Many people walk through the 4-H dairy cow barns on the western side of the Great Frederick Fair grounds with-out grasping the sense of family, hard work, and dedication it takes to raise these bovine.

Inside the fourth barn of the 4-H dairy cow section a raffle takes place all week long. This raffle benefits young children’s education and scholarships for teens. Lorena Lee, a sixth genera-tion dairy cow owner, has worked the cow raffle for the past seven years. She takes off a week of work and dedicates hours of her time to help her friends and family achieve a higher education.

Lee shares stories of how gener-ous the people of Frederick County are. An example that she shared was the winner of last year’s calf raffle and how he donated the calf back, the money back, and it tremendous-ly boosted 4-H’s scholarship fund.

The calf that was donated last year eventually made its way back into Lo-rena’s life. That calf was given to her granddaughter, and is now a show cow. The annual 4-H raffle tries to bring in the calf from last year to show the growth difference of the yearlings.

The dairy cows in the 4-H center are divided into four categories, winter, spring, summer, and fall yearlings. The season that a calf is born in affects its score while being judged in shows. Also, cattle owners want to have cattle from each season so that you can have cows that can be ‘harvested’ all year long.

During our time with Lee, she said that the 4-H farmers are one big family, and no one is left behind. Lee loves how everyday she walks into the barns she is greeted by a thousand smiles. “In this barn we are a family, one farmer looks after another farmer, and helps when-ever and wherever they can”, said Lee in reference to the 4-H community.

4 Let’s Do It! The Great Frederick Fair

L e t ’ s D o I t ! T h e G r e a t F r e d e r i c k F a i r !

September 26, 2015 • Volume 1, No. 8

NEWSLETTERHappy 20th

Birthday to our

City Streets Country Roads

Exhibit!

Be sure to visit this national

award winning exhibit!

M E D I A C O R E

1Let’s Do It! The Great Frederick Fair

The Great Frederick Fair is not all about the rides and the food. In fact, one of the most popular attractions to most people is visiting the animals. They are available for viewing every day of the fair. Make sure you check out all of these animals on this beautiful last day of the fair if you have not already. They are a wonderful sight to see!

You might want to take a look in the birthing center. Five year old black and white Holstein cow, number 663, gave birth to a calf yesterday. She weighs in somewhere between 1100 and 1400 pounds. This cow comes from Shafdon Farms. Her calf was determined a boy, after a lengthy process of assisted labor at approximately 11:15 am. He had to be pulled out because he was stuck inside of her. This new little boy is her fourth calf. She has another calf which is five days old. I talked to Kris, who is at the fair watching over her. He was a very kind man who was eager to answer all of my questions. I also talked to veterinarian Johana Cenera who assisted with the birth and labor process of the cow. I cannot imagine how amazing it must feel to help bring an animal into the world.

If you are interested in more baby animals, there is a mother pig Sue in building 25. Along with her, there are five piglets. Each is one month old. They are great to go and see if you need a laugh or want your child to squeal with joy.

For children there is also a fiber activity booth. There are different fibers that you feel and guess what they are. The most popular attraction in the booth is the sheep. The mother sheep is five years old, and her child is only two months old. These sheep are owned by Patty Sanville, who says that she shears her sheep once a year. With

the fur, she makes beautiful fibers that all can enjoy.

There is one unusual animal that you will find at the fair, but they are quite interesting. They are the large, fluffy alpacas. These alpacas participated in a Camelids Show at 9:15 am yesterday. The alpacas have to walk around a ring, while “showing off” their showmanship. I talked to one of the alpaca handlers, Cosette, who said,” I have been showing alpacas with 4-H for six years.” That’s quite a long time working with the exotic animal such as the alpaca! These creatures are a great sight if you want to see something you have never seen before.

There was quite some excitement during the Swine Breeding Show yesterday. In this show, the boars are let out of trailers and herded into a ring. They are separated by class and

examined thoroughly. The finalist in its division is named the Champion Boar. There were multiple Champion Boars chosen yesterday out of multiple divisions. These boars are great to see if you want to meet an aggressive animal.

Goats are also a nice attraction to visit, if you do not mind the sounds they make. I talked to Tyler Umberger, who comes to the fair every year to show his goats. He has been taking care of goats and various other animals for the past eight years. Goats are great rowdy creatures to come and visit at the fair.

I hope you decide to visit all of these wonderful animals. They are great for the family, and will make your day! These creatures are the biggest stars of the Great Frederick Fair, and they are the biggest stars of their kind.

The Great Animals of the Great Frederick Fair

By Brian Murphy and Jacqueline Asuncion - Saint John’s Catholic Prep

By Anton Smariga - An 8th grader at St. Johns Regional Catholic School

Cow number 663’s five day old calf. Photograph by Anton Smariga

Cattle for Kids4-H Calf Raffle Benefits Community

Calf in the 4-H barns laying down after being fed. Photo by Brian Murphy

The Great Frederick Fair Inc. and The Frederick County Agricultural

Society Inc. publish News as a general information service for its Life Members,

business clients and associates. Additional information regarding an of the matters published within may be

obtained from the Administration Office.

BOARD OFFICERSJoseph F. Devilbiss, Sr. – PresidentColby D. Hubble – Vice President

Robert W. Frank – SecretaryMaurice A. Gladhill – Treasurer

BOARD OF DIRECTORSJohn E. Bare

Charles B. CramerClyde C. Crum

James S. GrimesNancy N. Hendricks

Nancy F. KellerJacqueline L. Kreh

John P. MurphyJacob R. Ramsburg, Jr.

The Great Frederick Fair Inc. is a member of:

The Maryland Association of Agricultural Fairs and Shows Inc.

The International Association of Fairs

and Expositions

The Chamber of Commerce of Frederick County

The Frederick County Tourism CouncilThe Pennsylvania Association of Fairs

How to Reach Us...The Administration Office at

The Great Frederick Fair is open from 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. M – F

301.663.5895 p301.663.9719 f

www.thegreatfrederickfair.com

Our street address is 797 E. Patrick Street

By mail, address materials to P.O. Box 604, Frederick, MD 21701

2 Let’s Do It! The Great Frederick Fair 3Let’s Do It! The Great Frederick Fair

Beyond just food, The Great Frederick Fair helps teach us that agriculture is very important to many people and affects us all. It affects almost everything we do, and most of the time we don’t even know it. Been to a football game recently? That game would never have happened without the leather from a cow to make the actual football. After talking in the agriculture lab next to City Streets and Country Roads with Sharon Fox from Maryland Agricultural Education Foundation, I learned a lot more.

Sharon Fox is a local resident and has been coming to the Great Frederick Fair almost all her life. “Agriculture is extremely important. We need it for about everything we use. Everything you do each day has something to do with agriculture.” She went on after that to teach me some of the things that we use that come from animals and farming. Soybeans make crayons and even candles. Corn helps make the beloved soda, Coca Cola, along with Colgate toothpaste and cereal. Wheat actually is used in making Aveeno products. Cows not only help make footballs, but many other things that we use leather in. Pigs helps make crayons, chalk, buttons, liquid

glue, and even strike on box matches. It is so interesting in the lab and is just one of the ways the Great Frederick Fair helps us learn about the importance of agriculture.

From the Frederick County Farm Bureau stand located in the Farm and Garden building, Barbra Crum talked about how agriculture brings people together. Farmers get together to help each other with things, like borrowing expensive machinery or selling products to each other. She has been coming to the Great Frederick Fair for 60 plus years and has experienced how the Fair really embraces the aspects of agriculture. According to Crum the Fair tries to have displays of all kinds of foods people grow and all kind of animals. There are displays of hydroponics, edible flowers, honey, gardeners, and vegetables. There is more variety each year of agriculture that brings more and more people together.

Another person in the Farm and Garden building who cares greatly for agriculture is Nellie Delgado, a hard worker for the Frederick County Beekeeping Association. She has been attending the Great Frederick Fair for 17 years. She says that farming and working with the bees is good for the

soul. “It keeps me busy and in shape,” she said with a laugh. “People come each year to the Fair and see things they never knew existed.”

Agriculture for a lot of people is their life. According to Cheryl Stunkel from the Fibers, Its Functional and Fun tent agriculture truly is a way of life that affects every aspect. People all have interconnecting jobs that lead to some sort of agriculture in that community. Someone has sheep; you need to buy hay from someone to feed the sheep. Agriculture not only is a way of life, it is also a community.

Agriculture is not only important to our country, but it is very important to Frederick County. About 57 percent or 243,000 acres in the county are zoned agriculture. The annual gross sales in production agriculture in the county are $127,034,000. That is a lot of money and shows how important agriculture and farming is for Frederick. The Great Frederick Fair does a great job of teaching people about agriculture and helping us learn that is it way more than just farming for food.

Agriculture, a Way of Life!By Katie Brengel - 8th grader at St. John Regional Catholic School

Students from St. John’s Catholic School visiting The Great Frederick Fair to participate in the Media Core Program

Today, we caught up with Johana Cenera, a large animal veterinarian from Buckeystown Veterinary Hospital. Having spent the day in the Great Frederick Fair’s birthing center on Sunday and then today (Friday), she had plenty to say. So far, there have been six births this week. There have been two female calves and four male calves. The first birth was an interesting story to hear. On 2:20AM on Saturday morning, three 4-H members waited up all night to watch the first calf be brought into the world. These members had to rise early the next morning, but nothing seemed to be able to keep them away. Because these three were so dedicated, they were the three to pick out the name. The little bull was named “Rusty” for his color.

Johana also briefed us on the entire process. The mother cows are induced the day before they are planned to give birth. They do this to try and maintain some consistency of one calf born a day. Between twelve to thirty six hours after they are induces, a mother cow will enter into the first of three stages of bovine labor. We were able to witness the whole process take place this morning starting at 8:47AM this morning when Cow 663 entered her first stage.

During the first stage, the uterus begins contracting until the calf hits the cervix, releasing the hormones in the mother to begin the increased amount of contractions. Between the next two to six hours, the mother cow

will experience the more frequent contractions. Cow 663 quickly entered into her second stage marked by the appearance of the water bag at the mother’s rear. In the second stage is when birth actually occurs. At eleven ten, having made several attempts at pushing out her baby in the last half hour, it seemed as though Cow 663 was experiencing a small bit of trouble. Johana realized that Cow663 was experiencing too much tightness, likely caused by stress from the noises of the crowd and the loud barn adjacent to the tent. At this point, the team of farmers and Johana offered Cow 663 some assistance. As the calf’s hooves were showing already, the team used special chains and a special cow jack to quickly and efficiently pull out the little calf. At eleven fifteen, Cow 663 finally entered her third stage of labor. During the third stage, and much to the young calf’s embarrassment, Cow 663’s main concern was cleaning/licking off her bull. As time passed, the mother expelled the rest of the fetal membrane, water sack and other parts associated with her birth.

The birthing team took name suggestions from the crowd that ranged from Maverick to Jack. Johana informed the whole crowd of how the process should normally go and how things actually did go. Overall it was extremely informative and we thanked Johana and the team, wishing them luck on the selection of a name.

Birthing Center 101story and photo by Dajah Gee