From the State Fair in Raleigh to canoe and kayak championships in Bryson City, catch these five things every North Carolinian should do during the month of October.

Matthew Cox owes a lot to hogs. He presented his first hog at a livestock show when he was 3 years old — the third generation to join the Cox family tradition. He won several blue ribbons as he paraded swine, then sheep and cattle, around arenas across the state.

Twenty years ago at the North Carolina Junior Beef Round-Up in Winston-Salem, Cox met his wife, Nicole. She was showing cattle. The couple raise commercial hogs on their 85-acre farm in Trenton. Those hogs provide their primary source of income.

And Matthew and Nicole are bringing up the fourth generation of champion exhibitors in the Cox family. Their son, Travis, had a grand champion hog in the junior livestock division at the North Carolina State Fair in 2009. Travis was 3 years old, just like his dad.

“It was one of my proudest moments,” Cox says. “It’s one thing to win yourself, but it’s another thing to see your child win.”

Making the connection

Those moments happen often at the N.C. State Fair. The fair opened in 1853 as an educational event to promote North Carolina crops, livestock, and new agricultural technology. Despite a few breaks — such as during the Civil War and World War II — the N.C. State Fair brings people together every year. For those 11 days in October, on those 344 acres in Raleigh, North Carolinians enjoy the simplest of pleasures: Ferris wheels and bluegrass music, ham biscuits and funnel cakes, baby calves and blue ribbons.

But for many farmers across the state like Matthew Cox, the N.C. State Fair is where they receive recognition for all the mornings they wake up before daybreak to milk their cows and the thousands of dollars they put into feed for their livestock and the countless hours they spend caring for animals that can’t care for themselves.

In North Carolina, agriculture contributes 70 billion dollars annually to the state’s economy. But many residents of the state’s growing metropolitan areas rarely come in contact with agriculture firsthand.

“You’d be surprised,” Cox says. “Every year, we’ll get grownups wanting to pet a cow or a hog, 30 or 40 years old that have never touched one.”

Behind the scenes

Bruce Shankle will make his 46th trip to the fair this year. He made his debut in 1965 in the 4-H poultry barbecuing demonstration. As a freshman in college at N.C. State University, he began showing bulls at the fair.

“I’ve essentially been there forever,” Shankle says. For the past nine years, he’s served as the superintendent of livestock shows for the fair, in addition to his position as livestock marketing supervisor for the North Carolina Department of Agriculture. This year, he’ll oversee 45 different livestock shows. Some categories, such as the junior market lambs, have about 300 entries.

“When you get there for the show, all the pretty little kids walk in with the pretty little animals, and it looks simple, but whew,” Shankle says. After the entry deadline on September 15, all animals go through a farm-identification process to ensure the farmers followed the correct animal welfare procedures. As September gives way to October, the days get longer for State Fair workers. “I’m callused and hard sometimes,” Shankle says. “It’s a rat race; it’s a job, and sometimes it’s not a very enjoyable job. But I can watch those kids show those lambs and those calves and feel good all over, and I’m not connected to any of them.”

Shankle’s favorite part is the junior shows, where children 18 years old and younger lead their animals around the show ring. It’s a hobby that teaches responsibility, pride, and humility. It’s hard to tell a 5-year-old that even though he fed his calf every day, and trained it, and washed it, he still didn’t win. But even the last-place kid in each class in the junior shows receives $40 — and bragging rights that he showed livestock at the State Fair.

The next generation

This year’s trip to the fair will be Shankle’s last as the superintendent of livestock shows. He turns 61 in December and will retire from the Department of Agriculture in January. He’ll return to the fair next year with a different title: proud grandpa. His 3-year-old granddaughter, Maddie, rides the tractor with Shankle on his farm in Anson County. And he can’t wait till she steps in that arena at the State Fair. He’s passing the tradition on to the third generation.

But Shankle and his granddaughter better bring their best because there’s another fourth-generation Cox in the running. Matthew Cox’s 2-year-old daughter, Mackenzie, is learning from her big brother, Travis. And she’s got her sights set on her first blue ribbon.

Leah Hughes is the assistant editor of Our State magazine. Her most recent story was “Bending Barbecue Tradition” (September 2011).