ELKHART COUNTY, Ind. -- It always seems that Fair Week has a string of hot humid days, this week is no different. But how are the animals staying cool with temperatures reaching into the 90s?
“Can’t have a county fair without a little bit of heat sometimes. But there’s plenty of ways to beat the heat even for our animals. As you can look around all of our barns here especially the poultry barn…there is plenty of air flow”
Robby Kelly, a 4-H Youth Development Educator, says the livestock barns around the fairgrounds are as open air as possible, with fans in the rafters as well as on the animals, offering plenty of moving air. Clean water is also a must, with access to wash pens.
The 4-H'ers who have walking projects are also required to take a class every year on how to care for their animals.
“So that class covers a wide variety of things, we go everything from the birth of that animal from the time they buy that animal, all the way up to the time of harvest, so not only just how to care for it at the fair, but you know through the entire production life of that animal,” said Kelly.
It isn’t just the 4-H'ers themselves looking after their animals. With around 2500 animals at the fair, it takes a village, or a barn, to keep the livestock safe.
“It's a big job to make sure everything is staying cool staying safe, but we have a great group of volunteers that helps lead our 4-Hers to make sure were taking the best care of animals the way we can”
Now it isn’t just livestock, but also humans that are at the fair.
Kelly said, “A lot of things we do here at the fair, you’ll notice misting stations, see bottle refilling stations, we have plenty of air-conditioned buildings. The fair board provides medical staff, EMS, to make sure that those are all, our humans are taken care of”
The medical services on site are centrally located by the grandstands with plenty of EMS and fire personnel standing by. There are also some members of the Elkhart County dispatch that get stationed here in case of emergency
Also mentioned by Kelly were the misting stations, something I personally think is cool, and not just because it cools you off.
There are a couple of these around the fairgrounds, always with a water bottle filler attached, and you press a button and get a nice mist on you, which is very refreshing on hot days like today and tomorrow.
Of course, one of the best things to do in the heat is stay hydrated.