C2—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, August 8,1981 4-H'er experiences "lest" round-up BY SUSAN KAUFFMAN Staff Correspondent Many 4-H projects have come to a close in the past few weeks and each year there are a number of young people who participate for their last time. Bonnie Lambom, a seventeen year-old from southern Chester County is one of these club members who say they have gone to the “last round-up.” In 4-H terminology the round-up is the day when local members come together for judging of their projects, scoring of recordbooks and competition for placmgs with other county members. Bonnie graduated from Oxford Area High School this past June. She sees this summer as the time to leave the FF A and 4-H programs and pursue studies in a possible vocation apart from agriculture. Next week she begins classes at the Gordon Phillips School in Coatesville to study for a career in cosmetology. Although she seems to be making a clean break from her years of involvement in 4-H and FFA, she views these experiences as valuable and rewarding preparing her with skills which she is glad to take into whatever the next few years hold for her. Bonnie is a very frank young lady who has some very definite opinions She has had to learn some painful lessons during her ten years in 4-H and four in FFA. She has also had to deal with disappointments and frustrations. Add to that the responsibilities that are the lot of a dairy farmer’s daughter such as daily chores and seasonal work, and one might conclude that perhaps this sum mer is a good time to get away from all of those demands and frustrations. But Bonnie doesn’t see things that way. She emphatically states, “I couldn’t think of a better way to grow up than on a farm, like I did!” Bonnie has gone to a public school all her life where town and farm youngsters learn under the same programs. From the early days in elementary school, Bonnie $6 ; - Bonnie enjoys working with the calves on showing. Over the last ten years in 4-H, Bonnie her parent’s farm. She is preparing this calf for has had plenty of practice. was aware that country and town living were different. When she went to high school she could see an even greater difference in life styles. She followed her older brother’s and sister’s example and joined the 4-H dairy club. She also enrolled in the FFA program in her freshmen year mainly because as she explained “I saw all the ex citing things my older brother was doing in FFA.” During her FFA involvement, Bonnie said she mainly carried dairy projects with a dairy herd being her senior year project. In all, Bonnie has twelve animals registered in her name. They are mcorporated into her parent’s milking herd. The Frisky Acres prefix gamed public at tention through Bonnie showing her animals at local fairs in recent years. Her parents, George and Suzanne Lambom, milk about 35 registered Holsteins on their 160 acre farm located in the south western comer of Chester County, near Nottingham. Mr. and Mrs Lambom and Bonnie make up the work force on the farm with the exception of a summer helper who is a student at Penn State gaming experience on the Lambom farm. Bonnie is glad for her help. She recalled doing the bam clean-up chores last summer by herself. Bonnie says she likes working with the young animals best. She takes care of the calves, tends to the feeding of grain to the cows and shares the clean-up chores. A knee injury which has gradually become more painful throughout the last three years has kept her from doing the milking in the tie stall barn. This same knee injury cut short her FFA days to the extent that she had to miss the Penn State Days competitions in June because surgery was scheduled then. In her sophomore year, Bonnie competed at Penn State in showmanship. In her junior year, she participated in the interview contest reflecting her studies in business courses in addition to the vo-ag program she rarned during high school Bonnie worke" , , .rj , . .;g and made the team “a couple of years,” as she put it. Giving reasons for judging and placing decisions, was a tough job for Bonnie, she said. The judging team competed four or five times a year at the All-American in Harrisburg, and at various fairs such as the Timonium Fair in Maryland. When Bonme was a greenhand, first year FFA, there were probably 35 greenhands, she said. When she graduated there were forty-five senior FFA members. A third of the greenhands were girls, but the majority of the graduating members were girls, according to Bonme. She served as chapter secretary during her senior year and received the Keystone farmer award. Bonnie looked back over her FFA days and said they were busy years when there were a lot of interesting activities going on and chapter members worked together. The ten years Bonnie spent in 4- H were not wasted ones, she said. She began with a calf when she was eight years old, following her older brother’s and sister’s example. The last six years her father was the Oxford dairy club leader. This year Bonnie served as club president. Selecting an animal for a project, caring for it, groommg it for competition and round-up and keeping the recordbook for each project taught her responsiblity she said. “Knowing you did your best whether you end up at the top of the showline or not is important,” she began But she went on to admit, “It took me a long tune to get over the disappointment of doing my best and being at the bottom of the line. Our home-raised animals were just not as good as some of the other show animals. But, boy, was I every happy when one of my animals was chosen a Grand Champion at a fair when I was fifteen!” Bonnie says she likes both showing and fitting aspects of 4-H. She never really perfected the Bonnie Lamborn displays the plaque presented to her acknowledging the 1980 first place 2-year-old Holstein in the State Holstein Association for milk production. The trophy was presented by her local association for Frisky Acres Crusader Arlinda who produced 21,900 pounds of milk and 828 pounds of fat. techniques to the extent that others have, but she hked those tasks because, “They are some things you can do yourself; they are up to you, in your control. ” Bonnie has shown her Frisky Acres animals over the years at three or four shows- and fairs a summer. While not consistently in the winner’s circle, she has earned many ribbons and trophies. She had the Junior Champion at the 1980 4-H District round-up and a Grand Champion at the Kimberton Fair three years ago, among other awards. In addition to contending with the extra work involved in showing animals at fairs, Bonnie has had to deal with remarks from spectators who know nothing about dairy animals and the even more frustrating experience of losmg a show animal. After a hurricane like storm felled the tent at a fair her cow was brought home feverish from the drenching downpour. Later, she died. - In addition to the showing and fitting that goes on with a dairy 4-H project, Bonnie recalled the club meetings and group activities which the members shared together. The demonstrations by older members, the meetings and the summer trips all “opened me up a lot,” she said. “I was the shy one in the corner who never had Vfamcs(ead anything to say. “Four-H helped me a lot to be able to get up in front of a group or a crowd.” The Oxford Dairy Club is composed of nineteen members. Fifteen have Holstems. The club meets monthly moving from one member’s home to another member’s home throughout the year. The members compete at the county round-up in mid July at the Kimberton Fair Grounds. This, her last year, Bonnie showed a three year-old Elevation which placed fourth and a Jerry Junior calf which placed third. At the State Holstem convention this past January, Bonnie was recognized for having the first place two-year old for milk production in the state. Frisky Acres Crusader Arlinda finished 1980 with a 305 day record of 21,900 pounds of milk and 828 pounds of butterfat. The county Holstem, Association presented her with a trophy for this same award. Bonnie says she would choose growing up no other way than on a farm. She says she learned a lot from FFA, her advisors, from her 4-H experiences and from the social activities and group sharing. Bonnie may have gone to her “last round-up,” but the lessons she learned along the way she feels will continue to help her with the challenges ahead of her c H/oies
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