Before the fair wakes up
Exhibitors are hard at work with livestock as the sun rises
-Messenger photo by Kelli Bloomquist <br> Scarlet Yates, 7, helps her bottle calf, Eli, drink his breakfast Thursday morning at the Webster County Fairgrounds. Yates is part of the Future Showman 4-H group.
-Messenger photo by Kelli Bloomquist <br>Hayden Seil, 10, brushes her cow early Thursday morning at the Webster County Fairgrounds. This is Seil’s second year in the show ring.
-Messenger photo by Kelli Bloomquist <br>Layne Condon, 11, rinses off his sheep, Betsy, early Thursday morning as he prepares for the upcoming livestock show.
-Messenger photo by Kelli Bloomquist <br>Dane Ott, 11, mixes up feed for his pigs early Thursday morning at the Webster County Fair. Ott showed the pigs in the show ring Thursday evening.
-Messenger photo by Kelli Bloomquist <br> Scarlet Yates, 7, helps her bottle calf, Eli, drink his breakfast Thursday morning at the Webster County Fairgrounds. Yates is part of the Future Showman 4-H group.
-Messenger photo by Kelli Bloomquist <br>Hayden Seil, 10, brushes her cow early Thursday morning at the Webster County Fairgrounds. This is Seil’s second year in the show ring.
-Messenger photo by Kelli Bloomquist <br>Layne Condon, 11, rinses off his sheep, Betsy, early Thursday morning as he prepares for the upcoming livestock show.
-Messenger photo by Kelli Bloomquist <br>Dane Ott, 11, mixes up feed for his pigs early Thursday morning at the Webster County Fair. Ott showed the pigs in the show ring Thursday evening.
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By 6 a.m, the Webster County Fairgrounds are already alive. Fans hum inside livestock barns. Hoses spray down cattle and hogs. Buckets rattle against concrete, and sleepy-eyed 4-H and FFA exhibitors move from stall to stall, checking feed, filling water buckets, and preparing for another day at the 2026 Webster County Fair.
While most visitors won't arrive until later in the morning, these early hours are among the most important of the day. During a week of sweltering temperatures, with heat indexes nearing 95 degrees, Webster County's 4-H and FFA exhibitors spend the first hours of each day feeding, watering, washing and grooming their livestock, making sure the animals are healthy, comfortable and ready for judging before the midway comes to life.
"My grandpa usually gets up early to feed the pigs," said 11-year-old Dane Ott who was one of the first 4-H'ers into the hog barn Thursday morning. "Today it's my job, even this early in the morning."
Ott showed his pigs in the show ring Thursday evening. This is his second year showing pigs.
Scarlett Yates, 7, was helping her bottle calf, Eli, drink his morning bottle in the cattle barns. Yates is part of the Future Showman program and also helps with calf chores at home.
Fourth generation 4-H'er, Hayden Seil, 10, was busy brushing her cow as the sun rose. Seil won the Future Showman cattle contest last year and will be showing in the ring on Friday.
"I like the fair," said Seil. "I'm excited to show in the ring again. That's my favorite part."
Layne Condon, 11, was keeping himself and his sheep, Betsy and Michael Jackson, cool with a hose down outside the sheep barn.
"We have to keep them cool and they need to stay clean," said Condon.
As the morning wore on, the barns gradually grew busier. Parents arrived with coffee in hand, siblings wandered the aisles and the first fairgoers began making their way through the gates.
But by then, the day's most important work had already been done. Before the rides started spinning, b