82-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 19,1985
Years of show ring experience earn Beattie May Ball respect of her peers.
-BY JOYCE BUPP
Staff Correspondent
BUNKER HILL, W.V. - Beattie
May Ball was seven years old
when she stepped into a cattle
show ring for the first time. At the
other end of the halter was an
equally inexperienced showring
participant, the youngster’s
purebred Guernsey calf.
The year was 1919.
That showring appearance was
to be the first in a lifetime of cattle
showing experiences for this
plucky farm woman.
One of three daughters of Allen
C. May, Beattie has since become
a familiar face on the Middle
Atlantic cattle show and sale
circuit. While judges, cattle trends
and known names in the business
have come and gone, the respect
that her knowledge of fitting and
showing commands continues
among purebred breeders.
The May family operated a
relatively large dairy operation,
maintaining a milking herd of
about 40 head. A highlight of each
year for Beattie and her sisters
Dolly and Catherine was the
showring competition at the York
Fair.
"We would drive the cattle from
the farm to the fairgrounds,” she
Forking manure is one phase of cattle showing that has
remained virtually unchanged over Beattie's tenure on the
show circuit.
An accomplished cattle fitter, Beattie Ball remembers clipping with the hand-turned
clipper. When the Y-ork Fair hooked up te electricity, her family was quick to purchase
one of the electrical clippers.
recalls, a process that took many
hours to cover the several-mile
distance. The animals had to be
clipped and washed at home,
because there was no place then to
do that at the fair."
Clipping, too, was a more tedious
job than today, since the clipper
mechanism had to be operated by
hand-turning.
"When the Fair got electricity,
we got electric clippers," Beattie
recounts.
“Well, we didn't know any
better,” she jokes, comparing
those early years of showing to
today's truck and trailer hauling,
high-pressure washers and
vacuum blow dryers.
While showing was even harder
work than it is today, a show string
of 18 or 20 head was not un
common. One reason for large
herd exhibits was a class known as
the County Class, tor animals bred
by county breeders. But animals
exhibited in that class could not be
shown in any other area, making it
necessary to bring additional
entries to compete in other
categories.
Then, the fair ran from Monday
through Saturday, with the cattle
remaining the full six-day period.
“On Sunday, we always had lots
Part.of exhibiting cattle includes bookwork, such as checking health and registry
certificates. Beattie and Mike Welsh get the showstring papers in order for the family's
Brown Swiss entries.
of help at home to get ready. The
spring wagon would be loaded with
supplies; but the fair supplied all
the hay and straw, so that didn’t
have to be hauled there,” she
relates.
Equal employment for women is
certainly not a new concept to
Beattie. Since the May family had
only daughters, the trio of sisters
learned at early ages to pitch in
doing whatever chores demanded
attention.
"I did what the boys would have
done on a farm,” is Beattie’s
description of her farm respon
sibilities as a youngster.
Still, there were probably not too
many young ladies who received
their own team of horses as an
eighth-birthday present. Beattie
remembers well the set of bay
geldings, Duke and Doc, that her
father gave her at that tender age.
T was so proud of them,” she
fondly remembers. T used to do a
lot of harrowing with that team.”
In spite of the lack of today’s
labor-saving devices, life was not
entirely all work and no play for
the May sisters.
‘We took a lot of hay rides for
groups, and once that word got
around, it was hard to get stopped.
Hayndes helped earn a little extra
money and they were fun.”
One particular booking that still
is fresh in Beattie's memory was
by a group that scheduled a
haynde for forty people. They
neglected to mention that each
would then be bringing an ad
ditional friend. While the event
went off as planned, it was one
haynde with a lot of “together
ness” as double the expected
number squeezed into the wagons.
“Father used to take us along to
cow sales. We went to banquets
and to the parties that the Guern
sey breeders had. And we danced a
lot; we used to go to the Valencia,"
she adds, referring to the famed
York night spot noted for hosting
the then-popular big bands.
Showing horses at the fair,
though, was one of Beattie's
favorite pastimes. At times, that
created a problem for Beattie and
Catherine, who also enjoyed horse
exhibiting, because the horses and
cattle would be scheduled for
showing at the same times.
Particular favorites that she
recalls were three- and five-gaited
individuals, and a prized Ten
nessee Walker.
When her father died in 1949,
Beattie and Catherine took over
operation of the family farm and
continued running the dairy herd
for the next four years. When
Catherine announced her wedding
engagement, the sisters began
making plans for sale of the herd.
With the sale scheduled for
October 1953, the May showstring
reached a record number that year
at the fair. Smglehandedly, Beattie
exhibited 32 head.
Out of the milking business,
Beattie purchased a home north of
York, and merchandised cattle for
a number of years while assisting
friends and acquaintenances with
farm work. She also handled
painting and wallpapering jobs for
local homeowners.
Beattie’s cattle handling talents
were not about to be forgotten,
however. The year following the
sale of the family herd, Avalong
Farms employed her to assist with
their fair show string. Similar jobs
followed, and she traveled oc
casionally, exhibiting for a local
Brown Swiss herd.
Through her cattle involvement,
Beattie met and married Jack
Ball, former manager of Blakeford
Guernsey Farm on Maryland’s
Eastern Shore, and a self-
wmesfead
x/Zo^cs
employed cattle hoof trimming
specialist.
With Jack’s expertise on feet and
legs, and Beattie’s extensive
background in fitting and handling
show cattle, the couple provided an
ideal «team for assisting purebred
exhibitors on the show circuit.
Among the annual shows they have
worked on a regular basis are the
Pennsylvania Farm Show and the
prestigious Harrisburg Eastern
National Dairy Show.
Between shows, they were
frequently booked to assist with
preparing for cattle sales.
“We worked many Holstein sales
for Doty Remsburg’s company,
and with John Merrymen’s
Guernsey sales,” relates Beattie.
Married 17 years, the Balls now
enjoy “semi-retirement” on their
Bunker Hill Farm. Beattie
maintains a large garden, tends
their three and one-half acre lawn
and enjoys the companionship of
the couple’s only livestock, two pet
dogs.
But, a few times every show
season, Beattie packs up clipping
and fitting gear, and heads out the
road to lend a hand to dairy
friends. The “barbenng” of show
cattle continues to be more of an
art than a science, and veteran
clippers are hard to find. It's a skill
that Beattie, who credits her
training to "just watching how
others did it," keeps honed by
acceptirig these few jobs each
year.
Til do it as long as I can,” she
figures. While an eye problem did
curtail her activities earlier this
year, that condition has improved,
and enabled her to keep her hand
in a few of the fall shows
With more than 60 \ears of
showring expertise, Beattie’s
advice to novice exhibitors is
based on sound experience.
Don’t give up until you have
that ribbon in your hand," she
admonishes interested youngsters.
She can quickly back up that ad
vice with anecdotes about
exhibitors she remembers who let
their animals fall apart” in a
(Turn to Page B 4)