Feeling sheepish

Ever since Jade Zimmerman started raising Ed — her Southdown sheep — she's been receiving daily kisses from him.

And on Sunday afternoon, after she finished fifth in the purebred Southdown market lamb heavyweight and was named master showman in her class at the 2009 Pennsylvania Farm Show, the first thing she told her mom was that she was going to miss those kisses.

The 9-year-old fourth-grader at Adamstown Elementary School said she'll feel a little sad when Ed is sold at Tuesday's junior market lamb sale, but she's learned valuable lessons at her first state Farm Show, such as hard work and poise under pressure.

"When I'm in the show ring, I get nervous, and when I'm out here (with the animals), it's kind of fun," Jade said.

The second full day of the largest indoor farm show in the country saw lighter than usual crowds — possibly because both of the state's NFL teams had playoff games Sunday afternoon — but people of all ages still filled the arena, sampling food and looking at agricultural displays and farm animals.

The Zimmerman family of Reinholds, which includes Jade, has made its home in a camper in the parking lot of the Farm Show Arena, waking up each day to take care of their sheep.

Jade says there's a great deal of work in raising a champion animal. She wakes up at 5 a.m. daily to feed and take care of the 35 sheep on the family's 15½ acre farm.

Jade's mother, JoAnn, said she was happy to see her daughter make the champions sale, part of a long-term 4-H project that requires dedication.

"It's responsibility and fun at the same time, learning how to take care of their animals," Zimmerman said.

Sunday at the Farm Show also featured three local competitors in the junior steer show.

Ryan Nolt, a recent Garden Spot High School graduate, was the top Lancaster County finisher, placing second in the crossbred middleweight division with his 16-month-old steer.

Nolt said he's been raising steers since he was 8 years old and has come close to winning at least three times, but never come away with first place. He said winning takes "everything to click and a lot of luck."

This past year was not so lucky for Nolt's 1,290 pound steer. The 16-month-old animal, originally from Oklahoma, had to have surgery in August because of a degenerative disease in his legs.

"(The steer's) lucky he's even here," Ryan said.

In the crossbred light heavyweight division, county residents Chris Newswanger finished sixth and Justin Welk finished third.

In the food court, friends Ben McMillen of Columbia and Tom Culton, who runs Culton Organics in Silver Spring, shared a basket of fried vegetables.

Culton was savoring some wins with his first entries at the show, including a first place for bunching onions; second places for fingerling potatoes, carrots and leeks; and fourth places for endive and escarole.

Culton, who said he wanted to represent organic farming in some small way at the show, had to dig out the produce from frozen ground Thursday.

McMillen — who with his fiancée, Falan Ditzler, is trying his hand at raising goats, vegetables, grapes and apples on what he calls a "minifarm" of 2 acres — said it's a Pennsylvania tradition to come to the farm show every year.

McMillen said he'd like to see more organic and small-scale farming displays and fewer large tractors, which aren't typically used in the state, but added that the "good food" makes the trip worthwhile.

"We're supposed to be a big agricultural state, so it's nice to come up and see what people are actually doing," McMillen said.

E-mail: myoder@lnpnews.com