Lambs bring 4-Hers Farm Show wins

Of the 13 Susquehanna County 4-H members who traveled to the Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg this past weekend, six placed high enough showing their lambs to advance to the youth livestock auction slated for Tuesday morning.

Andrew, Christopher and Jack Kowalewski each placed with lambs, as did Aiden and Alex Empet and Amanda Voll. Getting their animals to the Winner’s Circle is an honor in itself but the Farm Show experience also helps build character in the youths and help shape their futures.

Voll, an Elk Lake High School junior, had previous experience showing dairy cattle and, after watching other youths working with lambs, thought she’d it a try this year. In comparing dairy cattle to lambs, she said of showing Dexter, “You definitely have to have more bonding time with them because you have to get them into sync and used to you touching them.”

Voll went to the Farm Show with fellow Elk Lake students and 4-Hers Celeste Clark and Jillian Gustin.

The Empets, including sister Chelsea, raise mostly cows on their family farm in Kingsley. But the youths have many collective years under their belts showing a variety of animals. Mountain View seventh-grader Aiden’s lamb, Bumbi (short for Bumblebee), took first in his weight class, and Aiden was happy just to be back in person with his friends at the Farm Show.

Alex and his lamb, Frank, scored a fourth-place finish. Over the course of seven years, the Mountain View High School junior has also shown dairy cows and market hogs. He enjoys working with the lambs because of their unique personalities.

“Some are friendlier than others and make funny faces,” he remarked.” As he gets closer to graduation, Alex is becoming more interested in following family tradition of dairy farming.

Jack Kowalewski is also a Mountain View junior who has shown market steer and dairy cows and at the Harford Fair and elsewhere. In fact, it was a trip to the Wisconsin Diary Expo that prompted him to name his lamb “Whiskey.”

This was his first time participating in the PA Farm Show, though he’d attended in the past as a spectator and to support his brothers. Pushing a lamb to the Winner’s Circle, Jack related, requires rigorous training and keeping it moving.

“Just like humans, lambs need proper exercise to grow muscle and improve their show look,” he explained. Though Jack is unsure what he will do after high school, but suggested that finding a way to combine a trade with ag production would be a good fit for him.

Experienced livestock handler Claire Getz, another Mountain View student, also showed a lamb at the Farm Show.