ifier udderly narrow squeeze past Stein crowd with her own brand of comedy throuhgout her ordeal. Talking nearly the entire time and drawing ap provaTfrom onlookers, the first-time competitor per fected her act when a faint squirt of milk tingled into the stainless steel pail. The squirts kept coming. Debbie kept on smiling. Shouts of encouragement and funny remarks continued to be heard. Lancaster County Commissioner Raymond Herr demonstrated just bow much puli he had when he had his turn at the Guernsey cow’s special plumbing. His efforts turned out to be good for a pound of miik and lots of good public relations in more ways than one. Debbie Dunlap, farm editor for the Intelligencer Journal, Lancaster, helped make the milking contest a success by providing onlookers with/ good-natured entertainment at the organ - known as the udder. But time was running out. 'When the minute and a half was up, the farm editor’s efforts weighed in at nine ounces. Lancaster County Commissioner Raymond Herr got the third “spigot” - the leftfront quarter. “Now we’ll see how much pull the Commissioner really has,” quipped Bair, who recently took a position with Atlantic Breeders Cooperative as director of member relations. While Herr milked the cow, Bair offered the crowd a few of the more realistic facts about the dairy business. This event, after all, was to be an educational as well as en tertaining affair; It was sponsored by the Lancaster County Farmers’ Association and was a part of their week-long promotional activities designed to bring the farm story closerto city dwellers. Commissioner Herr netted an even pound during his efforts to deflate at least one quarter of the udder. The fourth contestant was television" personality Roxanne Stein. She is employed by WGAL-TV, Channel 8, of Lancaster. No sooner had she sat down, before someone loudly -observed: “She has done this before!” The solid squirts of milk rang into the bottom of the bucket. Alan Bair noted she was even using plenty of body english, for whatever good that might do her. But as someone had said earlier in the contest, “It’s all in the bands.” ' i The milk continued to rise in the pail and there was some speculation that she might be the champion. Jay Mylin would soon tell. “One pound ounces,” heannounced. It was identical to the amount squirted into the pail by “The Old Sheriff.” “Looks like we’ll have to have a pull-off here,” declared Alan Bair. Miss Stein and “The Old Sheriff” were"each given an additional minute at their respective quarters. -Mon tgomery was up (or is it down?) first. , That second sitting at the bag yielded 13 ounces and no problems for the radio man. Miss Stein got off to a good start and was offering a good challenge. Then, just as time was up, the 6-year old Guernsey cow, which had stood and behaved so well during the entire length of the contest, decided to put her foot in the pail. Perhaps the cow was only trying to help Roxanne. Alan Bair had commented: “Throw a few shavings into the bucket-they’ll add to the weight.” While Roxanne didn’t take the idea seriously, the cow did. And, with Montgomery’s consent, the milk plus shavings and hay was allowed to be weighed as is. “Twelve ounces,” declared official weighmaster Mylin. Bobby Montgomery, “The Old Sheriff,” was champion. His reward, a miniature milk can, was given to be him by dairyman Jesse Balmer of lititz, who was chairman of the dairy displays at Park City. All four contestants received spedal tokens of appreciation from the organizing committee. That left only the cow empty-handed. Or empty-footed. Or whatever. She was Wyoming Favors Nedra, owned by Peter Witmer of Willow Street. She reportedly milks 50 pounds of milk per day when it’s done by professionals. Good old Nedra could probably tell a good story or two about the strange hands that squeezed and pulled on her “spigots” on Tuesday evening. We’ll leave that assign ment for someone else. How about it, Debbie? Cynamon Gentzler, 5-year old daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Richard D. Gentzler, Lancaster, stret ches to see how milk has made her grow. UncastwFemhg,S«h»iey,oeteNr2l, 197 t Lancaster County DHIA tester Jay Mylin studies the scale closely to determine who is the winner. Looking on are contestant Robert Montgomery, Intelligencer Journal photographer Larry Nixdorf, and contestant Roxanne Stein. 5 ft 3ft .mo cm a METER 31
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers