MORE: County fairs are seeing a bump in attendance. Butler County hopes to continue the trend
The 17-year-old Butler County Fair Queen dedicates herself to doing a lot more than attending shows and signing autographs throughout the week. Her jeans and boots are covered in the same mud, hay and pig feed as her fellow hog show participants.
Raising hogs is a tradition that passes through multiple generations of families at this week’s Butler County Fair, which runs through Saturday in Hamilton.
McClure’s grandfather, Joe, began participating many years ago as a child and stays involved today by helping to guide hogs through pens and onto the show floor.
“Everybody knows Joe at the fair,” McClure’s mom, Cyndi, said. “It’s just a family affair that we do every summer.”
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McClure’s father, Ryan, and her two aunts followed in their father’s footsteps by competing at young ages, inspiring her to get involved when she was nine years old.
“They can remember (Micayla) sitting up watching their show with a scented towelette over her nose,” Cyndi said. “That’s kind of funny that it comes back and here she is.”
Even McClure’s involvement inspires others in the family, like her 6-year-old sister Ryle, Monday’s third place winner in the class 19 round. Ryle even wore her sister’s black leather studded and bedazzled belt that Micayla wore in her very first show 10 years ago.
“I really enjoy it because I want to be like my sister when I grow up,” Ryle said.
McClure’s royal counterpart, Butler County Fair King Dalton Norris, participated in his first show 12 years ago when he was even younger than Ryle. Now 16 years old, he introduced his hogs — named Cornbread, Baked Beans and Chicken Fried Steak — this week at the fair and has already won two first-place ribbons.
His family closely mirrors McClure’s with his grandparents and uncle all around the barn giving him support. The life lessons passed down to him through this tradition are ones he said he holds close to his heart and are inspiring his future.
His love for raising hogs is focused around changing the perception of agriculture and showing people where their food really comes from, he said.
“I don’t think people really understand the work that goes into it,” Norris said. “Because without agriculture, people don’t eat, people don’t have clothes and people don’t have jobs.”
Beyond that, Norris’s hope is to one day own land he can rent out to other farmers to prosper the county’s agricultural industry, he said.
“It’s really something that I can’t wait to pass down to my kids someday. It’s to keep the Norris legacy at the fairgrounds,” he said.
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