You never know what you will find at the Indiana State Fair. Maybe a beautiful flower arrangement in the backyard gardening contest in the Horticulture Building, or perhaps duck jerky — produced and processed in Indiana by Culver Duck — offered for sale in the Indiana Grown store in that same building.

One year, decorated buffalo graced the lawn outside the Indiana Soybean Association’s Glass Barn. This year there were numerous statues of Bennie the Bean-type characters in various poses, with most of them displaying facts about soybeans.

You never know what you will see at Pioneer Village either, from a unique older tractor to an antique manure spreader waiting to be refurbished. And inside the livestock barns and the Indiana Farmers Coliseum, you can watch everything from the 4-H tractor driving contest to the Indiana 4-H dairy show. The dairy show fills up four rings on the second Sunday of the fair, with four judges working through eight breeds and dozens of exhibitors.  

Families, couples and teenagers of all sizes appear to enjoy putt-putt golf in the Corteva Agriscience Indiana FFA Pavilion. While there, visitors can also play a simulated farming game representing the future, see how plants might be used in the future using varying shades of light, and get a firsthand look at various cover crops and how many roots they produce. Most of these exhibits were developed by the current FFA state officers, who staff the display every day during the fair.

Related:Sights and sounds from the Indiana State Fair

All these things and more make the Indiana State Fair a place full of surprises, many of them connected to agriculture. The 2019 Indiana State Fair was certainly no exception. The fair runs until Aug. 18 in Indianapolis.