Faming, Saturday, January 5,1980
Staver drops books to show sheep , a family tradition
BY SHEILA MILLER
PALMYRA Getting an
animal ready for the Penn
sylvania Farm Show takes a
lot of time and patience, as
any exhibitor from past
shows knows. For many
people, competing in
Harrisburg during the
traditionally coldest and
snowiest week of the year is
an experience they live
through once and never
again. But for Julia Stiver,
R.D. 1 Palmyra, this year
mails her fifteenth year in
competition at Penn
sylvania’s largest livestock
show.
Julie started showing
sheep when she joined the
Dauphin County 4-H sheep
dub when she was ten years
old. By the time she was
twelve, Julie was exhibiting
her project lamb at the
Farm Show.
Although not always a
winner, Julie is proud that
she came home with top
honors two years in a row. In
1971, she exhibited the
champion pen of market
lambs. And in 1972, she
showed the grand champion
market lamb. That lamb
sold for $32 a pound, which
Julie said was a Farm Show
record then and still may be
the highest price paid for a
lamb at die Harrisburg
show.
Showing sheep is a
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tradition for the Staver
family. Julie’s parents
bought a few grade sheep
after they were married and
moved to their 130 acre farm
near Hershey. When Julie
and her older brother Chuck '
joined the 4-H club, the
Stavers invested in purebred
Hampshire stock.
After a short time, Julie
said, her brother became
interested in the Dorset
breed. He travelled to see
the secretary of the Con
tinental Dorset club and
bought four of the culled
ewes. One of these original
ewes is the predominant
maternal ancestor to the
Stavers’ flock of fifty ewes.
Through the years, the
Stavers bred the horns off
their flock by using polled
rams. Julie says that they
still have some sheep with
scurs and bits of fine hom.
“If it’s a good sheep, it
doesn’t matter if it’s
scurred. We’re going to keep
it,” she added.
The advantage to having a
polled flock, Julie noted, is
the sheep are easier to
handle. They don’t get
caught in the bay feeders or
fences. “Vou always have
one that doesn’t come out of
the barn and you just know
that she’s stuck in the hay
feeder. So, you always have
to go m the bam and twist
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her head to get her loose,”
she said,
Over the years, the
Stavers’ flock has grown and
improved. Julie stated that
they were careful not to sell
the best of their purebred
stock in order to maintain
their herd quality. “You
have to be ruthless about
what you keep and sell.”
Selecting the best qualities
in Dorset sheep is not always
an easy job, especially for
the judge at Farm Show.
This year, the Stavers’ will
be entering six or seven
breeding sheep and one
carcass lamb.
“The carcass class is
tough for the judge,” Julie
said, “because the sheep are
judged on foot, then but
chered and bung out front on
display. We like to kid the
judge when a lamb that
placed last on foot is hung up
in the top five carcasses.”
Julie recalled that the
toughest class she
remembers during her years
in 4-H was the blocking and
showing competition. She
explained that each con
testant was given an hour to
fit up a sheep that looked
terrible. Julie won the
contest one year, and didn’t
compete again. She said her
philosophy was after win
ning something once, get out
and let someone else win.
Sheep aren’t the only
> I
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animals that Julie has
shown. She was a member of
the 4-H dairy club, and had a
Holstein calf for a project.
She raised her heifer, bred
her and showed the calf.
“My heifer never did well
as a 4-H calf,” Julie ex
plained, “because she was
always too big and too
awkward.” She later sold the
heifer to Ray Seidel of Berks
County and- the “too-big”
heifer was to become an All-
American Aged cow.
Julie’s life and experience
on the farm is an asset to her
in her studies at the
University of Penn
sylvania’s School of
Veterinary Medicine. She is
in her second semester of
her second year as a
veterinary student. After
graduation in 1982, Julie
hopes to be able to set up a
practice in a rural com
munity where she will take
care of everyones animals,
large and small.
Julie said she prefers to
work with large animals but
realized the necessities of
not limiting her practice.
She stated that a woman vet
may not be accepted in
many communities, except
as a small animal doctor.
She quickly pointed out that
the idea that a woman
cannot handle large animals
was ridiculous.
“Let’s face it, a man can
get hurt if he tries to wrestle
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Julie Staver takes time out of her busy schedule
to help show her families Dorset sheep at this
year's Farm Show. She has been showing sheep
since she was ten years old.
with a horse or a cow,” She
said. “A woman probably
wouldn’t get into a situation
where she can get hurt
because she knows the limits
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that with the modern
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.'WM ~
(Turn to Page A2l)
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19933
‘^37-82 11