ST. PAUL — Audrey Hendricksen plans to celebrate her birthday Sunday with her family at the Great Minnesota Get-Together in St. Paul.
“I’ll probably walk around looking at things and spend time with my friends,” said the Truman area 4-Her who will turn 13.
Birthday cake will be more of a special treat to eat than traditional Labor Day weekend fair food.
“My family camps here during the fair,” she said.
Her parents, Heath and Jill Hendricksen, have been using the state fairgrounds as a temporary home since Aug. 20 for practical reasons, including easy access to the fair’s livestock area.
Audrey’s been spending lots of time at the Moo Booth and taking care of her animals entered in 4-H competitions. She is one of nearly 3,000 4-H members exhibiting beef, dairy, swine, sheep, poultry, rabbits, dairy goats and llamas at the fair.
A member of the Amboy Area Adventurers, Audrey competed Friday in the 4-H Beef Championship Event in Warner Coliseum. She said she’s proud of her black Simmental, Maggie, even though the cow did not win big honors.
“She did well … She’s won a ribbon,” said Audrey, who explained she had raised the heifer since she was very young.
Maggie was purchased with funds awarded at the 2024 Minnesota Beef Expo.
The Minnesota State Cattlemen’s Association donated the $3,000 for Audrey to buy a heifer during an auction.
She plans to start a herd and is keeping Maggie for breeding. However, farm youths learn early to accept they won’t be able to keep every animal they raise.
Last weekend Nicollet area 4-Her Jacksen Wills let go of Goose — the purple-ribbon winning steer he raised for butcher on his parents’ — Jeff and Becky Wills — farm. The high school senior and the cross-bred black Angus-Holstein know each other pretty well.
“He really likes marshmallows,” said Wills about Goose.
The 1,705-pound Goose is very tame. Sometimes, steers’ behavior is similar to a dog’s, his owner said.
“You’ll find they can learn how to sense how you feel, like when you are anxious. If I am calm, then they are calm,” Wills said.
He had begun planning for next year’s fair before Goose was gone.
“I already have three little baby calves,” he said.
Some 4-Hers said goodbye to the animals they raised Saturday night at the Purple Ribbon Livestock Auction.
The premiums on 115 purple ribbon 4-H exhibits will be sold in the livestock auction, resulting in scholarships totaling more than $125,000 for 42 junior leaders.
“There can be tears,” said Kent Thiesse, coordinator for the State Fair’s annual 4-H beef show.
4-H Beef Interview Champions and Minnesota State Fair Youth Scholarship recipients also were recognized during the auction.
The championship event represents the “best of the best” from the nearly 600 4-H members that exhibited 4-H beef projects at the 2025 State Fair, said Thiesse.
The Mankato region was represented at this year’s state fair by 4-Hers from Brown, Faribault, Le Sueur, Sibley, Watonwan and Waseca counties — and many of them brought home first-place prizes.
For more information about 4-H activities at the fair, go to: extension.umn.edu/4-h-events/4-h-minnesota-state-fair.