San Diego County Fair, believe it or not, is highly agri-centric experience By Dan Weisman DEL MAR — One of the top five county fairs in terms of attendance in the nation, the San Diego County Fair started as an agricultural exposition in 1880, organized to bring together county farmers hoping to share ideas and top products. Agriculture continues to be a major component at the Del Mar Fairgrounds during the fair that runs through July 4 and is expected to top last year's record attendance of 1.265 visitors. Indeed, the fairgrounds hosting the extravaganza is operated by the appropriately named 22nd District Agricultural Association of California. "We're striving to highlight agriculture in San Diego County," said Jaime Mendoza, fair livestock coordinator, surveying the frenzied scene near the new museum-qualtiy exhibit, "Farm Life: A Century of Change" at the huge Agrifair building. "We have 550 head of sheep in our barn today, 151 pygmy goats, 65 head of dairy cattle," Mendoza continued. "We have exhibitors and junior exhibitors from all over the country. We offer competitive exhibitions, milking demonstrations in hopes of educating people about agriculture and where food comes from." Many of the fair''s 1.3 million visitors this year trek through the agriculture exhibits spanning the southeast quarter of the giant fairgrounds. More than 100 classroom groups daily tromp through the barns and farm demonstrations, according to Mendoza. The fair, its agricultural programs and the visitors tell much about the unique place of farming in San Diego County, whose 2.6 million residents rank the place as the sixth highest urban population among counties in the nation. Many people don't realize the county has more than 6,500 small farms with nine or fewer acres, ranking it as tops in the nation in that category. The county ranks eighth in California and 20th in the nation in size of agricultural production. County agricultura...