12—Lancaster Farming, Saturday. Aujust 9, 1975
Beth Beall
The
by: Sally Bair
Farm Feature Writer
York County's 1975 Dairy Princess is a blonde, blue
eyed natural beauty who is enchanted with the dairy in
dustry and farm life, and is eager for the opportunity to
promote both during her reign.
Beth Beall, 17, has been a York Countian just one year,
but, she says with great enthusiasm, “I love it."
Beth, the daughter of Mrs. Mary Ann Beall, Delta RD2,
is a native of Montgomery County, Maryland but she says
York County is not new to her. “I came up every summer
and I had met many of the kids here.” She added, “I’m so
happy now that I’m here. I like it better here."
In those earlier summers, she came to visit her sister
and brother-in-law, Paul and Kathy King, owners of
Country
Corner
View From the Bridge
Although referred to many times a year, it can be
readily said that farmers are the victims of
weather. They must wait for dry weather to plow in
the spring, gentle rams for the corn to grow,
sunshine to grow the vegetables and dry hot af
ternoons to make hay.
This season’s weather certainly had its twists
and turns and I’m sure we've not seen the last of
nature’s tricks.
July certainly had its share of weather
phenomenon. The first few weeks, torrential rams
flooded the small creeks and streams in Lancaster
County, causing swirling muddy water to flow over
many acres of farm land
Especially in the southern end of Lancaster
County, people suddenly found themselves bailing
out their basements and leading livestock to high
ground when intense rains flooded the area
streams and the Octorara Creek
•/Sjt
Two weeks ago the stream which cuts through a
run below Brownstown was near the top of its
banks. A view from the bridge indicated that the
water was near the bottom of the bridge and far too
close to the railing. This past week the water was
extremely low in the run - quite a contrast in a
short time.
But just as quickly as the rains had come, it
became dry once more A heat wave passing over
the Middle Atlantic states seemed to hang over the
southeastern Pa area for a week causing much of
the lush green corn to begin looking brown and
ragged around the edges
Farmers in Lancaster County however, are not
the only producers concerned with the weather
Droughts in the midwest have had many farmers
dismayed for the past two weeks And with much of
the corn crop promised for export, consumers as
well as the farmers are beginning to show anxiety
about the cost of food as well as the availability
Whatever the case may be however, there is still
a lot of the growing season yet to come and farmers
in the Lancaster Farming area as well as in other
portions of the Midwest will no doubt be wondering
just what the weather will hold in store
Vivacious York County Dairy Princess
with: Melissa Piper
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Kingway Farm also at Delta. Beth says she first became
acquainted with dairying at Kingstead Farm in
Maryland.
Now she works full time at Kingway, and she says, "I do
a little bit of everything,” Her “regular job” is to feed
calves and heifers, and she is qualified to help with the
milking which she does when the Kings go away. She said
she also unloads hay and helps with other chores around
the farm as necessary.
She said working for her brother-in-law is great because
Homestead Notes
“he lets me off for activities."
Kingway Farm consists of over 210 acres in southern
York County. They are milking about 50 Registered
Holsteins.
Beth has helped the Kings show their cattle, par
ticularly helping to get them ready to show. At the Farm
Show and at the state Holstein show she helped with the
group classes. Beth said, “I love showing. I don’t mind all
the hard work in getting ready. I wouldn’t want to live on a
farm that didn’t show -1 would be bored.”
A member of the Milk and Money Dairy Club, Beth has
an intermediate calf and a senior calf she will be showing
this year at the Dallastown Fair, the York Fair, 4-H
Round-Up and at the Farm Show. Paul and Kathy are her
dairy club leaders.
Beth has been a 4-H’er for eight years. In Montgomery
Beth loves all animals, but especially her collie.
County she belonged to the horse club and the dairy calf
club one year. She also took sewing projects, bicycling,,
dog, photography and recreation projects.
In York County she is a member of the Airville Com
munity Club. This year she completed a candle project
and a handyman project in which she built herself
bookshelves. This fall she will take sewing, crotcheting
and sand painting. Her mother is a leader in the club.
She is also a member of the River Hills Trail Riders and
the York 4-H County Council. An interesting activity she
just completed was “street camping” which took place in
State College during 4-H Club Congress. Those involved
planned a day camp for children from State College,
totalling about 90 from ages 4-12. She also participated in
senior 4-H camp.
Beth cannot say enough about the value of her 4-H work.
“You learn so much - anything you want to learn,” she
said. With that she laughed and talked about her han
dyman project and said, “The boys lost patience with the
girls in the project.”
“In 4-H you have so much fun and meet so many people.
Most of my friends have been through 4-H.”
Beth says she entered the dairy princess contest
because she thought her 4-H club should be represented
and at the time she didn’t think anyone else from the club
was going to enter. She also knew the state dairy princess,
Debbie Miller, who encouraged her to enter She said, “I
didn’t expect to win, and it was a total shock. ”
She just returned from a seminar for all dairy prin
cesses and she said, “It was really great. I really learned
a lot. There was a lot I didn’t know about cows and milk
and they gave us a packet of information with pamphlets
and lots of other information.”
She added, “We mostly worked while we were there.
There were sessions on hair care, make-up and how to
choose the best colors It was very interesting.”
The people whom she thinks most need to be talked to
about the dairy industry are adults. She said, “Little kids
Beth was already promoting milk at the tender
age of seven. This picture was used in conjunction
with a June is Dairy Month celebration in Mon
tgomery County, Maryland.
drink milk, but adults think they are too old to drink milk.
They need to be reached and told they still need milk.”
She said she thinks it would be fun to visit elementary
schools, and basically she just hopes to “do anything that
is asked of me.”
Already she has appeared on television on the WSBA
Encounter program. She said she was “pretty nervous”
about doing the show.
Beth stressed that the dairy princess contest was “not a
beauty contest.” But she feels it is important because “we
need someone to promote milk. And I hate to say it, but a
girl can get through to men.”
The dairy industry, Beth says, “has to have a future.
What will happen to the country if it doesn’t?”
About the state contest she said, “I’m not really scared -
maybe just a little nervous. I don’t think I’ll win, but it .
might be a lot of fun.”
For a newcomer to the community, Beth has wasted no
time m getting involved in activities. In addition to all ot
her 4-H work, she is president of the Salem United
Methodist Youth Fellowship and is president of the York
District Methodist Youth Council. She said, "The council
has never been active, but they meet once a month.” We
hope to plan rallies and retreats throughout the year.”
Beth will be a senior at Red Lion High School, but she
says bluntly, “I have no school activities because I work
every day after school.” She is uncertain about her future,
but she said, “After graduation I want to go to college.”
One thing about her future which she makes very clear,
“I want to settle down and marry a dairy farmer.”
There’s not much spare time for a hired hand on a farm,
but in her free moments Beth says she enjoys riding her
horse, which is half Appaloosa and half Tennessee
Walker. She also reads books “by the millions” and she
said it is her job to do the outdoor work around their home.
She houses her two 4-H heifers and her horse on her
property, along with a rabbit, a dog, and a cat, so she
keeps busy caring for them and keeping after the barn
where they all live.
Beth is obviously a hard working girl, although she says
with a laugh, “I like to work but I’m glad when it’s over.”
In any case the dairy industry of York County has a
pretty, gregarious spokesman who is bound to win a lot of
friends as she carries out her reign through the coming
year.
One of Beth’s favorite pastimes is riding her 4-H
project, Murphy.