Table-ready vs. show-ready: Businesses offer new award for livestock at county fair

WORLAND - Is an animal shown at the county fair show-ready or table-ready and can they be both?

That is a question that three local businesses determined to find out and subsequently to reward those youth with industry-standard table-ready animals at this year's Washakie County Fair.

"It was a lesson in economics and capitalism," Steve Tharp of Tharp Veterinary Service said.

He said Tharp Veterinary Service, Trombley Construction and Asay Animal Health got together to sponsor the table-ready awards this year for beef, swine and sheep.

"We came together and with our years of experience with the Washakie County Fair and 4-H and FFA livestock we realized some time ago that the livestock at the shows represented only half of the story. The real story is that at the end of the livestock projects someone is going to eat those animals," Tharp said. "There are people at the [junior livestock] sale who will serve the projects for dinner."

He said as they began to formulate the table-ready program it became their collective belief that "by going through the show process the kids are missing an important part of why they are doing the project." He said that the youth prepare the animal for sale but they also need to prepare the animals so they are table-ready because "someone is going to enjoy it as a meal."

Once they came to that realization, it was then "What do we do?" Tharp said they met with the Washakie County Fair Board about their idea for a table-ready award for the three main livestock animals.

The three winners received a $500 reward with a plaque last Saturday during the junior livestock sale.

The three companies recruited industry judges who volunteered their time, but the companies paid for travel expenses. They judged the most desirable table-ready animal for beef, sheep and swine prior to the fair shows, Tharp said. He noted they did the judging in the animal barns.

All three came from outside the area so they would not know any of the youth, Tharp said, and all three are considered "seasoned veterans of the feeding and processing industry" for their designated animal.

The results, Tharp said, were "fascinating."

The beef turned out to be what was judged at the Washakie County Fair beef show as the grand champion market beef, 1,386 pounds, by Walker Cooper. "With the beef you saw a convergence, a merger of the show and industry in the form of a table-ready animal," he said.

The greatest disparity, he said was in the hogs.

"What the show ring sees as an ideal show hog is light years away from what the pork industry sees as an ideal butcher hog," Tharp said.

The table-ready hog was by Melvin Croft. Croft's hog, weighing 258 pounds, won fifth-place in his market class during the swine show at the county fair.

The grand champion market hog by Brooke Wright weighed 265 pounds and reserve champion by Tanner Griemsman was 225 pounds.

In between the results of the beef and hogs were the sheep but there were also some telling differences between industry and show standards, Tharp said.

In processing for industry standards, ideal weight for a lamb is 160 to 180 pounds. The majority of sheep in the county fair shows are "nowhere near that and those that are rarely perform well on the shows," Tharp said.

The 2018 Washakie County Fair table-ready lamb was by Tanner Griemsman, a 174-pound lamb. He did earn a blue (first-place) ribbon in his market class at the Washakie County Fair market sheep show.

The grand champion market lamb by Brian Rice weighed 128 pounds and the reserve champion from Skylar Tharp was 127 pounds.

Tharp said most hogs and sheep from county fair shows need to be finished (get a desired weight and form) before they would be considered table-ready.

With these results, Tharp said it is the hope of the table-ready committee to have more youth "grow their own" animals and not "buy championship animals" for fair.

"I call it going back to the future," Tharp said, "because that was what county fair was at the time." Farmers and ranchers came to fair to vie for the best market animal, he said.

He said he also hopes that this type of award might bring back more agriculture youth to the fair to compete for the table-ready award.

As for the future of the Washakie County Fair Table-Ready awards, Tharp said they will be speaking to the Washakie County Fair Board next month about continuing the program and maybe expanding the program. He said after the fair he was approached by some other businesses interested in helping support the program. If there is support, he said, perhaps next year they can have a grand and reserve table-ready champion.

"It was received well by the fair board and parents," Tharp said.

He would also like to see the idea spread to other area county fairs.