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August 18, 2024 • 9 mins
From the IHeart Podcast Parlor at the Allen County Fair, Russ Decker is joined by the Rabbit Prince to talk about his experiences showing animals and why you should check their barn out at the fair!
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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, and welcome back to another episode of ACF
four one one, the iHeart iPod podcast. Rather right here
in the old milking parlor at the Allen County Fair
now our podcast parlor at the Allen County Fair.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
And it's of course on the iHeart app.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
You can download that for free and go to podcast,
look up ACF four one one and pick the episode
of your choice and you can hear it as many
times as you want to. We want to thank Alex Wolf,
he's our engineer here today in the in the studio
and we're right on the midway of the Allen County Fair.
We're right behind the Sprinkled Mini Donuts place across the

(00:42):
across the midway from the You Matter booth and maybe
Caddy Corner if you think about it, from the bath
the bath food tents, so.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Pretty easy to find.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Is of course, we're attached to the dairy barn, which
is why there are cow noises that you'll hear from
time to time in the back of the parlor. So
with me today we actually have royalty in the parlor.
Today we have James and James is to make sure
I get this right. Is the twenty twenty four Junior
Fair rabbit Prince.

Speaker 3 (01:14):
Yes you are, yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:16):
Was there a lot of competition for that?

Speaker 5 (01:19):
There are three other guys trying to get the rabbit prince,
three of them.

Speaker 4 (01:22):
So you be out three other guys? Yes? How do
you think you did that?

Speaker 5 (01:26):
I think there's all the things I could done better
than you you bought. I think I did really good.

Speaker 4 (01:31):
All right.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
So obviously you show rabbits, so we'll start there. What
kind of rabbits do you show?

Speaker 3 (01:36):
James Flynny's giants?

Speaker 4 (01:38):
And what is that? I'm not a rabbit guy, I'm
a check guy.

Speaker 5 (01:42):
It's just a really big breed that we don't have
very many the fair, I don't think so.

Speaker 4 (01:48):
Is it white?

Speaker 5 (01:49):
Brown, can be black? Blue, blue is kind of grayish.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
It's water range?

Speaker 2 (01:57):
All right? So have you shown you today?

Speaker 4 (02:01):
Did you get?

Speaker 5 (02:02):
No?

Speaker 3 (02:02):
Today was just a market market penninsule fire.

Speaker 4 (02:06):
Okay? So when is your competition day?

Speaker 3 (02:09):
I believe it's Tuesday and Wednesday?

Speaker 4 (02:11):
All right?

Speaker 3 (02:11):
I might be wrong on that.

Speaker 4 (02:13):
All right?

Speaker 1 (02:13):
And then of course Thursday Junior Fair livestock sale and rabbits,
rabbits and chickens on Thursday, right.

Speaker 3 (02:20):
Yes, okay.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
So in addition to rabbits. You also shows understanding cattle?

Speaker 4 (02:26):
Yes, and dogs?

Speaker 3 (02:27):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (02:28):
All right, So we've never had a dog guy in
here before.

Speaker 3 (02:31):
Well last year I was canine king.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
You were a canine king.

Speaker 3 (02:35):
Yeah, that's a good name for.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
A K nine king.

Speaker 3 (02:38):
Yeah I like that.

Speaker 4 (02:39):
Yeah, hey king, come here.

Speaker 3 (02:40):
So what kind of dog I showed? Cocker spaniels.

Speaker 4 (02:44):
Cocker Spaniels.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
Are they smart?

Speaker 5 (02:47):
Well they were bred to be honey dogs, but now
they're show dogs.

Speaker 3 (02:50):
So yeah, so.

Speaker 4 (02:51):
They are pretty smart.

Speaker 3 (02:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
So let's go to your cattle? What what kind of
what kind of cattle were you showing?

Speaker 3 (02:59):
Show hosting summer? Your links?

Speaker 1 (03:02):
Okay, and what's the what's the what's the most embarrassing
thing that's ever happened to you in a show ring?

Speaker 4 (03:10):
For any species, whether.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
It's been dog, rabbits, or cattle, there had to be
some time.

Speaker 4 (03:16):
When you went own.

Speaker 5 (03:17):
Man. Well, I did get disqualified, uh for dogs in
a couple years bag for my dog pooping.

Speaker 3 (03:23):
In the ring.

Speaker 4 (03:24):
You talk pooped in the ring?

Speaker 2 (03:26):
Now, is that a trick you taught him?

Speaker 4 (03:27):
No, No, it's not so.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
So So you do rabbits and you do cat which
do you prefer? If you could go out right down,
have rabbit stew or a hamburger, Which would you prefer?

Speaker 3 (03:41):
Rabbit stew? Grab it. It's good.

Speaker 4 (03:43):
Yeah, it tastes like chicken.

Speaker 3 (03:45):
Yeah it does kind of does kind of yeah, I
know it does.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
Yeah, all right. So so we have the King in here.
Brody Brodie does rabbits too, right, Yeah. And Brodie's the
one who told me it tastes like chicken, so it
tastes really good.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
I didn't figure it, lied to me, King and everything right,
all right, So any funny stories with your steer.

Speaker 4 (04:05):
In the ring?

Speaker 5 (04:06):
Well, not with mice, not with mi cow, but with
our friends. I was trying to get her set up
and she kept running into me. Want to be pet
She just like she just liked us to be loved
the steer.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
Yeah, and the stairs weighs what two thousand pounds.

Speaker 3 (04:21):
Or whatever kept trying to jump on me. Want to
be a lap steer, Yeah, that would be something to see.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
So tell us about So you've got the I wanted
to get back to the rabbit bar. So the rabbit
barn right down, it's right next to the poultry bar.

Speaker 3 (04:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
So if somebody has never been in there and they
go in for the first time?

Speaker 4 (04:43):
What are they going to see.

Speaker 3 (04:45):
A lot of chaos.

Speaker 4 (04:48):
So I was in there.

Speaker 1 (04:49):
There's a lot of cages, lots of fans, lots of kids.

Speaker 5 (04:53):
It's organized chaos, I should say. Everyone knows where they're going,
but not how they're gonna do it.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
So so when I was in there, they were doing
some judge What are things judges are looking for when
they're when they're trying to evaluate a rabbit.

Speaker 3 (05:07):
Their fur and their teeth are two big ones, I believe.

Speaker 4 (05:11):
So, so they're looking for the thickness.

Speaker 5 (05:13):
Or well, it depends on what kind of fur you're
looking for. If you're looking for straight, you want to
see it stand up or ice. I think I'm not
very good on fur. And how about the teeth, The
teeth you want to see straight and bucktooth of course,
of course.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
So does your your rabbits have a name or they
bugs or bus money or something else.

Speaker 5 (05:34):
I had Bunny last year, well, Bunny named Bunny last year?

Speaker 2 (05:38):
Bunny Bunny?

Speaker 4 (05:39):
Yeah, buddy, how Bunny do?

Speaker 5 (05:43):
She actually did pretty good. She was a little handful.
She want to let me hold her very long.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
So so, now, if I remember right from the livestock auction,
do you sell pins of rabbits, individual rabbits.

Speaker 3 (05:57):
Yeah, we sell pins of rabbits, pin of three.

Speaker 4 (05:59):
Pin of three when they go to the auction.

Speaker 1 (06:01):
So, and I've really been trying to drive this home
in a lot of our episodes when we talk about
the livestock sale. So for people who've never been to
the livestock sale, they're not actually.

Speaker 4 (06:11):
Buying that pin of rabbits.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
So if they're able to buy it in the auction,
it's not like they got to find a home for
three rabbits, right, so the rabbits.

Speaker 2 (06:20):
Are still yours.

Speaker 4 (06:24):
You get it sent off to the to the packers.

Speaker 1 (06:27):
Yeah, okay, Now if they want, if they want the
meat from a product that they buy, they can buy it.

Speaker 4 (06:34):
But that's in addition to what they.

Speaker 3 (06:35):
Bid on, correct, I believe. So I'm not sure about
that one, but I.

Speaker 1 (06:39):
Guess my point was I think a lot of people
maybe steer clear of going to the livestock auction because
they're thinking, Wow, if I happen to win and I
bid on a on a cow or a pig or
a rabbit, what am I going to do with that animal?
It's like they're not going to do anything with it.

Speaker 2 (06:55):
It's a premium that you're paying for the to the
youth that's.

Speaker 4 (06:59):
Showing the product.

Speaker 3 (07:00):
Right, it goes all to the kid, and it's amazing
for us.

Speaker 2 (07:04):
Yeah and so, and it's really your payday.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
You've worked all year in some cases on this animal
for this one payday.

Speaker 4 (07:11):
Right.

Speaker 3 (07:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:12):
How many hours a week? So you have three projects?
You have a dog, you have rabbits, you have a steer.
How many hours a week are you spending on your projects?

Speaker 5 (07:21):
Well, the steer I have to get up, I have
to get right up and earlier. For the cattle, I
have to be at the farm around six thirty. I'm
there for two hours, so four hours a day. And
the rabbit's actually really easy. All I do is feed and
water them and you're done for the day. Okay, well
you need to do that twice and dogs. I practice
with him thirty minutes. So I'd say, are you talking

(07:44):
about in total?

Speaker 1 (07:45):
So in a day's time, it sounds like you've got
five five hours or so tied up between the three.

Speaker 3 (07:51):
Probably, and that's every day.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
I mean, that's the thing with an animal project. It's
a seven day week project. I mean, you can't take off,
take off the weekend and not feed anybody.

Speaker 3 (08:03):
No, that's how bad things happen.

Speaker 4 (08:05):
Yeah, exactly exactly.

Speaker 2 (08:08):
And a lot of your especially like when you think
about cattle, they're.

Speaker 1 (08:11):
Looking at a rate of gain. So it's did your
did your cattle.

Speaker 5 (08:15):
Gain weight at the right rate and all those kinds
of things, And my cattle actually gained too much weight.

Speaker 3 (08:21):
So we had a cutter back on food.

Speaker 2 (08:23):
Oh so you cut out the cookies, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (08:27):
All the ice cream, cookies everything.

Speaker 1 (08:31):
Why would somebody want to come see the rabbit barn.
You're the you're the prince man. You're out there pushing
the rabbit barn. This is your chance to tell everybody,
why come to the rabbit barn when you're at the
Allen County Fair.

Speaker 4 (08:43):
Use.

Speaker 3 (08:43):
Rabbits are the cutest animals.

Speaker 2 (08:46):
See they are, and they're soft.

Speaker 5 (08:48):
They're so soft and if you ask someone, they'll let
you pet pet them in there.

Speaker 3 (08:52):
It's amazing, all right.

Speaker 1 (08:54):
So we're kind of hitting on a safety tip though,
if you haven't asked permission, do not say your finger
in the little cage right right.

Speaker 3 (09:02):
They do bite. They're animals.

Speaker 1 (09:05):
I remember that from when I was probably about nine
or ten and going to the fair.

Speaker 4 (09:09):
And stuck my finger in the rabbit thing.

Speaker 2 (09:10):
And they've got teeth.

Speaker 4 (09:12):
Yeah, they will bite.

Speaker 5 (09:14):
Even their own handlers get all scratched up. These are
the rabbits, all right.

Speaker 1 (09:18):
James, thanks for being with us today in our podcast
parlor here at the Allen County Fair.

Speaker 3 (09:25):
Thanks for having me, and we'll be back.

Speaker 2 (09:28):
Later with another episode of ACF four one one. Thanks
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