The Missouri State Fair is about five months away, and most area county fairs are staged in the weeks before the State Fair.
But, while that may seem a long time from now for most of us, area 4-H students already are working on their projects that will be judged at those fairs.
On Saturday, 42 students brought 60 calves to Lincoln University's Busby Farms, to get weighed.
"The kids declare their project animal for the fair, and we do a "gain' contest," advisor Diane Temmen explained. "So, this is the beginning weight and then, at the fair, we'll take the ending weight.
"Whoever gains the most gets an award at the fair."
Temmen spent 10 years in 4-H and has been working with the Extension program for 13 years.
Even at Saturday's weigh-in, she said, it's been obvious that some of the students already have been working with their animals.
"This is my 14th year of doing this weigh-in," Temmen said, "and these are the calmest set of calves we've had."
Between now and fair time, the students will care for their calves, feeding them and training them for their presentation in the show ring.
Daughter Ashley Temmen, 19, began showing animals in 4-H contests when she was 8.
Now an FFA member, she was helping with Saturday's weigh-in.
"You learn responsibility and you learn how to follow the rules you have to go through," she said. Different fairs may have different contest rules, so students who compete in more than one fair must learn to follow differing rules.
But the ultimate key for the students is the perspective they get "working with different people and different animals, dealing with different situations" and the stress that fair contests can create.
Students also learn how to manage money, to buy their calves and the feed and other products needed in raising them. Ultimately, after the season, they sell their calves.
"Another big skill that they learn is getting buyers for the fair," Diane said.
"They have to go out and recruit - learning how to talk with a business person."
Ashley said that teaches networking skills to young people.
"I've met important people in the community, and business leaders in the community, that I now have a relationship with," she said.
Interested in pursing a career in agriculture - the longtime family business that she "couldn't stray away from, it's in my blood, it's my whole life" - Ashley used some of her earnings from selling her calves the first couple of years in 4-H "to slowly build up to buy my first heifer, and then the next year, I was able to buy another heifer so I could start breeding my own calves.
"And the last two years that I did it, I was showing my own calves."
Diana noted the experiences of working with different animals and their personalities can help the students learn more about dealing with different people.
And there's another life lesson in these projects, Ashley said.
Spending so much time with one calf creates a bond between student and animal that, eventually, gets broken, she said.
"These are all going into someone's freezer," Ashley said, "which is a hard reality for a lot of kids to face. I think I cried every single year at the fair that I sold steers.
"It's really hard - and you know going in. But, you still work all summer long with them. You give them names and, in the end, it's hard to sell them.
"The experience isn't the same if the students works with large herds," Ashley said.
Still, Diane said, "Even a farmer has compassion for their animals.
"Even though they might care and nurture those animals - they still know that's the reality, that they're in production to (help) feed the world."