Photo of “4-H Master Showman” Participants in the 2024 4-H Livestock Master Showman Contest. From left to right: Ella Christ, Maggie Winspear, Chelsea Lippert, Kennedy Whiting, Jenna Whiting, Payton Shuman, Emma Tanner, Riley Henning, Layla Baker. Submitted photo.
Press Release:
Congratulations to the Genesee County 4-H members who showcased their skills and dedication during the 4-H Livestock Shows at the 2024 Genesee County Fair. The event culminated in the Overall 4-H Livestock Master Showmanship Contest, held on Friday, July 26.
The contest brought together the winners of master showmanship from each individual 4-H livestock show. This year's participants included Ella Christ, Maggie Winspear, Chelsea Lippert, Kennedy Whiting, Jenna Whiting, Payton Shuman, Emma Tanner, Riley Henning, and Layla Baker. Each contestant demonstrated their expertise in handling various livestock species, including some they had little to no experience with.
After several rounds of rigorous showmanship classes, scores were tallied, and Jenna Whiting was named the 2024 Overall 4-H Livestock Master Showman. Her outstanding performance across multiple species highlighted her versatility and commitment to excellence in showmanship.
The Genesee County 4-H Program would like to congratulate all participants for their hard work and achievements. Their dedication continues to inspire and uphold the values of 4-H.
For more information, please contact the Genesee County 4-H Program at 585-343-3040 or genesee4h@cornell.edu.
2023 File Photo of Genesee County Agricultural Society Treasurer Norm Pimm and President Amanda Gallo. Photo by Joanne Beck
After a flurry of eight days that accommodated 1,800 animals big and small, more than 120 draft horses and another record-breaking crowd, Genesee County Agricultural Society members are pretty satisfied -- and relieved -- with another job well done, Treasurer Norm Pimm says.
This year’s county fair meant hundreds of volunteer hours and much literal sweat due to hot and humid weather throughout the fourth week of July, and the payoff was huge as the event drew more than 72,000 people — more than the largest number from two years ago, Pimm said.
“It was good throughout our last Saturday of the fair; that’s what put us over the edge. And we by far had our busiest closing day of the fair,” he told The Batavian on Friday. “So two years ago, we had just hit 70,000. I think a lot of things (influenced attendance); we spent a lot of time and money advertising the fair, obviously, with all the mobile advertising, like (The Batavian); you guys are awesome, huge supporters of us. And then we did a lot with (social media) and all that.
“And then you guys went live a lot from our fair, which again, that creates buzz, right? So I think just sort of targeting the advertisement. And then we also brought a couple different acts in, like the closing band, Nerds Gone Wild; that might have been our biggest band we’ve ever had, at least in several years. They absolutely packed the entertainment tent. And then all of the other bands that we had throughout the week, BB Dang, the Eaglez, Knight Patrol, all put big crowds under the tent as well. We had the normal demolition derby, but that was absolutely packed in there; we figured about 2,500 people. And then on Wednesday, we did the Enduro race.”
Organizers worked hard to make the fair family-friendly for the types of entertainment and costs, he said, so that Enduro was a $5 entry fee, which pulled in 500 to 600 people.
They had a screaming diesel truck event and were hoping that “if we could get 1,000 people in there, we’d be very happy,” he said. “But we had about 1,500 people in the grandstands for that, so we exceeded our expectations as well.”
“That’s the first time we’ve had that. And then I think there’s all the events that have been over the last couple of years continue to get bigger," he said. "The draft horse show on opening weekend, that’s huge, the stockyard classic, which is a livestock show that we had the first weekend on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, that continues to grow as the second year we’ve done it. And then all our 4-H youth programs. I mean, they continue to grow as well.”
The market animal auction had nearly 230 lots up for auction, for a total intake of $325,000. Business sponsorships continue to grow, including both financial help and loaning out employees to volunteer at the fair, such as when Liberty Pumps sent out nine staff members to pitch in at the food stand, ticket booth and other areas where core volunteers needed a break, Pimm said.
Cornell Cooperative Extension board members, parents, community members and kids also stepped up to volunteer, he said. Genesee County legislators manned the Chuck Wagon again after walking the parade. East Bethany brought an ambulance on standby, and the South Byron Volunteer Fire Department came to help out. Scofield Transfer & Recycling was there every day, and others helped out with services and hands-on labor periodically, he said.
“That gives us a little bit of a break because, you know, that's one of the things people might forget is that we're 100 percent volunteers, right? We have volunteers putting in well over 100 hours that week just to keep the fire going. (Many of those people) show up and they’d be like, ‘hey, what do you want me to do?’ And that's awesome when you get that kind of support because they're gonna get some of us a little bit of a break,” he said. “And this year, more than ever, I saw a lot more than a couple of local businesses that sent employees to volunteer on their dime, but they basically, they paid them for the day, and then they had them come volunteer.”
Is it time to sit down and relax? Hardly. Pimm is already on the phone about next year. Organizers liked all of the entertainment, but they also want to mix things up, so they’re looking at different bands and “probably will change up a couple” for fair 2025.
They don’t have a big pool of midway companies to choose from since there are only a few in circulation, and those get locked in early. Hammerl Amusements has been a popular one, he said, which is what is used at Genesee County Fair. The only glitch has been that they book from Tuesday to Saturday, which leaves out one weekend of the fair, but organizers filled the gap this year with several bounce houses offered for free. That seemed to be a popular attraction — “it was absolutely packed” — and will be repeated with possibly more features next year, Pimm said.
Power Wheels was another keeper that will return, and organizers are looking to add a utility task vehicle (UTV) side-by-side event, an I Got It! and/or corn hole tournaments to the lineup.
“We’re looking to offer lower-priced entertainment at the grandstand area all week so families can come and enjoy the fair,” he said. We know it's a tough time financially for families, but we want to make sure that they can have a good time without spending a lot of money.”
The other part of using all of the amenities on the fairgrounds is maintaining them, and the Ag Society has invested “a couple hundred thousand dollars” on electrical upgrades, with about another $150,000 to $200,000 to go for those improvements, and then rebuilding the food stand, originally constructed in the 1960s and known as the Chuck Wagon, sometime in the near future, he said.
Other work is needed at the horse barns and related facilities, and all of it is an investment into the future, he said.
Many people don’t know that the fairgrounds are certainly alive during more than those eight days of the fair, as events happen in spring, summer and fall, with food truck rodeos being an ever-growing fundraiser on Friday evenings. There are some dozen food trucks at the fairgrounds, 5056 E. Main Road, Batavia, from 4 to 8 p.m. on Aug. 23 and Sept. 13 for this season.
Pimm said everything they do is reinvested to keep the grounds and facilities as well maintained as possible for community events. He’s happy that Mother Nature cooperated for this year’s fair and looks forward to an even bigger event in 2025.
"Overall, it was an absolute, big success. We continue to find ways to grow it and make it even better,” he said. “And we couldn't have done any of this without a local community coming out, to check out all the exhibits and all the animals and vendors and everything like that, and supporting them, and then all of our volunteers. No way we’d have done it without a ton of volunteers.
"And then overall, I’ve gotta go back to the local businesses that help support us, whether it's financially or selling advertising, and all the advertisements and all that. It was just unbelievable.”
Howard Owens, publisher of The Batavian, and Dylan Rendon, winner of The Batavian's eagle drawing contest. Photo by Debra Reilly
The Batavian awarded the grand prize in its eagle drawing contest at the Genesee County Fair to Dylan Rendon, 15, from Batavia.
Dylan received his new Harley-Benton, Les Paul-style eclectic guitar during BB Dang's set at the fair on Friday evening. He started playing guitar six months ago and said the new guitar is an upgrade on his first guitar.
The contest ran from opening day to Thursday, when The Batavian's staff selected its favorite drawings from entrants who were 17 years old and young and then randomly selected the winner from among those best drawings.
The Batavian conducts eagle drawing contests with guitars as prizes to help promote music appreciation among the community's youth.
Voting in the People's Choice Award, which gives visitors to the Media Center Booth in the Exhibition Hall at the fair a chance to pick one of their favorite drawings among the 20 drawings selected by staff. Voting continues until 3 p.m. on Saturday.
Eagle drawing by Dylan Rendon
Marc Tillary, a staff member of WBTA, completed a drawing for The Batavian's eagle drawing competition, but because WBTA is a news partner, and Media Center partner, with The Batavian, we recognized a possible conflict of interest in including his drawing in the contest. We also recognized that his drawing would be very popular so we awarded him a special honorable mention, a $50 gift card to T.F. Brown's.
Saturday, July 27th - KIDS DAY TAKE TWO & HP HOOD DAY at the Fair •. 8 AM Summer Kickoff Classic Open Horse Show Showmanship & Western ( Horse Area) •. 8:30 AM – NIOGA Dairy Showmanship Show (Main Show Ring) •. 10 AM – Exhibition Halls & Buildings Open •. 10:30 AM—NIOGA Dairy Show (Main Show Ring) •. 12 PM – 9 PM—Midway Opens Kids 16 & Under Ride for $20/wristband from 12 PM—4PM •. 1 PM – Color Wars (Grassy Area behind I-Got-It) •. 3:30 PM- Small Fry Tractor Pull (Exhibition Building) Sponsored by Upstate Niagara Cooperative, Genesee County Pamona Grange, In Memory of Duane Schmigel •. 7 PM – Screaming Diesel Shootout Semi Pulls, Modified Pick up, Street Pick up, Mini Mod Tractors •. 7 to 11:00 PM – Nerds Gone Wild – (Entertainment Tent) **FIREWORKS at the completion of the Screaming Diesel Shootout** •. 10 PM – Exhibit Halls & Buildings Close
Daily at the Fair:
Air Sculpture (Balloon Display and Demonstrations) (All Day Every Day)
Fame Racing – Radio Controlled Car Racing (SAT 3pm, 5pm & 7pm; SUN 3pm, 5pm & 7pm; MON 3pm, 5pm & 7pm; TUES 3pm, 5pm & 7pm; WED 1pm, 3pm, 5pm & 7pm; THURS 3pm, 5pm & 7pm; FRI 1pm, 3pm, 5pm & 7pm; SAT 1pm, 3pm, 5pm & 7pm)
Fair Trivia Hunt – All Day (July 20th-26th) – Exhibition Building – DAILY PRIZES Events & times on the schedule are subject to change. Follow us on Facebook to keep up to date with changes.
Saturday July 27th at 7pm come out and enjoy the Saturday Night Screamin’ Diesel Spectacular! Come check out the Semi’s, Diesel pick ups, and mini modified tractor pull! Sponsored by Scofield Transfer & Recycling
Thursday was a bittersweet day for 4-H members at the Genesee County Fair because it featured the market animal auction—a successful fundraiser and culmination of so much hard work but also perhaps some unforgiving emotional investment.
There’s Chase Zuber of Byron, who raised Big Papi, named after his favorite Red Sox baseball player, David Ortiz, and “watched him grow from the soil” from a cute piglet to an enormous 288-pound oinker.
And Kaidan Hofheins of Batavia, there with her grown bovine, who she had just shown on Sunday and placed sixth overall, doing “pretty good,” she said.
“His name's Miko. I raised him at our house, actually. Usually, we all raise them on the fourth-generation farm back on Grandpa's, but I had a calf born at our house, so Grandpa let me use him this year. So it's been a little different,” she said just before the auction started at the Batavia fairgrounds. “But it's been really good. I've been able to bring him out to some other shows. I actually did really well. It's certainly an honor. I mean, to be in this program. It's taught me a lot. But it is a hard night; it's also one of my favorite nights, seeing how everyone just kind of comes together to support each other and the community we have.
“But I mean, it's hard knowing I've raised him since a calf. So it's hard to say goodbye and to let go,” she said. “But we were always taught it's a circle of life. It's okay. So it's hard, but it's good. It teaches you a lot of valuable lessons. So I'm really grateful for this program and everything I've learned.”
Tim Call, a longtime member of the farming community and owner of Empire Tractor in Batavia, has also been a supporter of 4-H and has participated in the auction. He has bid on animals that he shares with his company employees, he said.
This is an important program for what it teaches the kids beyond the basics of care, Call said.
“Teaching them how to grow, how to raise animals, how to understand economics, you know, you’ve got to pay, you get the money, you’ve got to pay for it all, and hopefully there's something there at the end. And you have to go out and market it, because you'll see, there are some kids, for a cow or a steer they'll get two bucks, other kids will get 10 bucks (per pound). Well, the guy that did 10 bucks went out and marketed it better; they asked more people to buy their animal as part of their learning process,” he said. “And when they see other people getting more money, the next year, they know how to go out and try to ask people to buy them.”
Some 4-Hers have regulars, such as Todd Jantzi, who comes to the auction to bid on his neighbor’s livestock to support her, he said.
“She has a great spirit and is a hardworking young lady,” Jantzi said. “It’s a great aspect of growing up in life being responsible for your animals, that those animals are needing her. And it just creates a tremendous amount of responsibility at a young age."
He appreciates the 4-H program, he said, and seeing the kids reap the benefits of hands-on labor and experiencing success from their efforts.
“It brings a warm feeling to my heart,” he said. “You like to see the smile on the kids and the reward for their hard work over the last, say, six months. So it’s a neat process.”
There were 227 animals in Thursday's auction. A sheet of Auction Terms & Conditions explains how it works, from how animals are sold—goats, lambs, steers, and hogs are sold whole, live by the pound versus market chickens and rabbits are sold in lots of two, with the chickens already processed and frozen—to pricing, making payment, selecting a processor, transporting the animal, and where proceeds go.
All but a 5% commission to Cornell Cooperative Extension for auction and program expenses goes back to the youth participants for their own programs.
Although the 4-H program focuses on caring for and showing animals, other aspects are involved, such as public speaking and marketing, said Cooperative Extension Executive Director Jocelyn Sikorski.
“It’s learning how to work as an individual, building a skill set on how to care for something, right? Learning how to make money and how to sell your product, they have to go through public speaking. There are many different layers of education with 4-H when it comes to youth development; it really hits on almost all of them,” she said. “And it’s cumulative throughout the course of the programs … so truly, this is our culminating event for most of the kids unless they go on to compete at State Fair.”
There are several other non-animal programs in 4-H, including Family and Consumer Sciences and Junior Master Gardener Club, she said.
“So there’s all different life lessons on whether it’s maintaining an animal for the health of the animal and for the betterment of the animal, to how to plant and grow your own food and how to make your own food, how to do all of those things are built through 4-H,” she said.
Playing a set of classic rock and country hits, the Rochester-based band Another Vice entertained fairgoers on Thursday evening at the Genesee County Fair.
Fame Racing – Radio Controlled Car Racing (SAT 3pm, 5pm & 7pm; SUN 3pm, 5pm & 7pm; MON 3pm, 5pm & 7pm; TUES 3pm, 5pm & 7pm; WED 1pm, 3pm, 5pm & 7pm; THURS 3pm, 5pm & 7pm; FRI 1pm, 3pm, 5pm & 7pm; SAT 1pm, 3pm, 5pm & 7pm)
Fair Trivia Hunt – All Day (July 20th-26th) – Exhibition Building – DAILY PRIZES Events & times on the schedule are subject to change. Follow us on Facebook to keep up to date with changes.
Lots of rides at the Fair to entertain families. Photo by Steve Ognibene
The Midway was the Genesee County Fair's popular entertainment destination on Thursday, with families enjoying perfect fair weather for rides and games.
It was a busy day at the Genesee County Fair on Wednesday and there are plenty of activities for the whole family at the fair on Thursday, including the midway opening at 4 p.m., the 4-H livestock auction at 6 p.m., and the exhibit hall open all day.
Today, members of The Batavian's Early Access Program have a coupon for free entry to the fair, courtesy of The Batavian.
Also, stop by the Media Center (The Batavian/WBTA) to enter The Batavian's eagle drawing contest before 3 p.m. We are giving away a guitar to the 17-and-under winner (a random selection from among the best drawings) and a $100 gift card to the adult winner. After 3 p.m. through Saturday, voting for the people's choice award begins.
The 100-Lap Enduro was held at the Genesee County Speedway on Wednesday at the Genesee County Fair.
The race pits drivers and their near-scrap-yard vehicles against each other and their ability to just make it through all 100 laps without breaking down.
Fame Racing – Radio Controlled Car Racing (SAT 3pm, 5pm & 7pm; SUN 3pm, 5pm & 7pm; MON 3pm, 5pm & 7pm; TUES 3pm, 5pm & 7pm; WED 1pm, 3pm, 5pm & 7pm; THURS 3pm, 5pm & 7pm; FRI 1pm, 3pm, 5pm & 7pm; SAT 1pm, 3pm, 5pm & 7pm)
Fair Trivia Hunt – All Day (July 20th-26th) – Exhibition Building – DAILY PRIZES Events & times on the schedule are subject to change. Follow us on Facebook to keep up to date with changes.
