2019 Mississippi State Fair
Announcer: Farm and Family is a production of the Mississippi State University Extension Service.
Amy Myers: Today, we're talking about the 2019 Mississippi State Fair. Hello, I'm Amy Myers, and welcome to Farm and Family. Today, we're speaking with Dr. Dean Jousan, Mississippi State University Extension 4-H livestock specialist.
Dean, tell me about the upcoming Mississippi State Fair. What are the dates, and what can people expect to see there?
Dr. Dean Jousan: Well, Amy, the 2019 Mississippi State Fair will take place on the fairgrounds in Jackson off of I-55. The gates will open on Wednesday evening, October the 2nd, and this year, the state fair will run through Monday, October the 14th.
During this time, there will be lots of activities and events that people can come out to see. There will be livestock shows and things of that nature that will be going on over the course of the fair. There's lots of fun activities for families to be involved with. If you have some time, come down to the state fair and check it all out.
Amy Myers: Now, what types of livestock shows and activities go on during the state fair?
Dr. Dean Jousan: During the state fair, we'll probably have close to 1,000 4-H and FFA youth from across the state, who will be bringing a lot of their project animals to show. Typically, we'll have 1500-plus head of livestock exhibited over the course of the fair.
We have the fair divided into two weekends for the types of animals that we have to show. We'll go through the schedule here in just a minute. But, there's lots of shows, lots of activities. We even have some educational contests and things that go on that our 4-H and FFA youth can participate in.
Amy Myers: Gosh, it sure seems like there are a lot of events and activities that go on at Mississippi State Fair. Can you give me a brief rundown of the schedule?
Dr. Dean Jousan: The gates for the fair open on Wednesday, October the 2nd. As we go through the next couple of days, that's when all of our beef cattle and all of our market lambs will be arriving to the fairgrounds. We'll kick off our first shows for the state fair on Saturday morning, October the 5th. We'll have our Junior Market Steer Show that morning starting at eight o'clock in the Judging Arena, followed immediately by our Junior Commercial Beef Heifer Show.
Also, on that Saturday, October the 5th, at one o'clock, we'll have our Junior Market Lamb Shows. That will take place in the Sheep Arena. Then, going one day later to Sunday, October the 6th, we'll have our Beef Showmanship Contest. That starts at 11 o'clock in the morning in the Judging Arena. That's always a good competition to see our beef exhibitors with their cattle and showmanship competition.
Then Monday, October the 7th, we'll have our Junior Beef Breeding Show. We'll probably have 600 or 700 head of beef cattle exhibited that day in the Judging Arena, and then we'll also have our Junior Market Hog Show that starts at 10 o'clock that morning.
Then we'll have a couple of days where the fairgrounds are being cleaned out in preparation for the second weekend. As we get to that, we'll have a Open Dairy Cattle Show that'll take place on Friday, October the 11th, starting at nine o'clock in the Judging Arena. We'll have our Meat Goat Showmanship Contest starting at 12 noon on Friday, October the 11th, followed immediately by our Commercial Meat Goat Doe Show. Then our Junior Dairy Goat Show will be at one o'clock on Friday, October the 11th.
The last day of our shows will be Saturday, October the 12th. We'll have our Junior Dairy Cattle Show starting at 8:30 in the morning and our Junior Market Show starting at 8:30 in the morning.
We've got lots of shows and lots of activities for youth to bring their project animals for competition.
Amy Myers: I understand there are other contests that are part of Mississippi State Fair. Tell me about those.
Dr. Dean Jousan: Most of those events will take place over the second half of the fair. On Thursday, October the 10th, we have a Junior Dairy Quiz Bowl Contest. This is sort of a Jeopardy-style contest all about dairy cattle that our younger 4-H'ers, age 8-13, can compete in. Then on Friday, October the 11th, we have several Sweetheart and Princess Contests. We'll have some of our younger 4-H'ers who are interested in those contests to compete to represent the meat goats, the dairy goats, and the dairy cattle to be named the sweetheart and princess. Then they help us out some during the shows.
Probably, one of the big highlights of the fair will be our special dairy classes, in particular, our Pretty Cow Contest. This always draws several hundred people to come out and watch our exhibitors dress up their dairy cows and have a Pretty Cow Contest. That's always a big highlight.
Amy Myers: If we want to learn more about Mississippi State Fair, where do we go?
Dr. Dean Jousan: To learn more about the Mississippi State Fair or the Mississippi 4-H Livestock Program, go to your favorite search engine and just search for Mississippi 4-H Livestock Program. There you'll find links to everything that you need.
Amy Myers: Thank you so much. Today, we've been speaking with Dr. Dean Jousan at Mississippi State University Extension 4-H livestock specialist. I'm Amy Myers, and this has been Farm and Family. Have a great day.
Announcer: Farm and Family is a production of the Mississippi State University Extension Service.