XENIA — It’s normal for 4-H kids to have to battle nature during county fair week.
It’s hot. It rains. Then it gets muggy again. And maybe it rains some more.
But on Sunday, Gracie Barron had to deal with a different type of occurrence in the beef breeding show at the Greene County Fair.
“We went to the Clinton County show and we won that,” Barron, 13 and a member of Barnyard Kids said. “(But) coming here, she came in heat the day before. And then there was another calf in heat so it kind of made it a little bit worse than a normal heat.”
But Barron, no stranger to showing animals at the fair, found a way and won her first grand championship at this fair.
On a regular day, Barron said her animal’s difficulty level is a one or two, which is about the average.
“(Right now) she’s probably like at a 10,” Barron said. “It was a struggle.”
And there wasn’t a whole lot Barron could do.
“It is a natural process, and she has it,” the Greeneview Middle School student said. “She’s got a lot of hormones. Like, a little too much. I think she did the best that she could do here.”
The judge apparently felt the same way, much to Barron’s surprise.
“Usually when cows come in heat, the judge I don’t think really likes them,” she said.
Barron remained cool, however, to start the week on a positive note.