Record crowds filled the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex from January 7^th – 14^th.  While an actual head count is impossible for the 24-acre, 11-buiding complex, officials say they parked 70,000 cars in official Farm Show lots.  That’s a 22% increase over last year. 

To satisfy the masses, the Pennsylvania Co-operative Potato Growers served up more than 270,000 doughnuts and 40,000 baked potatoes. 

Over at the Pennsylvania Dairymen’s Association booth, they used up more than 14,000 gallons of milkshake mix and 6,000 pounds of Mozzarella cheese. 

Right next door to the Dairymen’s booth at the PA Preferred Food Court, the Pennsylvania Mushroom Grower’s Cooperative sold more than 7,000 pounds of mushrooms.   And those are just a few examples.   

The record crowds did more than nosh on food court favorites, they witnessed 10,000 competitive exhibits, 6,000 animals and 300 commercial exhibitors. 

The Pennsylvania Farm Show Scholarship Foundation presented 26-students with $3,500 scholarships, and will surpass the million dollar mark in overall scholarships awarded in 2013. 

The 1,000 pound butter sculpture has been turned over to a Juniata County dairy farmer to be converted into 65-kilowatt hours of electricity.  That’s enough to power the farm for roughly three days. 

Just two days after the 2012 Farm Show closed its doors, it’s on to the next event for the Farm Show Complex.  The PA Draft Horse Sale will run Tuesday and Wednesday. 

Potato doughnuts are always a big hit at the Farm Show.

They first started pitching horseshoes at the Pennsylvania Farm Show in 1931.  Harold Clippinger of Cumberland County was tough to beat in the 1950s.  Clippinger got his start on his grandfather’s farm when he was just six years old.  “When they replaced the shoes on [the horses], then we took them, put stakes in the ground and pitched them back and forth.”  Today, Clippinger is still pitching at the age of 79. 

But for about 50 years he couldn’t compete at the Farm Show.  Nobody could.  Organizers pulled the plug on the Farm Show horseshoe pitching competition in 1957.  It returned in 2007, thanks to the hard work of people like Dick Scott of Cumberland County.  “The idea was to go back to the heritage of when horseshoe pitching and farming were together,” Scott says.  “Farmers used it as recreation, and they just thought we could bring that back.” 

82-year-old Ralph Hock eyes another ringer.

For 82-year-old Ralph Hock of Franklin County, it keeps his mind and body sharp.  “It makes you want to try to get better all the time,” he says with a chuckle. 

But the reincarnation of the Farm Show Shootout has also sparked a whole new generation of horseshoe pitchers, like 13-year-old Emily Hatrick of Chester County.  The junior division champ is motivated by her goal to best her dad at horseshoes. 

Horseshoe pitchers are classified by their percentage of ringers.  “I’m a 10.2% average right now,” Emily says.  “I’m not sure where I’m headed but I’m hoping I can get up there sooner or later.”  Some Farm Show Shootout contestants are 75% ringers. 

Randy Ziders of Juniata County earned the top spot in the men’s 40-foot division, and Glenn Burris of Westmoreland County finished first in the 30-foot mixed bracket.  Hundreds of Farm Show visitors also got to try their hand at horseshoe pitching in a special pit set up for the public.