Life in the Sheep Barn at the Nebraska State Fair

Aug. 28, 2019, 4 p.m. ·

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Patty Wilson with her Southdown sheep at the Nebraska State Fair. (Photo by Jack Williams, NET News)

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The best way to find out what the Nebraska State Fair is all about is to step inside the sheep barn. It’s where a lot of hard work and love of animals come together in one place. Getting sheep ready to show at the State Fair means sacrifice and a lot of know-how.


Dick Wilson tells is like it is. He’s from Hazard, Nebraska and sits in a chair just off one of the long rows of enclosures in the sheep barn at the Nebraska State Fair.

“Around our place, the sheep are first, the dog is second and I’m like Nebraska football, once in a while I crack the Top 25,” Wilson quipped with a smile.

Wilson’s wife, Patty, is a few feet away, grooming one of her seven Southdown sheep, a breed developed in England in the 1700’s.

“This is what she lives for. Period,” he said. “We had two kids. I think she loves the sheep more than the kids.”

For the Wilsons, showing sheep is a hobby that keeps them on the road during fair season. For Patty Wilson, it’s all about making sure her animals are comfortable.

“If it’s hot, they lay under a fan. They get clean bedding. If it’s really hot, they get rinsed, and they get cooled off,” she said. “Basically, we try to keep them comfortable.”

Cory Korth sheering a Cheviot sheep at the Nebraska State Fair. (Photo by Jack Williams, NET News)

Down the way, Jansyn and Ted VanHorn are getting one of their Shropshire sheep ready to show later in the day. The father-daughter team is from Garfield, Kansas.

“This is our family activity. Family bonding at sheep shows,“ Ted VanHorn said while sheering one of their show sheep.

“We never went on vacations growing up,” Jansyn Van Horn said with a smile. “We went to sheep shows.”

She says this is a lot of work.

“Feed them twice a day, morning and night. Walking, haltering, leading, grazing, washing, sheering,” she said.

She’s afraid this kind of thing is endangered, with all the other distractions in today’s society. It’s something she wants to hold on to.

“It’s like of like a dying culture, the livestock, which everybody moving to the suburbs and in the city,” she said. “It’s just something you don’t have a lot of anymore. They’re shrinking, so you still have to keep it up, even though it’s not everyday society.”

Across the way, Cory Korth gets one of his Cheviot sheep ready to show. Korth is from Blair, Nebraska and is helping his kids get the animals ready.

“Got a little bit of wool that I need to fluff out and trim and smooth up, just to make it look pretty, yep, that’s we have left for this one,” he said.

Korth says he’s been showing sheep since he was a kid and his children are doing the same.

Show sheep at the Nebraska State Fair in Grand Island. (Photo by Jack Williams, NET News)

“A lot of the people here and have coming here for so many years,” Korth said. “My kids know probably half the people in the barn and they know them and just kind of watch them grow up.”

He says showing sheep at this level is a process.

“We’re starting a couple of months in advance, trying to get them used to it,” he said. “Just getting used to them being handled and standing still and some of them it works better than others.”

Emily Nold is a high school senior from Brooking, South Dakota and is ready to show her sheep at the Nebraska State Fair. And she admits the obvious.

“They’re pretty spoiled,” she said.

She says raising livestock has taught her some important lessons.

“I mean, obviously, responsibility and taking care and just being alert of things, but also communication skills is a big thing and sales skills and being able to work with people and also having an incentive to work for something you’re passionate about,” she said.

Life skills she’s learned inside the sheep barn at the Nebraska State Fair.