AT THE FAIRGROUNDS — The market livestock show ended Saturday afternoon the way the barn had expected it to since Thursday, which does not make it less of a thing to watch. Callie Tho, 15, of Misquah, led a 1,340-pound crossbred steer into the ring, set him up square, and stood at his head for eleven minutes while the judge walked and looked and walked again, and then got the handshake.

The steer, which Tho has been feeding since March and halter-breaking since April and getting up at five for since about the same time, went grand champion market beef and then champion overall. In the auction that followed, it brought $4.10 a pound from a buying pool assembled by the Lions Club, First State Bank, and two area implement dealers — a figure the barn regarded as strong and the buyers described as “about right for a champion and a kid who did the work.”

Reserve grand champion went to Owen Bergstrom’s market hog, which is worth noting because Bergstrom caught nearly every inning of Legion baseball this summer, played his last home game a week ago Friday, and then went straight into fair week and won reserve with an animal he has been walking at ten at night after games. Showmanship in the senior division went to Maren Vekved, in the intermediate to Liv Vekved, and in the junior to a Tho cousin, which caused a certain amount of comment and no argument whatsoever, the ribbons having been awarded by a judge from Aitkin County who is related to nobody here.

The barn had fifty-eight members enrolled this year, a record, and it showed — more animals, more classes, and a Saturday crowd that stood three deep along the rail for the champion drive. Eleven of those members earned State Fair trips with their projects, along with seven animals headed for the livestock barns in St. Paul this week, which means eleven Misquah kids will spend part of the first week of school four hours south (see this edition’s story on the calendar collision, which the barn regards as this year’s only sour note).