For good cows, go to the fair

NEW CASTLE, Pa. — If you want to see cows — lots of really good cows — check out the Lawrence County Fair.

Not only does it attract the largest number of bovine entrants of any county fair in Pennsylvania, the winners often go on to big name success in the cow showing/breeding business.

Richard Martin of Volant found out just how successful in 1998 when his Brown Swiss cow, named Camp Swiss Supreme Faith, won top honors in Lawrence County. She went on to win the state fair in Harrisburg and top honors at the World Dairy Expo in Wisconsin — something akin to the Kentucky Derby of cow competition.

After that, Supreme Faith — who lived to be 14 years old and is buried in the front yard — and her progeny became big business for Martin.

“I’ve sold a tremendous amount of her offspring,” Martin said. One granddaughter, sold as a calf for $6,000 to a farm in Oklahoma, was eventually sold for $36,000.

Read about the fair Sunday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com