A34-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, June 6, 1998
JOYCE BUPP
York Co. Correspondent
EAST BERLIN (York Co.)
At a Central York 4-H Dairy Club
meeting last year, members were
asked to respond to roll call by
sharing one of their goals.
Amy Trimmer, veteran exhibi
tor at 17 and owner of her own
herd of 15 registered Holsteins,
gave the request some thought,
then confided to other club mem
bers her long-time dream. Her
goal as a junior dairy exhibitor
was to show an animal at the
World Dairy Expo, held each
October in Madison, Wisconsin,
and considered the international,
premier, all-breed dairy cattle
show.
Last October, Amy’s dream be
came breathtaking reality, as
judges at the show beckoned her
to lead JCY April Starbuck-ET
out at the head of the parade of
about three dozen of the nation’s
best spring yearlings.
As the young exhibitor cooly
and professionally led her beloved
animal before the audience of
thousands of dairy enthusiasts, a
wave of applause burst from a
support group of proud friends
and fellow Pennsylvania exhibi
tors.
“It’s a big show. I was ner
vous,” quietly admits this junior
exhibitor, whose first turn around
a show arena came when she was
3, at the halter of a junior calf in
the York Holstein show’s popular
Kiddie Klass.
Amy, a sophomore at Spring
Grove Area High School, is the
daughter of Larry and Shirley
Trimmer, Admire Road, East Ber
lin. The family’s home is located
adjacent to the farm owned by
Shirley’s parents, Rodman and
Jane Thompson.
The Thompson family’s “Core
dale” herd of registered Holsicms
was a long-time staple of the re
gional show circuit, until the fami
ly retired from dairying a few
years ago. Heifers continue to
graze in the farm’s pastures and
make their mark in regional show
competition, many of them junior
project animals owned by Amy
and her brother Chad.
It was through a long-time
friendship with the Jaye Young
The Trimmers, Amy and her dad Larry seated, mother Shirley and brother Chad
standing, with photos and videos recount memories of the successful 1997 show
season.
family of Franklin County a
friendship rooted in cattle shows
that Amy came to be the owner
of the All-American heifer. The
Coredale herd show siring for
several years often included 4-H
animals owned by Troy Young,
who helped care for the combined
group of cattle. One of them, JCY
Starbuck April, was a particular
favorite of Shirley Trimmer.
“Everyone wants that special
cow; I always told the Youngs we
would like to have an April,”
Amy’s mother, Shirley, recalls.
When the April bloodlines were
remalched in an embryo flushing
and a heifer calf bom, Jaye Young
offered to sell it to Amy for a
junior project calf.
Amy has always spent long
hours working with her cattle on
her grandparents’ farm, frequently
walking them to a nearby woods
and back for exercise and halter
training. After weaning at two
months, the new calf joined
Amy’s group of show cattle.
With the opportunity to name
her new calf, the Trimmer’s took
the name of the original April they
had so admired, through switching
the sire’s name to last on the regis
try application.
JCY April Startuck-ET was of
ficial.
Her first show season, in 1996,
was a commendable one, but not
spectacular. April and Amy took
third and fifth places as a junior
calf. But seasoned judging eyes
saw more in the calf, and sug
gested Amy just keeping her along
and give her lime to develop.
She started the 1997 season by
taking the junior blue ribbon in
her class at the Pennsylvania
Spring Holstein Show in Harris
burg, and second in the open show
placings.
Slightly over-conditioned due
to Amy’s admitted tendency to
“baby” her and slip her an extra
scoop of feed, she was neverthe
less assessed as a well-balanced
heifer.
“She eats anything and every
thing,” grins Amy of her growlhy
show heifer.
A quick follow-up appearance
at the Ohio Spring National
earned April another open class
second place out of a class of 36
Her Dream Came True
In Dairy Expo Show Arena
Amy Trimmer has amassed awards for her All American and Junior All American
spring yearling show heifer, many of them displayed in the kitchen/clining room of the
family’s coun' home.
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Amy Trimmer holds the halter of her spring yearling class winner of the 1997 World
Dairy Expo Holstein show.
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head. Later, she took wins at both
the York 4-H Roundup show and
the county’s Holstein show.
Meanwhile, despite rapidly-in
creasing interest in this tall, grow
thy, stylish yearling, and her con
sistently-impressive show wins,
the Trimmers did not succumb to
the lure of allowing a professional
to be at the halter. April was
Amy’s heifer and Amy was going
to be her leadsman.
“I wouldn’t let anyone else
show her,” insists Amy of her
“baby.”
Pennsylvania Holstein presi
dent Jim Burdette, Mercersburg,
took an early interest in Amy and
April, encouraging her to consider
taking the yearling all' the way to
the Expo show at Madison and to
personally be at the halter.
More encouragement came
from former York County Hol
stein breeder Paul King, now re
tired in West Virginia, but still
called on frequently as a cattle
show official. King, after judging
April at the local show, further en
couraged Amy to consider enter
ing national competition.
After April took the junior divi
sion junior honors and open show
honorable mention at the Carlisle
Southcentral Holstein Champion
Show last August, the Trimmers
made a decision. They promptly
entered April in the World Dairy
Expo.
A few weeks later, she won her
class and was reserve junior
champion at the Maryland State
Fair. In late September, April
added to her honors with second
placings at both the Pennsylvania
Fail Championship and Eastern
National shows at Harrisburg.
Meanwhile, Amy continued to
resist buyers for her heifer, she
was determined not to sell April at
any price. Showing at the'Expo
was her dream and April was the
best chance she might ever have at
that goal. As a counter to the in
creasing pressure of the show sea
son successes on Amy, and to
keep April in good shape, the pair
walked, a “good half-mile” every
day.-
Getting April to Madison was
the next hurdle for Amy, who re
luctantly loaded her on a truck for
the long trip west.
Countering her tears of concern
over parting with her heifer for the
long haul were the veteran show
men to whom she entrusted April
Chris and Budgie Hill, Tom
McCauley and Dale Bendig.
(Turn to Pagt A 36)