Four teenagers guided their pigs around a show ring at the Greene County Youth Fair last weekend, trying to keep the animals moving while giving judge Nick Kron a clear view from every angle.

Robert Pautz, 16, of Coxsackie, won the showmanship award with Stripe, his nearly 3-month-old Hampshire cross.

“You have a whip in your hand and you just kind of hit the pig in the jowl, and kind of guide them around,” he said. “You just want to show the judge all the sides of your pigs.”

Lyda Jo Herdman, 15, of Coxsackie, won best in show with Star, another nearly 3-month-old Hampshire cross. Brezlynn Roe, 14, of Greenville, won best market hog with Donald, a 5-month-old Mangalitsa.

The swine show was one of several livestock competitions at the four-day fair, held from Thursday, July 23, through Sunday, July 26, at Angelo Canna Town Park in Cairo. One of New York state’s few admission-free fairs, the event also offered exhibits, games, music, children’s activities, and a dog-jumping competition.

Across the fairgrounds, each competition followed its own exacting logic: Duck exhibitors were judged on the neatness of their cages, children pulled weights on tractors, pigs were steered by the jowl, and dogs launched themselves after toys into a measuring pool.

Three tents housed cows, chickens, pigs, goats, sheep, and rabbits. Judges evaluated the animals in formal shows and walked the aisles to inspect how well exhibitors maintained their enclosures.

Zaia Ivan of Coxsackie, the fair’s poultry superintendent, spent Saturday morning inspecting duck cages to determine which exhibitor had kept the neatest enclosure.

“We have different animal shows going on every day, but we do judge herdsmanship every day that the fair is open,” she said.

Ivan said the herdsmanship award encourages young exhibitors to remain attentive to their animals and their surroundings.

“It encourages the kids to just be present,” she said. “We all want to put on the best display we can for everyone.”

The fair began on the mountaintop in 1949, when Alfred Partridge, leader of the Ashland Blue Ribbon 4-H Club, organized a small 4-H fair at Sutton Hollow School in Ashland. It moved to Jewett in 1951 and then to Windham, where it was held from 1952 through 1956. As the event expanded, it moved to the former Durham Elementary School in 1957 and relocated to Angelo Canna Town Park in 1995.

The fair serves as an annual showcase for agriculture in Greene County, which had 201 farms spanning 30,213 acres in 2022, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Census of Agriculture. The average farm covered 150 acres, and agricultural products sold that year had a total market value of about $25 million.

The focus on young exhibitors comes as American agriculture confronts a generational challenge. According to the latest federal Census of Agriculture, the average U.S. producer was about 58 years old in 2022. Producers under 35 accounted for 9% of the total, while those 65 and older outnumbered them by more than four to one. Federal research has identified high startup costs and limited access to land as significant obstacles for beginning farmers.

The industry is also consolidating. The United States had 7% fewer farms in 2022 than it did five years earlier, while the average farm grew 5% to 463 acres.

At the Greene County Youth Fair, preparing another generation for agricultural work begins with smaller responsibilities: keeping an animal’s enclosure clean, learning how to handle livestock, and explaining that work to visitors.

These lessons weren’t all procedural. On Saturday, children climbed onto tractors for a weight-pulling competition.

Also, Hudson River Air Dogs, a Columbia County nonprofit, hosted a dog-jumping competition that afternoon. Owners came from as far away as Vermont, and their dogs leapt into a marked pool to retrieve toys as organizers measured the distance of each jump.

Each dog had two attempts as spectators cheered from the sidelines.

Herbie Johnson, a dog owned by Peter and Mary Beth O’Mahoney of Jewett, jumped more than 20 feet. Mary Beth O’Mahoney said competitors tailor their approach to each dog.

“It depends on your dog and which way you want to do it,” she said. “Some people will sit the dog at the back and they’ll run and throw the object, some people hold the dog, whatever works.”

For families who return year after year, the fair is also a place to pass agricultural traditions to another generation.

Kaitlin Myhre of Greenville participated in the fair as a child. This year, she brought her own children. Her son, Lucas Fenton, won best in show with his goat, Sugar.

“My older son does more stuff with setup, takedown, junior super, and then my younger son has milk goats, meat goats, and sheep,” she said.

Her niece and nephew also showed animals at the fair for the first time this year.

“We’re getting them started,” she said.

Myhre said the responsibilities of raising and showing animals offer children lessons that extend beyond agriculture.

“It teaches them so many important lessons that they’re not learning anymore,” she said. “When they have to talk to people and explain to people what they’re doing, when they’re cleaning their animals, the one goat is getting milked and people don’t realize goats even give milk.”

For Myhre, those daily responsibilities are the point.

“It gives the kids a lot of really important life skills,” she said.

Photos by Roy Gumpel/The Overlook.

Connor Greco is a staff reporter for The Overlook covering Windham, Hunter, and surrounding Greene County communities. Send correspondence to connor@theoverlooknews.com.