The first livestock show for the 2026 Jasper County Fair takes place at 9:00 a.m. Thursday at the Colfax Livestock Market, a full week before the fair actually begins. The Advanced Cattle Feeder Pen Show will include eleven exhibitors showing a total of 37 cattle, according to Mike Vander Molen. Vander Molen is one of the superintendents for the Advanced Cattle Feeders and the Livestock Auction for this year’s county fair. He says the number of exhibitors for this particular show has actually grown recently.
“That’s pretty good because there are not many cattle feeders in the county and around Iowa anymore like there used to be.”
Vander Molen says the goal of the exhibitors is to produce market cattle that have good carcass data after they are slaughtered.
“They can have three or four cattle in their pen. They are judged live as a pen, and then they pick out two of the cattle in their pen that we take to Tyson’s in Dakota City, Nebraska for slaughter. Then we get carcass data on them.”
Vander Molen says the results of the carcass contest are then announced between the steer and heifer show at the fairgrounds on Wednesday, July 22nd.
The rest of the events for this year’s Jasper County Fair will be held at the fairgrounds in Colfax from Friday, July 17th through Thursday, July 23rd.
