Welsh
BY JOYCE BUPP
Staff Correspondent
EAST BERLIN - Sunday af
ternoon visitors to the Farm Show
often pause near one of the
numerous portable televisions
brough along by livestock
exhibitors for entertainment, and a
quick update on the day’s latest
football scores.
Last year, spectator requests for
the latest score on a particular
football battle came so frequently
that Brown Swiss 4-H dairy
exhibitor Mike Welsh devised a
“scoreboard” for their benefit.
“There were so many people
asking the score and what quarter
it was that I took a piece of paper
and stuck it on the television
aerial,” recalls Mike with a grin of
remembrance.
“As the score and the quarters
changed, we’d change the paper.”
Relaying football scores was just
the beginning of a week of com
municating with the record Farm
Show crowd that kept Mike, his
mother Emilie, and brother Tom
and his wife Carol, talking en
dlessly last year.
When their Sandrock R Vivian
gave birth to a bull calf early in the
week, the crowds gathering around
the Welsh’s Ponderosa farms
exhibit area grew even thicker.
Few occurrences at the Farm
Show draw more attention than the
birth of a calf, and “Elmer,” as the
youngster was named, provided
the Welshs with an excellent op
portunity for public relations
chatting.
‘There were so many questions,”
relates Emilie. “Lots of people
don’t understand, for instance,
why heifers don’t have udders.
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Welsh Ponderosa Titan Princess -- grand champion, best
bred and owned at NAILE junior show.
ft
1
Evaluating their Brown Swiss heifer herd for Farm Show entries are Mike and Emilie
Welsh, R 1 East Berlin.
family practices PR at Farm Show
That was just one thing we could
explain.”
As hundreds stopped by to pet
the calf and talk to the big cow that
had taken first place in her class,
the personal touch that crowds
appreciate from the Farm Show
exhibitors gave the Welsh’s a
chance to talk dairying.
“People don’t seem to be in a
real big hurry when they come to
the Farm Show,” figures Emilie.
“They want to visit with the
exhibitors, and spend some time
finding out what Is happening in
agriculture.”
Farm Show participation for the
James Welsh family, East Berlin
El, began back with their four
sons’ 4-H project animals. While
the Ponderosa herd was primarily
Holsteins, each of the youngsters
also raised and exhibited colored
breed individuals as well.
Gary and Joey, the two older
sons, are no longer involved in the
dairy operation. Third son, Tom,
and his wife Carol, have joined the
family farm and own their own
string of Brown Swiss, tracing
back to Tom’s 4-H animals. Eight
of their best are headed for this
year’s Farm Show competition.
Mike, the youngest of the
Welsh’s sons, led a little Jersey
calf on his first trip into the 4-H
showring as an eight-year-old
rookie. As she grew and developed,
Sibyl earned Mike numerous
championships during her half
dozen years of tanbark com
petition, and remains in his 4-H
herd.
Then, in 1978, while attending the
Mid-Atlantic calf sale, Mike
selected a Brown Swiss calf for
project work.
**%' **' ...
Football scores , explaining birth
Mike Welsh and his NAILE junior champion, Welsh Ponderosa Kings Bobbi Jo, launch
a new year of showring challenges, beginning with this week's Farm Show.
Bred by Chris Morley of Bel-Air,
Maryland, McCoy Delegate
Princess went to the 1979 Farm
Show as Mike’s junior calf. He’s
brought her back every year since.
Now six years old, “big”
Princess holds several York Fair
open class and 4-H championships
and was a junior champion winner
at the Farm Show.
But it was her daughter,
“Welsh’s Ponderosa Titan Prin
cess,” affectionately called “little
Princess,” that Mike exhibited to
show circuit history earlier this
year.
Competing in the junior show at
the November North American
International Livestock Exposition
in Louisville, Kentucky, “little
Princess,” showing as a youthful
two-year-old, claimed first in the
class, senior and grand champion
and capped that off with the award
as best bred and owned female at
this national junior Brown Swiss
competition.
Her winnings topped Mike’s
claiming earlier in that show of the
junior champion honors with
junior yearling Welsh Ponderosa
Kings Bobbi Jo.
Welsh’s taking of all the top
trophies marked the first time in
the NAILE junior Brown Swiss
show history that one exhibitor
made a clean sweep of all the
honors.
The Welsh’s move toward Brown
Swiss actually began back in 1974,
when neighboring dairyman Paul
Myers dispersed his dairy herd.
Abigail not only became the first
(Turn to Page E 26)
frasTvrrsr —-
A little stall rest time is needed by both Farm Show entries
and exhibitor, Mike Welsh.
With a collection of winning banners from past shows to be
featured in Farifi Show display, Mike Welsh packs gear for
fitting his 4-H entries.
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