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For ongoing coverage of the Northwestern Michigan Fair, including the full schedule, news, photo gallery and more, see record-eagle.com/fair.

Related Photos

  • Autumn Maycroft, 4, of Traverse City rests in the shade with prizes won with her dad, Kevin Maycroft (not pictured), at the Northwestern Michigan Fair on Tuesday afternoon. Record-Eagle/Jan-Michael Stump

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  • Carousel Club 4-H leader Rose Bohrer sprays Juliette, a female Hampshire pig raised by Rosalyn Palenkas, on Tuesday at the Northwestern Michigan Fair. Record-Eagle/Jan-Michael Stump

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August 11, 2010

Keeping fair animals cool is hard work

4-H competitors use hoses and spray bottles

BY SHERI McWHIRTER smcwhirter@record-eagle.com

TRAVERSE CITY — Alyssa Saxton squirted water from a spray bottle onto her hog Lu's feet, an attempt to keep him cool on a hot, dead-of-summer day.

"You have to start with their feet and work your way up," said Saxton, 16, of Kingsley.

The old adage about sweating like a pig is really a misnomer, said Saxton and her friend, Hailey Joppich, 15, of Kingsley.

"They can't sweat. They don't have sweat glands," Joppich said.

The girls worked to keep their hogs cool in the heat and humidity, just part of their annual experience at the Northwestern Michigan Fair in Traverse City, south of Chum's Corners.

Megan Ankerson, 16, of Traverse City, used a hose to douse her Black Angus steer named Blue, cleaning him for the show ring and also keeping him cool as temperatures climbed close to 90 degrees on Tuesday.

"We just try to water them more, keep them hydrated," Ankerson said.

Cattle will twitch or tremble, pant and breathe heavily when the heat becomes too much. That's when it's time to hose them down, she said.

"They don't eat as much. They need water, just like we do," said Ronda Olds, of Kingsley, who helped her grandson, Devyn Richards, 11, with his steer. "Their temperament changes. They get a little more rambunctious, so we spray them down more often."

And it's not just the big critters that need help to handle the heat.

Rabbits are perhaps the most susceptible to heat-related problems, said Denise Bretzke, a fair volunteer from Benzonia.

"We have ice water bottles we fill up and freeze at night and hand them out during the hottest part of the day," she said.

The caged rabbits may not understand the measure, but definitely cuddle up to the chilly bottles for the coolness, Bretzke said.

Her granddaughter Abby, 9, walked around the rabbit barn with a spray bottle to mist the bunnies, another way to keep the animals cool.

"Sometimes you go under the cage to get them," Abby said while squirting a big, long-eared rabbit from below. "Sometimes you want to get their ears. They really like it."

A little bit of Gatorade in their water bottles also helps hydrate the rabbits, Bretzke said, though overheated bunnies also get an occasional reprieve with a couple hours inside an air-conditioned motorhome.

Fair-goers shouldn't expect much change in weather conditions this week, said Scott Rozanski, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

"We are above normal, but not by a lot. It's the humidity value that's been so high," he said. "It makes it feel a whole lot worse. More so than not, that's what we're feeling."

Rozanski said normal high temperatures for this time of year are around 80 degrees, but this week they are fluctuating in the upper 80s.

Humidity levels are normally in the lower-50s percentile, but currently are running between 65 and 75 percent, he said.

Last year's high temperatures for fair week averaged about 20 degrees lower than this year, Rozanski said.

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