VERNON ACHENBACH JR. Lancaster Fanning Staff ANNVILLE (Lebanon Co.) At the edge of an old apple orchard in the sheep pasture behind the Annville farmhouse that Ben and Maty Bow call home is a rotting, old wooden wagon. For years. Mends and visitors who have traveled back the long, wending dirt lane to the farm have commented on the wagon and its wooden-spoke-and-iton wheels. Most said that Ben and Mary's wagon was probably worth some money, t especially when the wheels became faddish lawn decorations. But Ben said the wagon doesn’t move. Years ago, when the couple were trying to mate a go of making the farm pay for itself, they raised tobacco next to the orchard. The wagon was used to haul the harvested tobacco lathe. And, after back-breaking harvesting and loading the wagon, they started pulling the wagon down through the orchard to get to the lane to take the tobacco to the bam. The weighed-down wagon slid sideways on the grassy knoll of an orchard and into an old tree. Using and ax and saw, Ben, already tired and sore from the tobacco harvest, then spent several hours cutting down the tree. After freeing the wagon, they had a brief victory celebration, and started forward with the harvest. The wagon traveled several more feet and then the axle broke. That was the last straw. God must have meant for the wagon to stay in the orchard. That’s where it stays. No use messing around trying to change things that can’t be changed. But for those things that lend themselves to change, the Bows are ready to get involved. Such as sheep. Last year the Bow family received a prestigious national traveling award from the Ameri can Corriedale Association, a sheep breed registry and promo tion organization with an esti mated 1,000 members. The Bows were named the 1997-98 outstanding Corriedale breeders of the United States. Corriedale sheep are a dual purpose, high grade wool breed developed about 1866 by James Little of the Corriedale Estate in North Otago, New Zealand. The award itself is a large, fancy silver serving tray, the “Guthrie Trophy" donated by Senator J.F. Guthrie, of Victoria, Australia, where the Corriedale breed is his torically recorded as being deve loped almost simultaneously. Guthrie was a noted Corriedale breeder who made the donation with the understanding that it be awarded annually to the most out standing Corriedale breeder in the United States. The award was first presented by the ACA in 1951 to J.F. Walker Sheep Provide Weave For Bow Family Fabric of Gambier, Ohio. According to ACA spokesper son Marcia Craig, of Clay City, HI., the award is based on the num ber of flocks started, advertising, service to the association and breed, and the improvement accomplished for the breed. The Guthrie Trophy recognizes the progress and outstanding suc cess the Bows have had in breed ing top quality Corriedale sheep. Craig said that while she didn’t know the Bows personally, she knew of them and said they have a reputation of being strong promo ters of the breed. ' On the back of the serving tray are the names of the 45 previous awardees, and most winners arc from the traditional big sheep country in the Middle West and West Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, lowa, Texas, Missouri, Nebraska, Colorado, Montana, Michigan, California, Washington but there has been a Maryland winner (related to an Ohio winner) and a previous Pennsylvania winner. In 1994, Rupperts Corriedalcs, of Fairfield, Pennsylvania were the recipients. Some of the names are profes sionally engraved. Others appear to have been scratched in by hand. The tray carries some wear, from being held and admired by die different people who have received it “It’s an honor to be chosen by your peers as being the outstanding breeder of the year," Ben said. “That means quite a bit That is recognition by the industry for doing a good job, and you can’t be anything but ppud of your fami ly,” he said. Ben said that the award wasn't presented to any one member of the Bow family, because raising and breeding Corriedale sheep has been a family effort. “When you say fanning, it’s not a one-man job,” he said, adding that the recognition the family received came from years of effort by his family. “It’s not something that comes in one year. It takes everybody and a lot of years to accomplish something like that,” he said. The Bow family includes their three children a son Benjamin Jr., or “Benj,” who lives at the farm and works in Lancaster in an agri culturally related job; and two grown daughters, Melanie Hor chler of Volant who has a flock of 40 Suffolk ewes, and Julie Willard of Lawn who raises Hampshires and has two children involved in showing them. All three of the Bow children have been involved with 4-H sheep projects, and showed in competi tions at the county level and Farm Show. They still are involved. Melanie worked for three years with the university flock at Penn State, before getting married and moving with her husband to a small farm where they raise their sheep. The family has traveled to vari- From the left, Ben and Mary Bow and eon Benjamin Jr. display the J.F. Guthrie award presented to them for being recognized as the national outstanding Corriedale sheep breeders. ous shows in the Northeast and to some in the Mid West, working side by side at the farm to prepare for the shows. Over the years, breeding, raising and showing sheep became a core family activity, Ben said. But the family didn’t start out with the idea of sheep becoming so central to their lives. The family farm is called Locust Ridge, accurately enough because of the locust trees that provide a thin forest along a ridge that backs the small secluded valley in which the farm sits. The farm isdS-acres of freedom from the sights and sounds of the nearby and surrounding urban sprawl that is currently threatening to pressure local resources beyond limits. The way the family got into sheep was because of the nature of the farm and how it came to become acquired by the Bows. The farm has 200 yards of the Quittapahelia Creek running through it, and Ben said he used to avidly hunt ducks along it. A bend in the creek he now owns was one of his favorite spots. He said he used to take a break from hunting and look around the unoccupied and overgrown farmstead. Eventually he said he got to know the place well and, with no one around, sat on the porch of the house and looked out and said to himself that it was a very beautiful place and would make a good place to live. After they purchased the farm in 1967, some friends visited to see the property that Ben and Mary bought. One of their Mends had an unwanted Dorset ram. “It was but ting people and they wanted to get rid of it and we had all this empty d ores ground,” Ben explained. So they got a ram. The farmstead was overgrown with raspberries, poison ivy and honeysuckle, and the Dorset ram enjoyed the weeds, Ben said. He said that sheep are good at cleaning up those weeds. “So we had one sheep, and we decided maybe we should get some more,” Ben said. “We got a couple of sheep to beat back the brush so we could sec what we had (in buildings and landscape on the farm) and it seemed we had so much poison ivy and my wife is allergic to poison ivy, and we got a couple more (sheep).” He said that the one bam was so covered with poison ivy that it looked like some of the older houses that have purposeful walls of English Ivy. “As the children got close to 4-H age, we started to upgrade the flock to help them, and then it begins to get competitive, and then it becomes like a disease, and then 30 years later, you get dialed in on tins thing,” Ben said, laughing. They currently have 80 mature Corriedale ewes, not counting yearlings and lambs. As of this week they had 136 lambs on the ground and were waiting for a few more to come to finish out their spring lambing season. They also have 48 Suffolk, though Ben said that they have Suffolk thanks to Melanie. “There is not a lot of poison ivy here now,” Bow said. They started with Dorscts, but Ben said that in his mind, and given the self-reliance upon which the family has depended, he wanted a dual-purpose breed and the Corriedale fit the ticket. “Corriedale wool is clothing wool,” he said. “It is nice, it’s soft I like wool, and I also think they’re pretty when you sec them in the field. “I look at them every day and you got to like what you’re looking at,” he said. As far as table fare, Ben said, “We’ve eaten Corriedale and Suf folk, but can’t tell the difference." Bow is a school teacherat Leba non High School. '• A< !. , V,/? ">> , In fact, he has been involved in a number of different activities he is a’high school industrial arts teacher, just retired from the Pen nsylvania National Guard that was involved in the Gulf War, he has been involved with the Lebanon Area Fair for 25 years, 15 years in leadership. “I’ve got a lot of irons in the fire," Ben said. The irons are being pulled out now, he said. With 33 years teach ing, now retiring from the Guard, and the children grown, he said it’s time that he and Mary start work ing on some things for themselves. “Our goal right now is just to remain constant and fine tune this so that our genetics are predict able,” he said. “Overall we have a good flock. The top 50 percent is pretty good, but I would like to refine it so that whatever animal is sold out of the flock is top quality. I want to be one of the top breeders in the nation.” He still has his work cut out for him, he said. “It’s finally paying off,” Bow said about the years of studying sheep judges’ decisions, observing stock of other breeders, selecting from his own flock, and making careful decisions in purchasing breeding stock. One of his keys to recent success has been a ram that he has been using to breed a number of his ewes. The large male has a long, well shaped body, neck and head, and has fathered several show-winning offspring. According to Ben, breeding for quality requires a certain intensity of focus in order to maintain con sistent results. The practice of raising and breeding lines of any type of ani mal can be daunting, considering the variability of genetics and the surprises of recessive traits. However, after spending some time with a species, breeding gen erations of animals, participating in shows, listening to judges give reasons for placing animals from best to worst, repeatedly scrutiniz ing winners and making mental notes, and reading, patterns can become apparent, and insights can be gained. Being able to see through the grooming techniques designed to hide flaws or enhance positive attributes also helps in understand ing the realities of breeding sheep. “We*ve been at it for seme time,” Ben said recently. “We still (Turn to Pago B 3)
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