The 2023 Cass County Fair got into full swing on Thursday night with the Little Miss/Mister and Queen and King contests. The event was moved to the outdoor show ring to provide some relief from the hot weather and a large crowd was on hand for the crowning.

10 queen candidates and four king candidates competed for the titles this year. The candidates went through some preliminary judging in both group and individual interviews. Judges also considered their leadership and involvement along with their communication skills. All four king candidates and the top four queen candidates were able to share a bit more about themselves at the event Thursday night and then answer a random question from their peers for final judging.

At the end of the night Natalie Behnken was crowned 2023 Queen and Dylan Comes was crowned 2023 King. Behnken is the daughter of Blaine and Kim Behnken and is a member of the C&M Champions 4-H club and CAM FFA. Comes is the son of Chad and Tresa Comes and is a member of the Atlantic FFA.

The Princess award went to Rio Johnson of the Grove H.O.T. 4-H club and Atlantic FFA. The Prince award went to Tristan Becker of the Union Leaders 4-H club and CAM FFA. Miss Congeniality went to Claire Pellett of the Pymosa 4-H Club and Atlantic FFA. Mr. Congeniality was awarded to Comes.

The Little Miss contest had 17 entrants and the Little Mister contest had 11 entrants. The Little Miss drawing was won by Eve Erickson and the Little Mister drawing winner was Milo Sager.

Watch the full KJANTV broadcast of the event below.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Day two of the 2023 Cass County Fair, Friday, features several scheduled events. The Rabbit Show kick’s things off at 8-a.m., followed by part two of the Horse Show, at 9-a.m. The 4-H & FFA Exhibits will be available for viewing at the Cass County Community Center, from 10-a.m. until 8-p.m., Friday, and a Dog Show is set to begin at 11-a.m.

Friday afternoon, Atlantic Elks Bingo will be held from 2-until 5-p.m., and the Clover Kids Animal Show is at 3:30-p.m. The Building Showcase at the Community Center, is at 5:30-p.m., with Mutton Busting at 6:30, and a Rodeo/Bull Ride at 8-p.m., Friday, concludes the day’s activities.

The Clover Kids Style Show is an exciting addition to the fair, that aims to provide young Clover Kid members with an opportunity to showcase their fashion sense and strut their stuff on the runway alongside their 4-H counterparts. While the Style Show for regular 4-H members has been around for a while, this new addition is meant to encourage more participation from the Clover Kid members and get them more involved in the fairgrounds. This event is open to the public as part of the fair’s Friday Evening Building Showcase on July 28th Starting at 5:30pm.

4-H’ers across Cass County displayed their skills in creating and purchasing outfits for all purposes during the Clothing Selection and Fashion Revue Contest on July 11th at the Cass County Community Center. Participants competed in three divisions: Fashion Revue, New Clothing Selection, and Used Clothing Selection (Thrifty Challenge). Even though the judging took place before the fair, the public will be able to see the results of this hard work during the style show and awards on Friday, July 28th at 5:30 pm during the Friday Evening Showcase in the Community Center at the fair! The style show features outfits sewn and/or purchased by 4-H members. Contest results will be announced following the style show.

Also on Friday, July 28th, the “Share the Fun” contest will take place in the Cass County Community Center at 5:30PM as part of this year’s Friday Evening Building Showcase. Share the Fun entries can be an individual event, small group, large group, or an entire club. Members can do a skit, sing a song, dance or perform other types of entertainment for the pure enjoyment of the audience and judge. Groups will be judged on quality, showmanship, appearance, and FUN!! The public is welcome, and encouraged, to grab a seat in the audience and watch these amazing performers. So come out, have a laugh or two, and support the 4-Hers who have put in many hours of preparation just for you! This year Grove H.O.T. 4-H club has put together a skit to celebrate their 100th birthday. Other acts include a flute duet, piano solo, and more!

The Table Setting Contest is growing in popularity, and Cass County is on its third-year of having the contest, with an increase in the number of entries every year. The contest is a fun way for youth to learn how to properly set a table, plan nutritious meals, and express originality and creativity. Exhibitors choose a theme, present to a judge, express knowledge of food, nutrition and food safety, and have fun in planning a special occasion meal for entertaining. All entries are photographed and will be displayed at the fair for public viewing in the Community Center. Awards will be presented during Friday Evening’s Building Showcase at 5:30-p.m., in the Community Center. Winners will be chosen from each age division (Junior, Intermediate, Senior) and in each category, Casual or Formal. Those winners will have the opportunity to advance to the Regional Table Setting Contest which will be held on Saturday, August 5th at the Cass County Community Building.

Carnival Rides are available from Noon until 10-p.m. each day of the fair (through Monday). There’s mechanical bull riding Friday, from 1-p.m. until the time of the rodeo, and all-day on Saturday. The Cass County Fair is FREE. There is no charge for admission, parking, exhibits or Grandstand entertainment! For more information, find a full fair schedule HERE.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa DNR is reopening the renovated Pikes Peak State Park campground near McGregor today. Northeast Parks supervisor Detra Dettmann says the campground got a complete overhaul. “There’s new roadways in the campground, we’ve eliminated the non-electric sites, we’ve got more pull-through sites, and we’ve upgraded new dump station. We’ve got fewer sites, so they’re more quality sites instead of quantity,” Dettman says. They are now taking reservations for the campground. “This campground will now be 100% reserveable. Before it was 75%, and then that other 25% was for walk up or first come first serve only,” she says. “And now we’ve got the capability for folks to reserve all those in advance or on site.”

We are in the heart of the summer camping season — but she says the Pikes Peak campground is more desired later in the year. “Our busiest time actually at this park is as we get into fall leaf season. And whole the park draws a lot of people just because of the wonderful views of the Mississippi River and beautiful trails, but the campground as well will be packed,” Dettman says.

Pikes Peak State Park. (DNR photo)

She says the re-opening was delayed a bit because they were waiting for the grass to grow in. Dettman says northeast Iowa has seen a lot of variability in the weather this summer. “For example, down in Backbone, which is about an hour south of Pikes Peak, they’ve had pretty good rains. And so they’ve been keeping up with the mowing pretty nonstop. And then at Pikes Peak, at one point I looked at the rainfall map and it just showed like a red spot right in Clayton County right over Pikes Peak where they had been really short,” Dettman says. “But then they got a couple of good doses which really helped jumpstart things. So we’re not quite where we need to be but it’s better than we weren’t early in the summer certainly.”

Dettman says they hope to work out any problems with the new systems at Pikes Peak yet this summer as they prepare for the fall.  “We’re really excited to have it open and this will be the first we can kind of test everything to make sure it’s working. So there may be glitches be patient if there are we’ll work through those as best we can,” she says.

You can make reservations online for Pikes Peak State Park Campground starting at 9 a.m., with the same-day window closing at 11:59 p.m. each day. Reservations will be accepted through the end of November, with the campground closing over the winter from December through February. Go to iowastateparks.reserveamerica.com to reserve your spot.

(Radio Iowa) – The owners of the Iowa Yak Ranch are giving tours of their farm near Exira and will have two of their animals in the Iowa State Fair’s Avenue of Breeds as they make the case that raising yaks — in Iowa — can be profitable. Neal Meseck and his wife began raising yaks in late 2019 and they now have a herd of 20. “We raise yaks for food, fiber and fun,” he says. Yaks are known for their distinctive long hair.

“They are not as large as beef cattle. They may appear that way due to the all the hair,” Meseck says. For example, a mature yak cow weighs about 650 pounds — that’s about half as large as a beef cow — and beef bulls are heavier than yak bulls, too. “They eat about a third of what a beef animal will eat, so it’s a little more economical to feed them as well,” Meseck says. Meseck has been selling yak meat from other producers just to get people interested in trying it and in September, he’s scheduled to have the first yak from his herd butchered.

“Same lean and cholesterol content as turkey breast,” Meseck says, “but it has more of a beefy flavor to it.” Yaks have three layers of hair. The outer layer grows up to a foot long and it’s coarse, like a horse’s mane. The inner layer is about two inches long and soft, like cashmere. Yaks shed it once a year. “We’ve been collecting that for two years and I take it to Maxwell, Iowa to have it spun into yarn and then we have yarn for sale,” Meseck says. “I’ve got about 60 skeins of yard available as well and that is from from our own yaks.”

A yak at the Iowa Yak Ranch.

Yaks have long been used as pack animals at higher elevations in places like Tibet. Meseck says his yaks are perfectly comfortable in Iowa winters, but he’s providing his herd extra water and shade this time of year. Meseck says given the profit potential from the sale of yak meat and spinning the hair the animals shed into yarn, raising yaks could be a good option for other Iowa farmers. :We are, I think, positioned for growth in Iowa,” Meseck says. “It’s just a matter of getting the word out.”

The Iowa Yak Ranch is also part of next month’s “Evolution of the Heartland” tour in the Manning and Audubon County areas.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – A full week of activities during the Cass County Fair begins tomorrow (Thursday), in Atlantic. The Horse Show takes place at 2-p.m., with the 4-H/FFA Food Sale at 5-p.m., in the lobby of the Cass County Community Center next to the fairgrounds. The 4-H/FFA Exhibits are also open to the public at 5-p.m.

Everything brought in for judging will be offered for sale, minus a small piece where the judge cut out a sample. Only the baked goods selected for State Fair will not be sold, as the whole item will be on display throughout the Cass County Fair. Recipes of each baked item are even included, so you can bake that award-winning banana bread for yourself! Items on sale vary depending on exhibits created by local 4-Hers. Cookies, bars, cakes, pies, breads, muffins and rolls are all common offerings. Fresh garden produce and canned goods are occasionally offered as well.

The featured meal Thursday at the Food Stand is a Roast Pork Sandwich.

Thursday night, the Little Miss and Mister Contest gets underway at 7-p.m., followed by the King and Queen Contest.  Officials with the Cass County announced Wednesday evening, that the Little Miss, Little Mister, King/Queen and Senior Recognition events Thursday evening, having been moved to the Outdoor Show Ring, instead of in front of the grandstand, due to the extreme heat.

The Queen contestants will be interviewed live on KJAN. Senior Recognition begins at 8-p.m., along with the Teen Dance, from 8-to 11-p.m. The dance is open to 6th through 12th graders. Officials say the following 14 4-H seniors will be recognized for their many hours of hard work, dedication, and leadership to the Cass County 4-H program. They include:

~Elizabeth Anderson – Bear Grove Blazers

~ Sydney Becker – Union Leaders & CAM FFA

~ Breeana Bower- C&M Champions

~ Brett Dreager – Bear Grove Blazers & Atlantic FFA

~ Dayna Dreager- Pymosa

~ CeCe Hensley- Union Leaders

~ Rio Johnson- Grove H.O.T. & Atlantic FFA

~ Emma Mundorf- Griswold Clubsters

~ Keira Olson- Pymosa

~ Carter Pellett- Pymosa

~ Abbigael Richter – Grove H.O.T. & Atlantic FFA

~ Tessa Ritter – Pymosa

~ Natalye School – Benton Franklin & CAM FFA

~Trista Swain – Pleasant Noble United & Griswold FFA

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The 2023 Cass County (IA) Fair begins its week-long run in earnest on Thursday, but some pre-fair activities will be held today, including:

• 4-H/FFA Static Exhibit Judging, and Clover Kids Static Showcase, both beginning at 9-a.m. (those events conclude at 2:30-p.m.)
• 10:30-a.m.: Bucket of Junk Judging will take place.

The Bucket of Junk contest was introduced to the Cass County Fair in 2013 by Superintendent Duane Weirch. With the help of Weirch Welding Plus, LLC in Lewis, this growing contest has been a way for 4-H and FFA members to explore the welding project area and create a unique exhibit for the county fair showcase. Each year, Wierch puts together multiple 5-gallon buckets of assorted metal “junk” pieces. Youth often participate in the contest year after year taking on the new challenge bucket.

The Bucket of Junk contest combines both the technical and creative side of welding, teaching youth a valuable skill and challenging their imaginations in the process. All buckets include the same number of items and are as close to identical as possible. Participants can clean, weld, cut, bolt, fasten, bend, shape, paint or finish the items however they chose to BUT they cannot add any additional pieces. Bolts are the exception and may be used as fasteners but not as decorative items.

Exhibitors will meet with a judge one-on-one to share their finished projects and discuss what they have learned. Contestants will be judged on creativity & artistic style, technical welding skills, percent of “junk” used from bucket, and knowledge of project. Fairgoers can view exhibits from July 27^th to July 31^st and cast their vote for the “people’s choice” award. Winners from judging and people’s choice will be announced at 4:00pm on Monday, July 31^st in the Community Building. Exhibitors have the option to auction off their completed projects at the fair fundraising auction on Monday evening, immediately following the Parade of Champions at 5:45pm in the outdoor show ring.

(Iowa DNR News) – The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Forestry – Fire Program, working in coordination with the US Forest Service, has grant money available for Iowa’s rural fire departments to help battle wildfires. Applications are due on Oct. 16. The grant provides 50 percent reimbursement for wildland fire equipment with a maximum reimbursement grant of $4,500 per department.

The grants offer funding assistance for wildfire suppression equipment, slide-in units, hoses, nozzles, adapters, portable tanks and pumps, personal protective equipment and communications equipment.  Additionally, if a fire department has a special need that can be tied directly to wildfire suppression, this grant allows for such special requests.

Gail Kantak, state wildland fire supervisor for the Iowa DNR, said fire departments should send her a Wildland Fire Report whenever they respond to a wildland fire or provide assistance to a prescribed or controlled wildland fire. Departments actively returning these reports receive priority points in the Volunteer Fire Assistance grant application scoring process.

All Iowa volunteer fire departments were mailed information about the 2023 Volunteer Fire Assistance Grant. The grant application package and the Wildland Fire Report form are available online at www.iowadnr.gov/fire.

(Radio Iowa) – A change in state law on July 1st now allows you to buy raw milk, but if you are thinking about trying it, an expert says you need to be aware of the importance of proper handling. Iowa State University Extension Dairy Specialist, Fred Hall, says those who grew up on a dairy farm know that keeping things clean is key. “And I think that’s one of the difficulties we’re going to find with folks who didn’t grow up with that mindset, the importance of that sanitary routine that you make sure things are clean, because bacteria can get away from you really quick,” Hall says. Halls says you should check out the dairy where you buy raw milk to see that it passes the standard.

“If you’re going to be a consumer, make sure you’re comfortable with the people you’re buying from. “Walk around look at their calves, look at how they milk, make sure that yeah it looks clean I trust this producer,” he says. Hall says raw milk needs to be kept properly cooled, which means you can’t leave it in your car while you are out and about.

“You know, they buy a couple of gallons and decide they have to make a stop at the supermarket or go to the kids’ soccer game. And that milk goes from 40 degrees to 80,” he says. “They’ve introduced an opportunity for that bacteria to grow.” Hall says even pasteurized milk can have problems in left too long in a warm car while you are out during the summer.

(Radio Iowa) – As temperatures in Iowa are forecast to climb into the mid to upper 90s all week, the prolonged heat is hard on people, pets — and plants. Angie Rieck Hinz (REEK-hines), a field agronomist with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, says farmers will be watching for signs of crop stress, though she says her region of north-central Iowa is in decent shape heading into the heat wave. She says this area is lucky as it got a little more rain that other areas, though it’s been two weeks since a significant rain and we’re overdue. Some corn hasn’t tasseled yet and Rieck Hinz fears the hot, dry weather might impact pollination.

She says the soybeans in north-central Iowa are doing well this summer, though she’s seen a few diseases on the plants, things like bacterial blight and frog-eye leaf spot. Forecasters say the heat wave will likely last through Friday, and perhaps right into the weekend, with a few outside chances for scattered showers.

(Radio Iowa) – Officials have begun planning for upgrades at a popular, state-owned campground in northwest Iowa. Jake Schaben of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources says it’s been decades since there have been major renovations at Gull Point State Park in the Iowa Great Lakes region.”It’s probably been at least 50 years since there have been any real improvements aside from upgrading some rest rooms facilities,” Schaben says. “This is going to focusing on roads and camp pads.” There are 112 campsites at the park, which is near Milford. About half have electrical hook-ups.

Schaben says the upgrades at Gull Point State Park may be similar to what was done at state owned campsites that are about 10 miles away. “Two years ago we finished up with a campground renovation up at the Marble Beach State Recreation Area on Spirit Lake,” Schaben says. “Got a lot of complements on the results we got with that by kind of expanding campsites and full-hook-up amenities and some 50 amp electricity.”

Gull Point State Park is the second most popular park in the state-owned park system. In 2021, one-point-six MILLION people visited the park. The D-N-R will host an open house at the lodge in Gull Point State Park on August 22nd to discuss the proposed campground upgrades with the public.