From This Side of the Ring: Showing at the County Fair
Get bitten by the show bug at your county fair!
Many of my readers are drawn to my articles because they want to learn about the competitive side of showing dairy goats. Some just want to go to shows; others want to get serious and show their goats competitively throughout their region, locally, or nationally. We started out by attending our local county fair.
I grew up on a dairy cattle farm. By the time I was old enough to show at the county fair my family had attended for decades, we’d moved hours away. After my wife and I started raising dairy goats, we dipped our toes into showing our herd of registered goats by signing up for the county fair. Not every county fair is created equal, though. Some have a wonderful dairy program where they host American Dairy Goat Association-sanctioned shows with ADGA-licensed judges. Others may have a show that isn’t sanctioned and is judged by someone who may not know much about dairy goats.
Make sure you check the rules for your local fair. Most, if not all, require a health certificate from your veterinarian, but some also require tuberculosis testing or rabies vaccinations. When you arrive, a veterinarian hired by the fair will check in your animals to make sure they’re in good health. They’ll also verify tattoos to make sure the goat being checked in is the one on the health papers — so make sure your goats’ tattoos are legible!
Some fairs are a week long, meaning the animals must remain at the fairgrounds for the entire week. Some fairs require attendance for only a couple of days, and some are a one-day event. Most fairs pay premiums to exhibitors based on their placings. At the fair I attend, if we have a good show, we can earn $1,000 or more. Some herds travel from fair to fair, earning a lot of money for themselves because of the premiums. As an example, first place would get say $10, second place $8, third place $7, and so on. If you bring enough goats, that can really add up.
How do you sign up for your county fair? You can go to the fair’s webpage, and there’s usually a tab called “become an exhibitor,” “show at the county fair,” or something along those lines. That tab contains all the information, rules, and dates needed to complete everything. If you get confused, don’t hesitate to call someone at the fairgrounds; usually, there’s contact information on the website. We have to submit our entries by the end of June. Once that’s done, we can also sign up for our RV camping spot. My family treats the county fair as a family vacation; we’re there a week after all. We get to eat the fair food, go on rides, and of course show our goats! The fair is a wonderful place for our daughter to be around other kids being raised in agriculture, and it’s a place where she can show off the fruits of her hard work with her own goats.
We took the leap into showing at other ADGA-sanctioned shows after one week of attending our local fair. For two years, we attended fair and one local show, until I caught the showing bug. Now we attend eight or more goat shows a year, and a few county fairs at that. If you’ve ever wanted to show your goats, I would suggest picking the brains of some local goat owners and seeing if there are any county fairs worth attending. It’s a great place to meet new breeders, have fun with your goats, and earn a little cash to help with the cost. Still feeling anxious about it? Find some local fairs to attend this summer and fall, and just go watch. Introduce yourself to some of the exhibitors; you just may get bitten by the show bug.
Jon Kain lives and breathes goats, literally. By day, he’s a superintendent of a goat and cow dairy. By “night,” he and his family raise a small herd of Oberhasli goats while chasing his 3-year-old daughter or talking about goats on his podcast, Ringside: An American Dairy Goat Podcast.
Originally published in the September 1, 2025, digital issue of Goat Journal.
