Cows

By RICHARD L. BELISLE Staff Writer, Waynesboro GREENCASTLE, Pa. -- Holy Holstein! There are cows everywhere at Martha Reihart's place. There are plastic cows, stuffed cows, ceramic, cows, metal cows and wooden cows. There's a cow flag hanging off the front porch and a cow in the refrigerator that moos when the door is opened. There are cow signs in and outside the trailer that say things like "cow crossing," and "Home is where the herd is. " Even the outside of Reihart's mobile home on Pa. Route 16 three miles west of Greencastle is painted white with black patches to match the look of a Holstein cow. Rail fences on the corner of her property are painted the same color scheme, as is the well cover, and several large lawn planters.

One hundred seventy-six years ago, Isaac Long settled on a small parcel of land outside the river port city of Williamsport on what is now known as Spielman Road. Today, the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth generations of Longs still farm those 162 acres. Lawrence, the patriarch of the current clan, is semi-retired at 86 but still lends a hand during busy times. The day-to-day operation is under the direction of the father-and-son team of Galen and Brooks. The youngest generation, Caleb, does most of his farming on his knees like most toddlers do with toy tractors and plastic cows.

Farmers try to ease heat's harms at fair By JOSH POLTILOVE / Staff Writer Pudge looked really sick. She lay down, tired and not wanting to eat anything, and it all had to do with the heat. The weather in the past few days has made tons of water and fans a necessity for Pudge and the other cows at the Ag Expo just outside of Hagerstown. It reached 92 degrees Monday, the hottest it has been since June 25, when it was 93 degrees, according to Greg Keefer's Hagerstown weather web site.

LICKING CREEK TOWNSHIP, Pa. - Two Pennsylvania women were injured Sunday when their cars collided while one woman was trying to shine her headlights on three cows on the road, Pennsylvania State Police said. Lucille B. Truax, 55, of 9492 Sipes Mill Road in Needmore, Pa., was trying to illuminate the cows when her 1994 Chevy Blazer was struck by a 1994 Ford Escort LX at around 2:45 a.m. Sunday, police said. April S. Cromwell, 27, of 651 E. Market St. in McConnellsburg, Pa., was driving east on U.S..

The issue: Williamsport farmer Greg Wiles is facing eviction from his father's 200-acre farm and might have to sell his two cloned cows for food, despite a voluntary ban on entering cloned animals into the human food chain. What's new: The Food and Drug Administration has decided that food from cloned livestock is safe to eat, but final approval could take months or longer. The ban will remain in place until then. What's next: Wiles is trying to find a home for the animals before Jan. 9, when it's likely a Washington County court will order him off the property.

chambersburg@herald-mail.com WILLIAMSON, Pa. - While some snoozed on cots or set up folding chairs in the barns to escape the scorching heat Thursday, a number of young men and women patrolled the Franklin County Fairgrounds with squirt guns the size of assault rifles. Activities at the fair focus on morning livestock competitions and evening competitions and entertainment, but a number of families end up spending all or part of the week camped out at the fair to keep an eye on their prize animals.

The year was 1831, Nat Turner led a slave rebellion in Virginia, Charles Darwin embarked on his famous journey on the HMS Beagle and Andrew Jackson was president. It was also the year James Madison became the third American patriot and president to die on July 4, Jefferson and Adams had done so five years earlier. Many readers of the Sunday Herald-Mail also know it was the year Isaac Long, Jr. moved to a farm on Speilman Road outside of the sleepy little port on the C & O Canal known as Williamsport.

kimy@herald-mail.com Forget about the old bucket and stool; these days cow milking is a high-tech business that uses sophisticated equipment that extracts and screens the liquid - all in less than 15 minutes. At the Washington County Ag Expo milking parlor, a crowd gathers twice a day to watch farmhands attach a metal "milker" to each animal. The device uses a pulsating vacuum action to extract the milk, which flows through a filter to a holding tank. Each of the cows being boarded at the fair off Sharpsburg Pike is milked as part of its daily routine while being shown at the event.

Growing the next generation of farmers Betsy Herbst stood behind a fenced area as her 16-month-old grandson, Kaleb Long, played a game of chase with a pygmy goat and her two kids. The director and coordinator of activities within the tent that houses the Ag Ventures and Birthing Center, Herbst said the expo is a great place for children to learn about agriculture and the food they eat. "Food doesn't start in the grocery store. It starts with cows, pigs and chickens," said Herbst, of Williamsport.

WAYNESBORO, Pa. - Heavy snow caused two Franklin County barns to collapse Monday afternoon, killing and injuring several cows, according to emergency officials. Units from the Blue Ridge Summit, Pa., and Waynesboro, Pa., fire departments responded to 14164 Harbaugh Church Road in Washington Township, where several head of cattle were trapped and injured, said Richie Haywood, captain of the Blue Ridge Summit Fire Department. "We just lifted the roof and debris off the cattle to get them free," he said.