While the final attendance numbers won’t be in for a couple of weeks, Iowa’s leading commodity groups show attendance at the Iowa State Fair was good. A Radio Iowa “meat-count” finds that Pork Producers sold 110,000 pieces of pork, a jump from 60,000 pieces sold last year. Suzanne Hegarty is the Pork Producers Promotion director. She says the rise in pork sales could be due to the popular “Chop-on-a-Stick”. She says people who tried the new item last year came back for more, and many tried the chops for the first time.The Cattlemen’s Beef Quarters sold a total of 28,300 pounds of beef– the majority of it hamburgers. John Mortimer of the Cattlemen’s Association says hamburgers might bring in the high numbers, but there’s also a beef product that keeps ’em coming back, roast beef.Mortimer says the reason for the hamburger’s popularity at the fair is due to special savings offered in the afternoon.Turkey consumption was about the same this year, with 30,000 pounds of drumsticks sold and about 5,000 pounds of turkey tenderloin. Greta Irwin of the Iowa Turkey Federation says the drumsticks are just a special item that people look for during the fair.Fair officials believe attendance could be near last year’s record ofof 978-thousand-841 fairgoers.
