Raising livestock for show at a local fair can be a lot of work and it's not all about the shining trophies, ribbons, or champion plaques. It takes numerous hours in the barn, endless daily chores, regular exercising and grooming, blood, sweat, and tears to raise a champion animal. Every minute of every day’s effort leads to one brief appearance in the show ring with the outcome resting in a single judge’s opinion.

1. The moment of pride and accomplishment you feel when you win a ribbon or plaque

Don't get me wrong, showing livestock isn't all about the racking in the shiny hardware, but the moment you do place in your judging class just makes you feel like all these months of hard work are finally paying off.

2. The struggle of wearing show clothes all day when the heat index is 100+ degrees

Club shirt, jeans, shiny belt and boots is what you'll see your typical livestock shower wearing and while it may be fine in the morning when the sun hasn't gotten a chance to heat up the pavement yet, by afternoon everyone is ready to change out of their sweaty, sticky clothes and put on something cooler.

3. Answering the same question a thousand times by fair goers about your animals

County fairs are always fun for the little ones who don't always get to see farm animals on a daily basis and with that comes million of questions from not only the kids, but also the parents. So you're more than likely to hear the same question asked to you daily through out the week just because this is a whole new world to some people.

4. Days you don't have shows are reserved for sleeping (after doing chores of course)

Anybody who shows multiple animals knows the struggle of being up at what seems like the crack of dawn to start getting your animal ready for show, so any day you don't have to be up with the roosters is a day of much needed rest.

5. By day 3, you're already tired of eating fair food

Being up at fair all day for show means having to eat the fair food because even us showers can't pass by all the fair stands. We snack through out the day since there isn't much else to do as we wait in between classes for our showing class which leads us to hating fair food by the third day of fair.