Cattle show judged a close competition

MARION – When judge Bob Agle announced they'd won champion and reserve champion, Jessica Bayles and Justin Townsend were both surprised.

Bayles and Townsend were this year's winners of the County Fair's born, bred and raised (BBR) market steer show on Friday. In the beef feeder show before that, Chase Aiken and Brandon Bosley took champion and reserve champion.

Aiken also won the junior husbandry award with a cash prize of $100, and Trisha Seckel and Annslea Schaber earned $500 scholarships.

"It felt nervewracking, because I honestly wasn't thinking that I was going to get it," Bayles said afterward. "I was really shocked and so happy."

Townsend said, "I didn't expect it (but) it was a good calf."

Before the champion drive, Townsend won first in Class 1 by default and Bayles won first in Class 6 for BBR. Aiken placed first for Class 5 of beef feeder and second in Class 6, which Bosley won. First and second place winners for each class advanced to the champion drive.

Before naming the winners, Agle said that this year's BBR show had four to five cattle that performed very well but the months of preparation Bayles and Townsend gave paid off.

"You have to really work with them to get prepared for the fair, and it can be challenging because sometimes they don't want to move and you have to get them to as best as you can and hope for the best," said Bayles, who started raising cattle five to six years ago after seeing her cousins and sister raise them.

She began preparing hers for the fair last November, washing them regularly. Townsend was also starting to raise his around that time.

Once Aiken started working with his cattle, he would regularly wash and dry them and fitted it with the halter, an essential tool to guide cattle around the arena.

Aiken, 12, and Bosley, 15, both got started around four to five years ago as well while Townsend began showing cattle two years ago. Aiken's uncle introduced him to the trade, while Townsend's friend Zach Watkins recommended he show cattle, as Watkins had been in competitions in past Marion County fairs.

All four plan to show animals at next year's fair, though Townsend said he may focus on hogs or sheep instead of cattle.

"I'm going to do it until I can't do it anymore," said Bayles.

Saturday at the fair

•Junior Livestock Sale, 9 a.m., Evers Arena.

•Rides open at noon.

•Steel Creek performs, 7:30 p.m., grandstand.

•Fireworks display, 10 p.m., grandstand.