(Radio Iowa) – The number of exhibitors in dairy cattle shows at this year’s Iowa State Fair is nearly identical to last year — despite new bird flu testing requirements for milking cows entered in the contests. Mike Eilers is the superintendent for dairy cattle at the Iowa State Fair. “There was definitely an increased number of heifers. At some of the farms, their heifers happened to be on a different location didn’t have to be tested if they didn’t have cows in that location,” Eilers say, “but there still was roughly 120 to 130 cows here at the show which is pretty good given all they had to go through with the testing and stuff.”

Eilers grew up on a dairy farm and showed Guernsey cattle, but has what he describes as an office job now. Eilers says for the past decade he’s been managing the State Fair dairy shows to stay connected to the industry and make sure kids, in particular, have a place to showcase their work. “Just to be able to come here and compete to see the quality of the animals they have and compare it to everybody else in the state and the other animals, and just to meet and hang out,” Eilers says. “There’s a lot of families and kids from all over the state that get to become friends just because they come to the fair.”

2024 Iowa State Fair Youth Dairy Show (RI photo)

Mike and Rhonda Guy of Newton were in the State Fair Livestock Pavilion this weekend, watching their granddaughter show her Brown Swiss heifer in the youth dairy show. “The value of this is tremendous. It teaches them a work ethic,” Guy said. “It’s nice to see them do things that we did as well — carry on a tradition, to some extent.” Rhonda Guy grew up on a dairy farm and showed Brown Swiss cattle as a kid. Watching her granddaughter in the show ring was a thrill. “It’s fun to be at the top of the class,” she says, “but just to be in the class at the Iowa State Fair is a big deal.” Mike Guy and his brother shut down their milking operation about 20 years after deciding they either had to expand or get out of the dairy business.

According to the latest data from the U-S-D-A, there were about a thousand dairy farms in Iowa in 2022.