Barn duty big part of Adams County Fair week

OTHELLO - It's just true that farm animals, pigs, cattle and sheep, are messy. They leave things behind, which is OK on the farm. But when they're in the pens at the Adams County Fair - well, there it's not so OK.

There are, after all, people who expect the sidewalks and paths through the barns to be clean, or at least mostly clean. Pigs, sheep and cattle can't clean up behind themselves, any more than they can go get a bucket of water to fill their water bowls on a hot day. That's the rationale behind barn duty.

Every 4-H club and FFA chapter has somebody on barn duty all day. "It's a really - easy process," Amanda Conger, of Royal City, said, who served her turn in a comfortable spot in the sheep barn.

"We walk around and check on things. Sweep a lot," Conger said. "We check on our sheep, and if they're too hot we get them some water."

Each animal pen is filled with wood shavings, which is good bedding material but can make a big mess. In addition, it gets hot in those barns, and the animals are limited in their options when it comes to staying cool.

It's up to the person on barn duty to keep water buckets filled and, in the case of the pig barn, have a spray bottle handy. A pig's internal cooling system works better with frequent dousings of cool water, Reyd Goyne, of Moses Lake, said.

And for pigs it's important to keep the water bucket filled. "If there's no water in there, the pigs will get dehydrated. And it just doesn't look good (in the show ring)," he said.

Duty in the swine barn requires a little more work. "They make a lot of messes," Goyne said.

"Usually you sweep, check their water and if you have homework you do your homework," Karsyn Ecclestone, of Pasco, said.

At the Adams County Fair, each 4-H club and FFA chapter has a share of the barn, and each group is responsible for its turf. Saturday is the busiest day at the fair and the hardest day on barn duty, Goyne said.