ALTAMONT FAIR — A new generation of farmers has entered livestock and is running the show barns at the tri-county fair.

A number of the stereotypical grandpa farmers in overalls have retired and the next generation of 20-something female farmers have stepped into the ring.

The belief that small farms are dying is challenged at this year’s Altamont Fair.

The fair, many participants say, continues each year to serve as a medium for fostering youth interest in agriculture, passing a trade on to the next generation.

Udder satisfaction

Jennifer Preska, 27, has run her own farm in Delmar since 2000 and now owns 140 dairy cows.

She sat in the newly-built enormous cattle barn at the fairgrounds in a fold-out camping chair, with baby-blue sunglasses resting on her head. She wore jeans at her hip, a striped maroon polo shirt, pink nail polish and work boots.

Preska wakes up on her Duncreek Farm at 4 a.m. each morning to feed and milk her cows and then heads out to do field work in the sunlight.
You get one cow to start, she said, "Then you don’t want to sell the first one and it’s a vicious cycle."

Dairy farmers do tend to get more attached to their cows than beef farmers allow themselves to, she told The Enterprise.
Preska is a fourth-generation farmer, but her parents had raised primarily hay and horses, she said. She got her first show calf at age 10, and now, she said of raising cattle, "It’s all I do."

It is a viable living, she said, especially since the prices for milk have gone up over the last couple of years.

Preska is part of the co-op Dairy Farmers of America, and her milk goes to Crowley.
In the "Agriculture Today" exhibit, next to the fair’s Circus Building, a three-sided poster display from the New York Agricultural Statistics Service shows the decrease of dairy cows in the state.

In 1910, there were 1.5 million dairy cows in New York. In 1960, there were 1.4 million; in 1970, there were 954,000; in 2000, there were 700,000; and in 2004, there were 658,000.
"It’s a hard business to get into because of the equipment — it is expensive to start," Preska said.

Over the last 20 years, she has had cows, but, when she took over the family farm in 2000, she built new facilities on the land, she said.

Duncreek Farm doesn’t have any employees, Preska said, but her parents do help out every once in a while. Both her parents hold regular full-time jobs during the day.

Her father, Charles Preska, said something is wrong with the way things work in America when a bottle of water cost more than a bottle of milk.
"What’s a water bottler got invested in it"" he asked; a bottler has to run some water through a filter, he said.
Jennifer Preska pointed to the bovines resting on the wood shavings in front of her and said, "I bred their mamas...I’ve got great-great granddaughters of my first cow."

She has a lot invested in her cows; they are the toil of her work and decisions. She has decided which cow to mate with which bull, to achieve certain characteristics in her current stock.
There’s a model for the Holstein breed, she said. The judges are looking for the "ideal cow," Preska said, which, when extremely simplified, means the biggest, nicest, prettiest cow.

Holsteins are the most easily recognized cows because of their black and white spots; they are frequently used to illustrate children’s books, and cheese commercials.

The cows are ranked at the fair based on appearance. The judges consider body structure, milk production, and breeding capability, Preska said.

Preska brought nine of her cows to show at the fair this year. She chose the tallest from her herd, and they have the nicest udders, she said.

Coming to the fair each year is only sort of a vacation, Preska said. She enjoys hanging out with other dairy farmers, but then she also does double duty and returns home to her farm twice a day to do the usual chores.

Good eggs
Dr. Richard Langenbach was the "guru" of chickens, he was an "Icon" at the fair, said Erica Marzak, of Greenwhich.

Long-time poultry superintendent Langenbach died this past April; he was a mentor to 27-year-old Marczak. She decided to become the assistant superintendent for the poultry this year to follow in his footsteps.

A picture of Langenbach is posted near the entrance of the barn.

Marczak said, just like Langenbach, she wants to be at the fair for 4-H students to answer their questions and guide them.
"I got my start here in agriculture," she said of the fair.
As a child, she said, "I didn’t have a farm, but I always wanted a farm."

She joined the 4-H and had a garden and some chickens.

It’s fairs like Altamont’s that get young people involved in agriculture, she said.

Marczak now works at Our Farm C.S.A. with a pasture free-range commercial flock of egg-laying hens.

She sells the eggs at the Troy Water Front Farmers Market.
While she could be making quicker money doing other things, Marczak said, "I’m making it my career."

She hopes to own her own chicken farm in the future. She added that, right now, there is a small surge in women chicken farmers.

Wearing a Northeastern Poultry Congress shirt, Marczak sat in a wooden chair, brushing the dirt off the feet and claws of a white and red feathered hen with a toothbrush.

The bird didn’t budge or make a fuss. When asked if it was normal for a chicken to be so cooperative, Marczak said that it just depends on how a person handles the bird. She said if this particular bird had been picked up 10 times before in its life, that would be a lot.

With the free-range style of egg production, Marczak once a week moves a mobile house where the hens lay their eggs to a new pasture.
It’s a very different approach to egg farming than the huge indoor poultry sheds where chicken are cooped in cages. "They never see the light of day," Marczak said, shaking her head.

While that approach might be more efficient, the hens Marczak works with are raised more humanely raised, she said.
"They scratch in the dirt...They’re chickens that act like chickens," she said.

Lately, her 150 hens have been laying 110 eggs, because of the heat, she said. Ideally, egg farms would like 90 percent of the hens to lay eggs daily, she said.

Since they are pastured chickens, although they are fenced in, a few of the hens do get out and hide their eggs, she said.

As she finished brushing away dirt with the toothbrush, Marczak held up her hen’s white talon — that’s something the judges will be looking for, she said.

An egg-laying hen’s feet should be bleached to white, Marczak said, rather than showing yellow pigment, because all the chicken’s energy should be going into producing eggs. Also, a hen’s irises can lesson in color, she said.

Then, as Marczak brushed the hen’s feathers back with her hand, she pointed out that an egg-laying hen is not supposed to have nice shiny feathers either, for the same reason.

Get your goat

Donna and Kristina Marohn, a mother and grown daughter, have been raising goats as a hobby for 14 years. They entered the adult Showmanship Competition at the Altamont Fair this year, competing against each other.
"It’s fun to enter all we can," said Donna Marohn, the mother.
"It sets an example and encourages the young children," said Kristina, who is in her 20’s. When young competitors can laugh at her for making a mistake, they don’t feel so bad or nervous themselves, she said.

The Marohns brought 13 goats to the fair this year, from their farm in Knox.

They drink the goats’ milk and Mrs. Marohn makes cheese. They also raise newborn calves on the goats milk, because it is easier to digest due to the smaller fat globules, Kristina Marohn said.

The judge of the showmanship ring, Robert Spitzer, said that he appreciates how the adults paid a lot of attention to their goats in the ring. He said older contestants tend to be become more lax with age.

Directly after the adult competition, teenagers entered the rings for the same sportsmanship category, only in their own age range.

Spitzer took them through the same rigors, having the contestants move their goats out of the line and then back again, switch goats with the person next to them, knowing thier goat’s strengths and weaknesses, place their goats to the best advantage — so their best features are pronounced and deficiencies are hidden.

One by one, the teens looked at the goat’s foot position before taking the chain leash of the neighboring goat. Then, after gaining control of the goat, they adjusted the legs accordingly, after which they coaxed the spine of the animal fingers by running their thumbs and fingers back and forth along the backbone.

Spitzer had the contestants spread throughout the ring, and then approached them, one by one, asking them a series of questions. He had them recite what they were being judged on and the point totals for each criteria.

If these teenagers had been listening just 10 minutes earlier, they would have heard Spitzer announce, at the end of the Adult Showmanship Competition that 40 percent of the total score is allotted for the goat’s appearance, 10 percent for the contestant’s appearance, and then 50 percent for the person’s ability to show and handle the goat.

Donna Marohn said that goat showman are expected to wear all white outfits because it give the appearance of cleanliness.

Spitzer also had each contestant point out parts of the goat’s body.
"Off by just a hair," said one contestant as he proceeded to point about an inch higher on the same rear bone.

He later said that it’s important for entrants to know the parts of the goat so, when a judge gives some criticism, the contestant knows what part he is talking about. They goat owner can factor that into his or her breeding decisions to help compensate for the weakness of the animal.

What made the difference between first and second place in the Teen Showmanship Competition was which goat was the best prepared, Spitzer announced after lining the animals up by rank.

Erin Myhre, 17, of Greenville won first place because her goat, Jo, had no hair between her hooves, Sptizer said, and her ears were well clipped. Myhre only had a few errors in maneuvering and knew the parts well, Spitzer said.
Myhre said she started showing goats at age seven with 4-H and Future Farmers of America. She especially enjoys clipping the goats, she said. She said she likes goats because of their strong personalities. Of her goat, Jo, Myhre said, "She’s a bottle baby, so she likes attention."