A veterinary student examines a lamb (Don Preisler/UC Davis photo)
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About the state fair
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UC Davis vet crew educates the fair crowd
(Editor’s note: This story, originally written in 2006, was updated this year by Lynn Narlesky of the School of Veterinary Medicine.)
This month Ben Norman is doing what he has done every August for 32 years — taking a bunch of students to the California State Fair in Sacramento.
But this gang is not there for the corn dogs or the deep-fried Snickers bars.
Norman, a UC Davis Extension veterinarian emeritus, and his team of UC Davis students are there to work. They will perform health checks for all 7,000 critters at the fair, run a cow- and goat-milking tent, and oversee the ever-popular livestock nursery.
This year, 55 veterinary students and animal science students are participating. They get paid for their work, and someone must be at the fair to supervise the livestock 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the duration of the fair, which runs from Aug. 15 through Labor Day, Sept. 1.
Working the fair is a huge commitment for Norman and his students. Students receive intensive training, learning how to properly examine the cows, pigs, goats and sheep, and how to interact with the public. Just before the fair begins, the students tour the fairgrounds and set up the nursery under the supervision of technical staff and student crew chiefs.
Many of the future veterinarians are not used to working with livestock, so the fair provides valuable experience, Norman said. “For about half the students,” he said, “this is the only large animal experience they’ll have.”
Although Norman spends plenty of time at the fair during its first week, the students run the show. Many of this year’s volunteers are in their third year. Besides veterinary work, they organize shifts and mingle with fairgoers.
“The students make this whole project possible and worthwhile,” Norman said.
Livestock nursery tops in popularity
By far the most popular attraction that the veterinary and animal science students manage is the State Fair Livestock Nursery. Pregnant animals receive round-the-clock attention. When one goes into labor, the animal is placed on a stage surrounded by bleachers, and a veterinary student gives a commentary to the assembled crowd. More than 100 calves, piglets, goat kids and lambs are typically born each fair.
The proximity to farm animals is something that many people seldom experience, Norman said, adding that young children are often fascinated by the animals giving birth. He recalled one time years ago when two cows gave birth at almost the same time on the stage.
He told the audience that one of the calves was a heifer and the other was a bull. One young girl asked Norman how he was able to tell the difference between the two, so he brought her up on stage.
A practical demonstration
“I raised the tail of the heifer calf and said, ‘That’s what a heifer looks like,’ ” Norman recalled. “And then I raised the tail of the bull calf and said, ‘That’s what a bull looks like.’ And the little girl said, ‘That’s just like my baby brother!’ They learn quickly.”
During the first year that the School of Veterinary Medicine was invited to run the nursery, Norman brought three student volunteers and a handful of borrowed pigs, sheep and goats to the fair. “People were interested even at first,” he said.
The fair decided to expand the operation the following year, and Norman brought a sow and a dozen runt piglets. The pigs were a hot commodity—and continue to be today—“because they’re wiggly and they’re cute and there are lots of them,” he said.
Norman has continued to broaden the program over the years, bringing in more animals, and incorporating cow- and goat-milking for children, butter-churning and a "veterinary school" day for children that incorporates hands-on lessons about animals.