2019 Cow Chipping and Sweet Corn Festival Conclusion

Where it all started
circle of life

This is a long video/slideshow, about 15 minutes. If you could just skim through it, you'll see an amazing community putting together this big event. It brought  people from around the state and you will see  them enjoying  their time in Chatham.  

And, yes, you will see some cow patties being collected. Little Miss Corn Festival is displaying a winning cow pattie.

Precious children

About 15 minutes slide show

Little Miss and Mr. Sweet Corn Festival and their royal court

Next year. Next year we will be there!

Let the Chips Fly Where They May

Harvest of fresh-yet-to-dry-out

Tonight my friends, we ride.

"This evening begins the annual Chatham Jaycees Cow Chip Roundup."

Wranglers on the prowl

Our legion of experienced chip wranglers will ride off to round up the 2019 crop of cow chips for the 2019 Illinois Cow Chip Throw! Wranglers round the chips up, then our chip technicians humanely cull the herd choosing only the best, ripest, and most aerodynamically perfect chips.

The chips are then transported to our one of a kind Cow Chip Confinement Unit (CCCU) patent pending, to rest and undergo a final inspection by one of the Chip Masters, primarily the Most Reverend Donald Peck.

After wind tunnel testing, those special chips are ready for their moment in the sun on July 20 at the Chatham Jaycees Sweet Corn and Cow Chipping Festival.

  

Painting CCCU to prevent satellite spying

Highly trained professional

Security personnel

Why do we go through such an elaborate and mostly fictionalized process?

Because we love you. And we put a little love in every chip. (For legal reasons we are unable at this time to describe that process.)"

    

Future  Chipper

Musicians play to encourage cows to produce. Earth, Wind, and Fire could not appear, altho they were requested.

Staff of Collection and Security Personnel

   

King of the Sweetcorn 

When the festival is over, excess cow chips disposed, celebratory bottles hoisted, this is what is left.

Farm in Chatham, IL

This is a follow-up from June 30, 2019 post. Now the time is upon us and I believed that you needed to know the new info. 

P.S.  Information and news releases provided photos and information for this post have been provided by the Chatham Jaycees Cow Chipping committee. Thanks go to the Most Reverend Donald Peck, who has been quoted as saying   "I was the Cow Chip Consultant, CCC. I have PhD in the business." As he is my brother, I can attest to the accuracy of this statement.

The Annual Cow Chipping Contest in Chatham, IL

You absolutely have to check this site. I mean it.

Well, it is that time of the year: Chatham Jaycees Annual Sweet Corn and Cow Chipping Festival in Illinois.

Small communities like Chatham are gems. Generations gather to renew friendships and celebrate history.  While there are competitions of all sorts, nothing, but nothing, is as intense and delightful as the Cow Chipping Contest.

The whole process is fairly simple. From their cow pastures, farmers select dried cow pies of the correct size, using a toilet seat as the measuring standard. The pies are then donated to the Jaycees where they are kept in a secure place. I am not kidding.

(There have been some accusations about sabotage; pies have been embedded with pellets or such in the past.  So, security is provided. Yes, it is.) 

Future chippers--not afraid to get their hands dirty

close examination of sport equipment

"This event will take place on July 21-23 at the Chatham sports field. Any attendees wishing to participate in the cow chipping throw should attend when the event is announced.  Experience is not necessary. All should understand that participation may result in pungent particulates adhering to hands and clothing."

This is a quote from last year's flyers.

Competition is serious business.

Beaver, OK, where cows outnumber people, 16-1

This is an international sport. Visitors travel to participate in this event.

Pinterest.com

 When I was there last year, the Jaycees had an emergency: the farmer who provided cow pies in the past had sold half his herd.  My brother Rev. Don Peck and his son Jeremy (president of the Chatham Jaycees) contacted other locals. They know everyone in the community, and within 15 minutes all was resolved.

Community.

Cow Chipping in Chatham, Illinois

Yes. Yes, it is.

The Chatham Illinois holds its annual Jaycee Sweet Corn Festival in July every year. A big draw is the Cow Chipping Contest.   (My own photos disappeared, so this are some other photos from other Cow Chipping, which is a very universal sport.)

Future chippers--not afraid to get their hands dirty

My brother Rev. Don Peck and his son Jeremy Peck are extremely involved in this annual event. Don and Jeremy know just about everyone in this town of 12,000 and their crew of friends really know their cow patties.


A team of highly trained technicians are dispatched to the field and extract the day old product with specially designed tools. The correct dimensions were determined by measurement using a toilet seat. The interior is the chosen dimension. (This was a part of my original post.)

Believe it or not, this is serious business. 

searching for cow patties serious professionals

Cow chipper technicians in training

When a pie was deemed acceptable, it was taken to the security container to prevent contamination.  Whispers of sabotage had been heard, suggesting plans to rig the pies with pellets and pieces of gravel. A security squad was in place to guard against such.

Serious business, I mean serious

As said above, this is very serious business.

examining for size requirement

"This event will take place on July 21-23 at the Chatham sports field. Any attendees wishing to participate in the cow chipping throw should attend when the event is announced.  Experience is not necessary. All should understand that participation may result in pungent particulates adhering to hands and clothing."

It's mine.

Competition is serious business.

Boy, I hope I can attend next year's Cow Chipping Contest.