82-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 8, 2000 Nicole Hess Reigns As PA. Polled Hereford Princess LOU ANN GOOD Lancaster Farming Staff MOUNT JOY (Lancaster Co.) Life for Nicole Hess has been filled with 4-H activities and caring for cattle. Her grandparents, George and Dorothy Mentzer were na tionally known breeders of Salunga Acres Polled Herefords. Her parents, Deb and Bob Hess, met through 4-H livestock com petition and continued their in volvement by leading the 4-H Red Rose Beef Club. With that background, it was inevitable that Nicole Hess would grow up excelling in 4-H and enamored with the reddish brown and white cattle grazing in the family’s meadows. As a 15-year-old she now wears the tiara proclaiming her Pennsylvania’s Polled Hereford Princess. “I’ve been showing since I was eight years old. I won’t show any breed other than Here fords. None are calmer or sweeter,” she said. Raising Herefords for show is not just a means for attaining ribbons and premiums for Nicole. “I cry everytime I sell one,” Nicole admitted. “I still remember Herbie, my first steer. He was more a pet than a steer.” Raising three teenagers is a time consuming responsibility for parents Deb and Bob Hess. This past year has been espe cially difficult. Deb is undergo ing chemotherapy for cancer. But that hasn’t deterred them from volunteering many hours working with the 29 members of the 4-H Beef Club. Deb said, “We’re convinced that 4-H teaches responsibility and keeps kids off the street. I’ve seen kids in trouble turn around when they got involved in 4-H.” For a number of years, mem bership in the Beef Club dwin dled, but recently a revival of interest in showing beef has boosted membership to 29. The space and expense required to raising beef seemed to be a detri ment, and many 4-H’ers were Sally Brehm adds new plants to her backyard every year in order to attract many different kinds of butterflies. Dif ferent flower colors attract a variety of butterflies. Here she is with the colorful Monarch shown in the different stages of growth, from caterpillar to chrysalis. raising sheep, goats, or pigs in stead. “I’m not sure why member ship is increasing,” Deb said of the eight new members who joined this year, “but it may be that parents who have shown beef are now encouraging their offspring to become active in the club. The challenge of handling a large animal and the process of watching the animal develop fascinates Nicole and her sib lings. She said that her brother John usually checks newborn calves, dips their navels, and makes sure everything is okay. Cattle are fed a special mix containing soybeans, corn, and cattle impact. Because Nicole and John need to leave for school earlier than Chris, it is Chris who usu- ally takes care of morning feed ings. Show steers are halter broken by placing a halter on them. “They drag the halter around about a week. Then one of us takes the end of the halter so they get used to seeing someone walking with them,” Nicole said. “Each of the calves have a dif ferent personality and react dif ferently,” Nicole said of the time period required to tame a calf. In the Hess household, Nicole has the reputation for “spoil ing” or turning her charges into docile pets. This has probably been a plus in the show ring, where Nicole has won top showmanship awards at the Elizabethtown Fair every year since she was eight years old. The downside of becoming attached to a 4-H project is the inevitable parting at the 4-H sale. “I cry when I sell every one, but especially Cowboy,” she said of her favorite steer, which she showed two years ago. So far, Nicole said, her annual steer projects have placed third or fourth at every 4-H competi tion. “But I’m working toward first place,” she said. Nicole Hess grew up with Polled Herefords. For her, no other breed compares to the Polled Herefords, which she said, “are calmer and sweeter than any other breed.” Her mom said that the biggest difference between showing in 4- H now compared to when she was a member is that now the top prize seems to go to whoever can afford to buy the best in stead of the person who works his or her way to the top. This is the first year that Nicole is not raising a steer from Salunga Acre stock. Her grand father died a few years ago, and her grandmother held a disper sal sale. Nicole said her 4-H project was purchased from Salem, N.Y. This is the first year of FFA for Nicole. Like her brother John, she needed to transfer from Donegal School District to Elizabethtown School District in order to join FFA. She’s really excited about the opportunities available through FFA. In her first year, she has already won awards in public speaking, dairy foods judging, and livestock judging. Nicole volunteers at a local nursing home and helps with petting zoos at special events. Last year, Nicole received the American Legion Award for Cit izenship and a $2,700 scholar ship from Donegal High School. Raising Monarchs Is A Colorful Hobby GAIL STROCK plants for food. You plant the And this is when some cater- Mifflin Cc. Correspondent plants for the type of butterflies pillars escape. To help prevent BURNHAM (Mifflin Co.)- you want.” this, Zeke made a large box with “They do get away,” smiles Sally The Brehms’ backyard screened-in sides to cover the Brehm of the beautiful gold, attracts monarchs, black swal- plants. The interesting thing, black, and white striped cater- lowtails, and spicebush swallow- Sally notes, is that when the pillars in her dining room. She tails - Sally also raises 100 pots caterpillars are searching for a sometimes finds a caterpillar of tropical milkweed for caterpil- place to hang, they test the site chrysalis, or cocoon, hanging l ar food. first by hanging upside down from a drapery, chair, or window “The monarch’s appear after and then reaching out in all edge. It’s a small inconvience for the Fourth of July. Once we see a directions. “It’s as if they’re try helping to increase the dwin- female darting around outside, ing to see if there’s enough room dling number of fascinating we watch the bed to see if she for their wings once they monarch butterflies. lays an egg under a leaf, I take emerge.” Sally and her husband, Zeke, of Burnham, Mifflin County, hatch and release 80 to 100 monarch butterflies each sum mer. They gather the newly hatched caterpillars from their backyard butterfly garden, transfer them to indoor tropical milkweed plants to metamor phose inside their chrysalis, and then release them. The Brehms’ backyard is a butterfly utopia. Butterflies are attracted to the colorful garden by the thirteen yellow, purple, and white butterfly bushes, glo riosa daisies, Queen Anne’s Lace, purple cornflowers, milk weed, dill, fennel, bee balm, and joe pye weeds. “You have to plant for the whole life cycle of the butterfly. They see the co'ors of the host plants and come in to lay their eggs. Then they need nectaring The scholarship accumulates in terest until Nicole graduates from high school. She’s debating between studying nursing or animal science. Last year John had the dis tinction of being a member of the state 4-H livestock judging team that went on to national competition. His 4-H and FFA involvement required him to miss 41 days of school, but he still managed to remain on the honor roll. After winning at the state level, livestock judging members can not be part of the team the following year. But judging con tinues to intrigue John. One of his favorite past times is to attend judging events and com pile his own list of placings and reasons to compare with the judges’ decisions. John is planning to study animal science but hasn’t de cided where. He has won numer- yarn and mark the plant and use the same color for each day The eggs hatch out in four days, and we must bring them (cater pillars the size of a comma) inside because of the ants, spi ders, and beetles. I place that piece of leaf on top of a tropical milkweed leaf. Within the next hour, the caterpillar will crawl under the leaf and feed for nine to 13 days. It grows by leaps and bounds." But this isn’t the part where the caterpillar escapes. The caterpillar is too busy eating, growing and excreting (onto lay ers of newspaper). They never leave the plant. “After nine to thirteen days, the caterpillars are fat. They come down the plant and go around the rim of the pot, look ing for a place to hang. I call this ‘stomping around’.” ous awards in FFA and 4-H connected to livestock. Last year he won the $3OO Lancaster Farming Award at the 4-H Roundup. At the Elizabethtown Fair, John donated $9OO from the proceeds of his hog and lamb toward traveling expenses for the livestock judging team. In addition to seven Polled Herefords, the family has six sheep, three dogs, three kittens, and the boys have two Angus steers and a number of pigs that they raise for 4-H and FFA proj ects. Nicole was selected as prin cess during the Pennsylvania Farm Show. In preparation for the event, Nicole filled out an application and stated the rea sons she believed she was a good candidate for the position. But it wasn’t until her name was an nounced that Nicole knew she (Turn to Pag* B 3) - Once they find the perfect spot, the caterpillar spins a silk pad at night and then hangs upside down with their head folded up in a J-shape. It’s com monly thought that a caterpillar • then spins a silk cocoon. Most j moths do, but with the monarch caterpillar, its outer layer, or , exoskeletion, beings to split near ! the head and fall away, exposing i the beautiful gold/green shell i around the pupa. Even though it’s motionless at this time, / many changes are taking place. V After eight to 12 days, a fully ' formed adult butterfly pushes ' out from the shell , “The butterfly must hang and ' its wings not touch anything. The wings are wet. When they’re just about dry, the butterfly will start pumping them for several hours. It’s fascinating. I never (Turn to Pago B 4)
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