What would the California State Fair be without baby animals? Faculty members, staff and students from the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine will be on hand this year, as they have for the past 25 years, to make sure that all the farm animals born at the fair and their moms are healthy and well cared for. The Livestock Nursery is one of six animal-care programs that the veterinary crew conducts at the fair, which starts Friday, Aug. 18, said Ben Norman, UC Davis Extension veterinarian emeritus. Some positions are paid; others are filled by volunteers. Some UC Davis employees even use their personal vacation time to work at the fair. The other fair animal-care programs conducted by the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine are: -- Food-animal examination: Health exams are given to all 7,000 food animals brought to the fair for showing. -- Fairway-animal examination: All exhibit animals, such as elephants and camels, get a general health check. -- Well-animal clinic: In this once-daily clinic, owners can ask for free exams of any show animal. -- Drug-residue collection and analysis: Blood samples from all winning food animals are checked for medical drug residues. -- Rodeo-animal care: Any animal injured at the nightly rodeo receives care. At the Livestock Nursery, Norman said, the staff will help deliver babies from 25 to 30 cows, seven sows, four to eight ewes and six goats during the 18 days of the fair. The concept of conducting a fair nursery was begun by UC Davis and is now emulated by fairs across the country. Student Lisa Fink, who plans to graduate from the veterinary school in 2002, is Norman's student chief for the fair. She'll supervise the 30 UC Davis veterinary students who will be taking shifts at the fair nursery. The students will care for animals around the clock and also make presentations to fairgoers, so their job skills include foreign-language and public-speaking ability as well as vet or animal experience. Veterinarian Joan Dean Rowe of the UC Davis Food Animal Medicine Service will support Norman's efforts part of the time by checking in animals and supervising some of the births.