Whether you live in an urban environment or spend most of your time in a virtual world, us humans still depend heavily on agriculture for quality of life including our basic needs: food and clothing. Its absence from view in most urbanized communities does not diminish its importance, but that’s why the L.A. County Fair takes on the responsibility of keeping agriculture “in your face” without having to plug in to anything.

Five acres of the Fair, which runs Sept. 5 though Oct. 4, becomes an agricultural world better known as FairView Farms and the Big Red Barn? . It features a variety of exhibits and interactive displays that are creatively presented to lure fair guests in for the entertainment value while teaching some facet of animal husbandry or agriculture.

A big change this year will be the move of the Junior Livestock Auction from its traditional dates in September during the Fair to its own freestanding event in November. Judging of market animals raised by 4-H, FFA, college and other youth enrolled in agriculture programs will take place from Wednesday, Nov. 11 through Friday, Nov. 13 with the Junior Livestock Auction slated for Saturday, Nov. 14 in FairView Farms.

“The priority of this event has always been, and will continue to be, the support of agriculture,” said Jill Roman, the Fair’s attractions and competitions supervisor.

Even so, FairView Farms has become a mainstay at the annual Fair and will not be short on its livestock displays. Much like a reality show, special nuances are created to draw attention. New attractions are rotated in each year while retaining those proven to be popular draws. The latter by far is the maternity barns in which an animal birth is guaranteed to draw standing-room-only audiences. That in itself requires carefully timed pregnancies. The results: there will be at least one animal born daily during the 23-day run. Last year more than 75 animals were born during the Fair.

Each species has its own maternity “ward” and adjacent pasture named accordingly: Thummer’s Sow Pasture and Maternity Barn for piglets, Lily’s Sheep Pasture and Maternity Barn for lambs, Billy Goat’s Gruff Goat Pasture and Maternity Barn for kids (baby goats) and Daisy’s Cow Pasture and Maternity Barn for calves.

“At the very least, a chick will hatch,” said Roman. In the Little Red Hen Chicken Coop and Hatchery one can witness life beginning for baby chicks every day. As the Fair progresses, the display gradually fills up with chicks from one day old to 24 days old.

While some are still baffled by what came first, the chicken or the egg, it is made clear through a variety of other presentations where our food and clothing come from.

A California Crops display features the fruits, nuts, vegetables, grains and plant fibers grown throughout the state along with an organic garden and the Apple and Peach Orchard. And children get the chance to go shopping for produce, cereal, and other food groups grown on a farm, all with a kid-size shopping cart.

Better yet, the Farmhouse Kitchen located in the middle of a citrus grove is where children win awards for their cookies and cakes and learn to make the best farm fresh smoothies and the tastiest vegetables “from the farm to the table.”
Almost as puzzling as the chicken and egg scenario, is whether or not chocolate milk comes from brown cows.

However, that question is easily answered in the vast Dairy Education Barns and Milking Parlor, which includes a Dairy Council of California Classroom. On special cow computers consumers learn facts about the dairy industry via an online scavenger hunt and can watch movies about nutrition in the Dairy Council Movie Theater.

The Dairy Barn also demonstrates the process from “cow to carton” in a model dairy and milking parlor along with an on-site pasteurization facility. Milking demonstrations are offered four times daily, and can be topped off with a visit to the Moo Market, just outside the Milking Parlor, where guests can buy ice cold white and chocolate milk processed at the Fair. And in case you didn’t know, it is the flavoring that makes the milk chocolate, not the color of the cow.

With the help of a farmer and his wife, the public can learn how to make butter, cottage cheese and cream cheese as well as make ice cream the old fashioned way: with coffee cans and rock salt. Across the way, Dr. Bob’s Ice Cream Manufacturing Barn shows how the milk goes “from the cow to the cone.”

A variety of award winning-entries from the International Dairy Products Competition are shown in the dairy barn featuring milk, sour cream, cheese, ice cream, gelato, butter, yogurt and cultured liquid products judged the best in the world – some items coming from as far away as New Zealand.

Some attractions bring together unusual specimens and species. Included is the Polka Dot World of Animals, which features sheep, goats, rabbits, dogs, ducks, cattle and horses that have some form of a polka dot color pattern on their wool, fur, hair, feathers or hide. Also, the Watusi Cattle typically turn heads. One of the rarest of bovine, they have the largest and most dramatic horns of any breed of cattle. In this country some have been known to have horn bases that measure 28 inches in circumference, 8 inches in diameter and eight feet from tip to tip.

California Mustangs, which were highly regarded for their role in the development of California in the late 1800s, provide a unique showing of some of the purebred descendants of the horses that escaped the early Spanish explorers to America and have been cared for by the Bureau of Management and adopted by the public.

They might be creepy, but they are crucial in agriculture education. In Mrs. Millipede’s Insect Barn’s BUGS-The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, tarantulas, scorpions, millipedes, worms, mounted species of the world’s largest moths, huge walking sticks and unique colored bugs are shown and presentations center around how insects and invertebrates impact, for better or for worse, California’s growing fields.

The same focus is at the Rodent Round-Up exhibit where a plethora of global rodents are housed, including a 130-pound Capybara, African-crested porcupines, rats, mice, guinea pigs and chinchillas and their impact on agriculture is highlighted.

A new Big Farm BackYard will add another dimension to unusual farm habitants with frogs (tadpoles), rats, turtles, worms and birds along with a puppet show. Also, Farmers Little Helpers taking place in The Big Red Barn® offers a fun, light-hearted interactive show featuring alligators, frogs, crawdads and other animals that live on farms all over the world and help the farmers.

Getting up close and personal with the farm animals provides the best hands on experience, particularly for children. The Farm House Friends Petting Barn is one of the largest petting barnyards anywhere with approximately 125 gentle animals that are raised especially for Farm House Friends.

Other hands-on activities include Toby’s Tractor Fun Farmer for a Day where kids can drive mini John Deere tractors depicting the powerful tractors plowing the fields. Or they can ride a purebred Welsh pony, known worldwide for their beauty and strength as well as their wonderful dispositions.

In the Rawhide Dude Ranch folks get to try their skill at making rope on a hand turned machine, ride a giant rocking horse, throw a lasso or rope a calf via machine.

To get a grasp on the numerous breeds of livestock, several types of species have their own showcase. This includes the Cornucopia of Chickens for poultry and eggs and the Pig Patio housing many fine swine. New areas include McGregor‘s Garden featuring rabbit breeds and Caitlin’s Dairy Goat Barn with a display of goat breeds and an opportunity to milk a goat. Also debuting is Lily’s Barber Shop and Emporium where sheep are shorn by expert “barber” Michael Donavan of Australia, alongside a display of breeds.

Formerly the Cavalcade of Horses, the FairView Farms Corral will offer equine events such as the California Saddlebred Futurity Horse Show, Barrel racing and pole bending, 4-H and FFA horse shows and the International Draft Horse, Mule and Pleasure Driving Show.

Extracurricular entertainment is provided with the pig races in Thummer’s Barn, dogs in Abby’s Farm Dog Bunkhouse and a new Farm Maze where animal facts are provided throughout the journey.

The best news is, the journey through FairView Farms is included in the price of admission and requires no plug-ins!
It’s easy to get lost in the ocean that is America’s Kids. The L.A. County Fair opens Labor Day weekend, Sept. 5 – 7 and then Wednesday – Sunday, Sept. 9 – Oct. 4, closed Mondays and Tuesdays. Live thoroughbred racing Sept. 10 – 28, dark Mondays Sept. 14 and 21 and Tuesdays. For more information about ways to save at the Fair, visit lacountyfair.com.