoey's daughter Scarlet. Scarlet got 5th place in the Senoir
kid class and the Archer family has done an amazing job raising Scarlet and preparing her for the show. We congratulate them on their performance with Scarlet and their other doe Stevie Nicks placing 4th right behind Zoey in a very competitive class of 2-3 year old milkers.
Overall, it was a very exciting show that will serve us memories for years to come. We arrived home safe around 10 PM on Saturday night and we are already looking forward to next years show!