Every county fair board in Ohio had the challenge of following Governor DeWine’s mandates in order to open their gates for the fair. The president of the Mercer County Fairboard, Ryan Fenning, says that they’re already working on next year's fair, so making final decisions just weeks before the fair this year wasn’t easy.

Junior Fair program members are no stranger to stiff competition when it comes to their agriculture projects, especially in counties like Mercer, one of the top agricultural producers in the state. Many of Mercer’s 4-H’ers have gotten their start with livestock long before they were old enough to enter in the fair, like Alicia Knapke, 18, who has quite literally been raised on dairy steers.