She’s big, she’s beautiful and she is a prize-winning entry at the Farmington Fair. A lot of hard work has paid off for an East Dixfield farmer.
By Donna M. Perry
Staff Writer

FARMINGTON – Les Smith brushed the brownish-red hair along the top of Candice’s back so it would stand up straight. He sprayed a little Magic Hold to keep the hair in place to fill any hollows along her backbone.

The East Dixfield man was primping the young Guernsey heifer for show Wednesday at the Farmington Fair.

His effort would pay off – she took a blue ribbon in her class.

Candice, nearly a year old and weighing 600 pounds, stood in the grooming chute basking in the sun. Smith’s daughter Joy Phillips, 25, of New Sharon, works for her father on More Acres Farm and owns Candice.

Normally, she would have groomed her own cow, but she was away from the fairgrounds. Initially, Smith didn’t know the cow’s name. He had to check her paperwork.

Candice is too young and doesn’t weigh enough to be bred. So she doesn’t qualify as a milker, and Smith only knows the names of the cows he regularly milks.

But she is a dairy cow.

Smith said the fair’s judge, former Maine Sen. John Nutting, would rate the animals on dairy quality.

“Sometimes it’s hard to grow them,” Smith said. “We want to grow them as big as we can without getting them fat.”

That means food has to be monitored.

Candice eats 9 pounds of grain a day, while Abby – a brown Swiss who weighs 1,600 pounds – eats 28 pounds of grain a day and about 80 to 100 pounds of roughage.

Smith favors brown Swiss. He has 100 head of cattle, 40 of them milking cows, 35 beef cattle and the rest mostly young heifers.

Almost ready for judging.

Visitors stopped to talk and to look at the animals as Smith fluffed Candice’s multicolored tail, then brushed it to its naturally wavy state.

He unhooked Candice’s leash from the chute and guided her toward Worthley Arena.

Another Guernsey and her owner walked ahead of Smith and Candice into the ring as Judge Nutting watched.

Candice stood tall and followed Smith’s guidance. Nutting, a dairy farmer from Leeds, judged her to show more dairy character.

The blue ribbon was awarded in minutes, and Candice was on her way back to the grooming chute. She would miss out on the Guernsey Junior Champion rosette, awarded to an older and heavier cow, but that came later.

The fair continues through Saturday.

Smith took a pitchfork and cleaned up. A young girl and her grandfather petted Candice, who stood still for the affection.

“They’re all personable,” Smith said of his cows. “They’re our friends.”

dperry@sunjournal.com

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