Want a little milking with your fair

San Diego County Fair, believe it or not, is highly agri-centric experience

By Dan Weisman

DEL MAR -- One of the top five county fairs in terms of attendance in the nation, the San Diego County Fair started as an agricultural exposition in 1880, organized to bring together county farmers hoping to share ideas and top products.

Agriculture continues to be a major component at the Del Mar Fairgrounds during the fair that runs through July 4 and is expected to top last year's record attendance of 1.265 visitors. Indeed, the fairgrounds hosting the extravaganza is operated by the appropriately named 22nd District Agricultural Association of California.

"We're striving to highlight agriculture in San Diego County," said Jaime Mendoza, fair livestock coordinator, surveying the frenzied scene near the new museum-qualtiy exhibit, "Farm Life: A Century of Change" at the huge Agrifair building.

"We have 550 head of sheep in our barn today, 151 pygmy goats, 65 head of dairy cattle," Mendoza continued. "We have exhibitors and junior exhibitors from all over the country. We offer competitive exhibitions, milking demonstrations in hopes of educating people about agriculture and where food comes from."

Many of the fair''s 1.3 million visitors this year trek through the agriculture exhibits spanning the southeast quarter of the giant fairgrounds. More than 100 classroom groups daily tromp through the barns and farm demonstrations, according to Mendoza.

The fair, its agricultural programs and the visitors tell much about the unique place of farming in San Diego County, whose 2.6 million residents rank the place as the sixth highest urban population among counties in the nation.

Many people don't realize the county has more than 6,500 small farms with nine or fewer acres, ranking it as tops in the nation in that category. The county ranks eighth in California and 20th in the nation in size of agricultural production.

County agricultural production leads the state and the nation in value of nursery, floriculture, sod and avocados, according to the San
Diego Agriculture Department. Statewide, the county is in the top five in the production of chickens, fresh market tomatoes, eggs, mushrooms, grapefruit, tangerines and honey, the department adds.

San Diego's $1.5 billion ag industry on 315,296 ares even ranks fifth in the county economy, following such well-known components as tourism, manufacturing, defense.

But it isn't dollar signs attracting the kids and groups to the ag exhibits and related features such as Swift Swine's racing pigs, petting zoos, pony and elephant rides. It's the fun.

Gazing in seeming amazement at a sheep shearing demonstration, Nelda Allan's second grade class from Dewey Elementary School in the highly urban Point Loma section of San Diego, managed to contain its enthusiasm.

Not.

"I feel like I'm in a farm" said an excited Lucas Canellas as classmate Isiah Williams quickly added, "I really enjoy learning about farming."

Said teacher Allan: "We've been bringing the kids here for 15 years. The world is changing so fast, this gives them an idea of where their food comes from. We also grew radishes at school and entered them into a contest."

Exhibitors, too, keep returning with renewed enthusiasm. Dave and Barbara Davies again brought their pack of alpacas from El Cajon in San Diego's East County to the Del Mar fair.

"This is the llama and alpaca booth," Dave Davies said. "It's part of the educational theme of the fair. We get hundreds of people here with all sorts of questions."

Each year, the fair has a theme. This year's theme is Summer of Sports. But the concept and timeless theme remains agriculture, farmers and fellow travelers say. It never gets old.

"I love it when the kids come in and, for example, have no idea the majority of poinsettia flowers come out of this place," Mendoza, the livestock coordinator said. "They're surprised."