County Fair

Black Hawk County

​​​​​County Fair: July 16th - July 20th, 2023

State Fair: August 10th - August 20th, 2023

 

2023 Fair Information

This website provides links and help sheets to everything 4-H and FFA families may need to sign-up and prepare for the Black Hawk County Fair. Be sure to review this website to find the most up-to-date information. As you have questions, please email Diane wolfejd@iastate.edu, and we will do our best to provide answers as we have them.

Preparing youth for the fair 

2022 Fair Photos 

2023 Fair Schedule

 

STEM Fair

STEM Fair at the Black Hawk County 4-H and FFA Fair,
Wednesday, July 19th 1:00 - 4:00pm in Estel Hall

Area families invited to STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) Day at the Fair!
The Fair has gone STEM!  The Black Hawk County 4-H and FFA Fair’s annual STEM Festival on July 19th will provide fairgoers an opportunity to explore hands-on STEM activities. The Festival, to be held Wednesday July 19, 1 pm to 4 pm in Estel Hall on the National Cattle Congress fair grounds, is FREE to the public.

July 1st Checklist - Applies to all 4-H & FFA Exhibitors

Being worked on! 

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FairEntry Open

Broiler Chick Project

Orders must be in by May 18th 

Chick pick-up at the Extension Office May 25th 8am 

Order Form 

Award Applications

Pie Contest

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Please enter our pie contest

We would greatly appreciate your support of our 4-H Fundraiser!

Bring a Pie for donation or Buy a homemade pie!

Bring Pies to the Pepsi Pavilion, Thursday, July 20th, at 12:30pm to be judged. Or buy a pie at Family Picnic in the Pepsi Pavilion starting at 4:00pm! Fun for all! Open to the Public!
Questions call 319-234-6811!

Exhibitor Information

Static Exhibits

General Static Exhibitors 

 
Preparing for Fair
 
Source Citing 
 
Elements & Principles of Design 
Photography 
Food & Nutrition 
 
Horticulture 
Poster Communication Project 

 

 

 

Awardrobe Clothing Events
4-Her's, Consider entering a Fashion Revue, $15 Challenge or Fashion Revue and get on the runway at the Iowa State Fair!
Awardrobe Information from the State 
 
 

 

Tips for Fashion and $20 Challenge: 

 

 

Communication Events 
Communication - Working Exhibits 

 

 

 

 

Livestock Exhibits 

General Livestock Exhibitors 

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YQCA

 

All 4-H/FFA animal exhibitors (4th-12th grade) must be certified in YQCA, except those exhibiting only horse, pet, and/or dog. This is required of exhibitors at county and state fair.  Must be completed by July 1, 2021 www.yqcaprogram.org

Beef
  • Drug Affidavits are required for all beef animals at fair. Remember to record all treatments given to your animals. 
  • Breeding Beef must be ID'd in 4hOnline by May 15th. If you originally weighed your' heifer in as a market heifer, the animal does NOT need to be ID'd again in 4hOnline as a breeding heifer. It just needs to be entered correctly on Fairentry. All heifers MUST have birth date listed. All heifers will need tattoos in 4hOnline to be eligible for the state fair plus one of the following: registration #, calfhood vaccination #, or 4-H ear tag - registered heifers must have registration number listed. 
Horse
Sheep and Meat Goat 
  • Drug Affidavits are required for all sheep and meat goat at fair. Remember to record all treatments given to your animals
  • All market lambs, commercial breeding ewes, and state fair sheep, as well as all market meat goats, state fair meat goats, and breeding does does must attend weigh-in
  • Breeding does with tattoos do not need a 4-H tag but can put one in if preferred. Birth dates are required for all breeding does. Please bring birth date information at weigh-in for those attending. 
  • All state fair sheep and meat goat need to attend weigh-in to be retinal imaged for eligibilty
  • ID animals in 4hOnline by May 15
  • All sexually intact sheep and goats must have scrapies tag in the ear by fair time. 
Swine
  • If you are a new swine exhibitor, you will need to a Premise ID#. Contact the office for help.
  • Drug Affidavits are required for all swine at fair. Remember to record all treatments given to your animals. 
  • Breeding gilts must be ID'd in 4hOnline by May 15th
  • You do NOT need to a show market or derby hog in order to show breeding gilts
  • Ear notches are required for all pigs 
  • State Fair Pigs: DNA punch tags are required. The deadline to identify these pigs is May 15th.
  • Premise Id Information 
Poultry 
Dairy
Pets
  • 4hOnline ID required by May 15th 
  • Dogs and cats must have rabies vaccination records at fair 
  • Dog ID Form
Rabbit
  • 4hOnline ID required by May 15th
  • Tattoos required before fair
  • State fair requires it in the left ear 

 

 

 

County Fair Info

Foods for Iowa 4-H Fair Guide 

Foods for Iowa 4-H Fair Link

Plan ahead for a successful fair experience. Use these guidelines to help select an acceptable product for exhibit, find an approved recipe source, and identify the appropriate preparation method.

Foods for Iowa 4-H Fairs - Quick Reference Guide (2023)

This replaces 4H 3023 - Inappropriate Food Exhibits For Iowa 4-H Fairs.

If you have the permalink linked on your website, it will automatically take your families to the updated version (versus having the old PDF version linked on your website). Permalink for this product: https://store.extension.iastate.edu/product/6434

Difference of the 01/2022 version and the 12/2022 version:

Maple Syrup

in the notes section, they updated the resource link

 

Frosting and Glazes

under acceptable examples, they changed the traditional buttercream (butter, sugar, flavoring, liquid) to traditional vanilla buttercream (butter, powdered sugar, extract, milk) under acceptable examples, Glazes made with powdered sugar and water only (added “only”) under unacceptable examples, removed the word “traditional” for German chocolate frosting made from scratch under unacceptable examples, it is now fresh juice or zest (added “zest”)

Cakes

carrot is now listed as an unacceptable exhibit (and therefore, they removed the specification for carrot cakes in the method notes) added under method notes: “no baking in metal cans”

Cookies and Bars

lemon bars are now listed as an unacceptable exhibit

Quick Breads

added under method notes: “no baking in metal cans”

Pies

ALL pecan pies are now listed as an unacceptable exhibit (previously, traditional pecan pie was listed as acceptable)