Cattle Shine at PA Farm Show
Many of the cows at the Pennsylvania Farm Show will never make it to market, instead they’re more than happy to live out their days on the farm. Such is the case with Zinny, a Red Angus from Slate Wind Farm in Franklin County. She won’t be a yearling until March, but Zinny has already been named the Grand Champion in the Farm Show’s “All Other Purebreds” class.
Exhibitor Kevin Stahl tells us Zinny gets a daily rinse, blow dry and exercise. “Working with the hair is the big thing,” he explains.
In the ring Stahl works hard to set Zinny’s hooves just so, in order to look good for the judges. He’s worked with her enough on the farm to know exactly which angles suit his 800-pound heifer best.
The judges examine the cows’ composition to pick the winner. “Their chest, their back… do they have a good undercarriage? Are their legs and feet in good shape? All those things that you look at in an athlete or something, in terms of what kind of shape they’re in,” says beef cattle judge Dave Miller who came to the Farm Show from West Virginia to ensure an unbiased evaluation.
Miller, a Texas Longhorn judge, reveals that a cow’s horns don’t factor into his critique all that much. “You can’t eat horns,” he says with a chuckle.
There are only a few more days to check out the 97th Pennsylvania Farm Show. The beef cows have since moved out to make way for the dairy cows. The dairy judging will take place Friday morning in the Equine Arena.
