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)