The Illinois State Fair wrapped up over the weekend after ten days of fun and competition. Each year, showmen throughout Illinois gather with their projects at the State Fair to compete to be the best in the state.
Oakley Yard of the McDonough County Gold Diggers 4-H club has been showing sheep for the last three years and this year decided to try her hand at chicken showing. She brought her pen of broiler chickens to the Illinois State Fair where she won Grand Champion Poultry Meat Pen.
“There’s three, and they’re called A, B, C,” says Yard “They all had to weigh the same, they are market chickens. They all weigh seven pounds, seven and a half pounds.”
Having won Grand Champion Poultry Meat Pen, Yard participated in the 2024 Governor’s Sale of Champions, earning $5,000 from Marty & Donna Davis and McDonald’s.