Bh-Lanouter Farming, Saturday, September 4, 1899
Champion Fitter On
National Television
LOU ANN GOOD
Lancaster Fanning Staff
BERNVILLE (Berks Co.)
When 16-year-old Holly Moyer
won champion fitter at Schuylkill
Fair Dairy Show last year, she nev
er expected, to be on a
national? television station
Nickelodeon.
To be .named > champion fitter
was enough of a thrill for Holly,
but to receive a phone call about a
week later asking her to travel to
Universal Studios in Florida to be
taped for an upcoming television
show was shocking.
“I thought there had to be a mis
take," Holly said.
According to accounts. Holly
was “discovered” by television
producers via the Internet. A listing
of the Schuylkill Fair results had
been posted on the Internet for
4-H’crs to check.
A person from Nickelodeon was
searching the Internet to find teen
agers who had unusual hobbies.
Fitting a cow was a new concept to
the television host It turned out to
be an unheard of hobby to the four
celebrity panelists who were to
guess Holly’s hobby by digesting
the clues revealed.
Out of a pool of thousands of
kids, 80 including Holly were
selected to appear on the show.
The show is similar to the long
running Jeopardy! in which letters
arc flipped as contestants guess
correctly. In this case, panelists
were to guess the phase: “Clipped
most cow hair to win contest.”
Panelists figured out the words
“cow," "win," and “contest,” and
were given a free word: “to.”
The panelists were allowed to
ask only yes or no questions. At the
end of round three, panelists had a
chance to guess her hobby.
Because panelists could not deter
mine her hobby. Holly won the
grand prize—a trip for. four to the
island Barbados—and several
other gifts.
Holly and her dad had traveled
to Universal Studios together,
while her mom and siblings
remained behind to do the milking
chores. Trip expenses were paid by
the studio, which also rented a
hotel so that all contestants could
stay in the same place.
“It was really weird to see all the
things kids did,” Holly said. “One
bad rats that played basketball.
Another had a dog that read com
mands such as ‘lay down,’ and
‘hark’ in English and Spanish.
“And I saw my first kangaroo,”
Holly said of the event.
Holly was surprised that so
many people were intrigued with
the cow that she was clipping.
“Many contestants said they had
never seen a cow before,” Holly
said.
Holly described the taping: “I
felt nervous and stiff, but I kept
smiling.”
Although she had been asked to
bring her own cow to clip during
the taping. Holly refused. “The trip
would be too hard on her,” she
explained. So the show provided a
cow from a herd nearby the studio.
“The cow was accustomed to
being showed and really cooper
ated well,” Holly said.
Vv *
She did not have the opportunity
to preview the finished taping so
she isn’t sure if her nervousness
showed. i '
Taping for the show was com
pleted in August. The segment on
Holly will air sometime between
Sqd. IS-and ?
“Cows are my best friends,”
Holly said. She has plenty of
“friends'* on the family farm.
Called Peek-A-View Holsteins,
the family milks 120 Holsteins,
evenly divided between ted and
white and black and white.
“I prefer red and Whites. They
are neat to look at and are nicer to
work with, although I like both,"
Holly said.
' Holly owns 10 to 15 of thestock.
Her parents, Paul E. and Lucinda
Moyer, own four farms encom
passing 1,500 acres in partnership
with her dad’s three brothers.
“The farms are separate and we
make our own money but work the
land together," Holly said. Her
grandfather had purchased the
farm and added a stanchion bam
and expanded it twice. The Moyers
added a double 8 milking parlor.
Holly is the eldest of four child
ren. She has a sister Rosie, 14; a
brother Clayton, 8; and twin
7-year-old sisters, Winonna and
Tabitha.
Holly attends Tulpenhocken
High School, where she is a mem
ber of FFA. She also participates in
show choir, chorus, band, and has
acted in several school musicals
and plays.
Holly is secretary of the 4-H
Club, which has about 60 mem
bers. She is also the Berks County
Dairy Ambassador and has partici
pated in 4-H Capitol, state, and
national Congress.
Not surprisingly. Holly collects
cow items.
“I’m also a big Tigger fan," she
said of Disney’s Winnie the Pooh
series.
After high school. Holly plans to
attend Penn State to study dairy
animal science and dairy nutrition
and return to work mi the family
farm.
In the meanwhile. Holly can
again be seen clipping cows during
this fair season. She shows at Kutz
town, Schuylkill, 4-H Roundup,
and the Southeast Championship
Show. She hopes to do well enough
to participate in states and All-
American competition.
“And I’m trying to talk my
parents into letting me show at the
Pennsylvania Farm Show,” Holly
said.
All this traveling from show to
show means more time away from
the farm. So the answer needs to be
balanced with the opportunity for
the whole family to go on the
grand-prize trip to Barbados.
“We will need to hire someone
who knows the herd to do the milk
ing,” Holly said.
People often ask if Holly’s brush
with fame entices her to pursue a
career in entertainment
“No,” she answers quickly. “I
don't like to be in front of a
camera.”
Her favorite spot is with her best
friends, the cows at Peek-A-View
Holsteins.
y\ 1
Holly Moyer recently taped an upcoming television segment for Nickelodeon,
which features her clipping a cow. Holly’s brush with fame doesn’t entice her to
pursue a career in entertainment. Instead her favorite spot is with her family’s 120
milking Holstein herd. Here Holly is shown with her calf Hocus Pocus.
Photo by Andy Andnws
The Paul and Lucinda Moyer family of Peek-A-View Holsteins gathers at their show
stall area atthe Kutztown Fairgrounds. From the left, in front, are Tabitha, Clayton, and
Wynonna. In the second row are Rosie and Holly Moyer, and exchange student Yulia
na Yassin, in back are Paul and Lucinda Moyer.