Family marks 75 years of showing at Adams County Fair

Published 3:22 pm Monday, August 3, 2026

MENDON — A local family marked a milestone this year at the Adams County Fair. For 75 years, the Kuhn family of Mendon has been in the show barn.

“It started with Dad. He started out as a young 4-Her, and he kept showing,” Matthew Kuhn said. “When him and Mom got married, and myself and all the siblings came along, he got us all involved in 4-H and coming to the fair.”

Matthew and his seven siblings continued the tradition beloved by their parents, the late Tom and Barb Kuhn, again this year, showing dairy cattle, rabbits, and culinary items at the fair, which wraps up Tuesday.

“It’s just something that once you get going on it, you don’t want to give it up,” Matthew said. “It’s something you really look forward to doing every summer. You meet so many different people at the fairs.”

It’s also a family affair, with the siblings — at least the ones in the Mendon area — taking turns to manage the work on the fairgrounds and on the farm.

“We all have to pitch in and do our part,” Matthew’s sister Myra Kuhn said.

“I can be home doing what I need to do for the rest of the day to take out there, but somebody has got to be there getting cows cleaned up, getting them fed, and somebody has to be at home doing the milking, doing the chores,” she said. “There’s a lot behind-the-scenes that you don’t necessarily see. We’ve all been pretty good about that over the years.”

At home, the family’s Grade A dairy operation milks right at 50 cows twice a day every day, selling milk to Prairie Farms, and takes care of the rest of the herd. At the fair, they care for the New Zealand White rabbits and the Holstein cattle, show the animals, and spend time talking with fairgoers walking through the livestock barns.

“When we show at the fair, most of them will be heifers. That means they have not had a calf yet,” Myra said, but the family also shows a couple of milking cows. “It’s always a little more work to have milking cows at the fair. You have to milk them — cows have to be milked every day — and it’s a little easier to milk them at home than at the fair.”

The biggest challenge comes on the Saturday of the fair when the rabbit and dairy shows take place at the same time.

“It’s a good thing the rabbit barn is right next to the dairy barn,” Myra said. “We all make sure that our phones are charged, and they know if they see a call coming in from me, they better answer it and answer it quickly because I need something.”

Along with the farm work and the show ring, the Kuhns also invested in recent years in a commercial soft-service ice cream machine, taking it to events around the area as a way to promote the dairy industry.

“We’ve had a lot of fun with it,” Matthew said. “You meet a lot of people. While waiting in line they always ask a lot of questions. They want to learn.”

While the Kuhns have shown at area fairs and the Illinois State Fair over the years, they focus now on just their home county with preparations throughout the year.

“When you step into the show ring, you’ve just got a couple minutes in front of a judge. You want them to look as best as you possibly can,” Matthew said.

It’s a commitment for the Kuhns and other area farm families.

“If you have livestock, it’s just part of who you are,” Myra said. “It’s not a job. It really is a lifestyle. We kind of joke that we’ve all got milk running through our veins.”

And it’s easy for the siblings to follow the example set by their parents.

“We had some good coaches in our life. Dad and Mom brought us up to value a lot of stuff,” he said. “They kind of showed the way.”