Agriculture on the coronary heart of county truthful | Native Information

“Agriculture is the genesis for all fairs,” Hardin County Fair Board member Kevin Mobley said as a guest on the episode.

According to statistics shared by Carpenter and Adams, the core of the fair in Hardin County is strong.

In Hardin County, about 1,300 farms can be found across 200,000 acres with the average farm being about 150 acres.

“There’s more 10-49 acre farms in Hardin County than any other size,” Carpenter said. “So you have a lot of small farms in Hardin County.”

While most residents might think of farms being of large acreage, Carpenter said they are trending toward smaller farms, especially with the rate of growth in the area.

Farmers in the area grow everything from vegetables to cut flowers, to grain and fruit, to hay and livestock, the pair said.

What has been declining in the area is the amount of dairy farms, with two in the county and none in LaRue County, and farmers raising tobacco.

“The true definition of a farm … can be smaller than 10 acres and still have around $1,000 in agricultural sales and be considered a farm,” Carpenter said.

Adams and Carpenter also said poultry is less prevalent in Hardin County than in the rest of the state.

What is on the rise are non-traditional farming, the pair said, to include farms that grow flowers to cut and small fruit farms. Hardin County also has a handful of popcorn farmers.

“Agriculture changes very rapidly,” Carpenter said of the trends.

With all the changes in the industry and over the past 60 years at the fair, agriculture still is a central component of the fair, despite additions of the midway, truck pulls and wrestling, Mobley said.

“The heart and soul of a real successful county fair, agriculture will still be at the heart of it,” he said.

The other part of the success is the fair’s private and corporate partners and its volunteer board, Mobely said.

“For most of us who are fair junkies, it’s just a lifestyle,” he said. “It’s not really a job, you just enjoy it, you love it.”

While preparing for the fair is a year-long process, Mobley said when board members see families enjoying the fruits of their labor, it makes the long worthwhile.

“As a fair board member, … your hard work is worth it when you see a young man or young lady with a smile on their face,” he said. “That’s what makes this all worth it.”