By Kerri Pepoy,Staff Writer

FRYEBURG – Henry Hardy is hard-pressed to recall a time when he wasn’t at the Fryeburg Fair to exhibit his family’s cows.

“I’ve been coming here since I was a kid,” the 40-year-old dairy farmer said Sunday, the fair’s opening day.

Farming has long been a family business in Maine, and that tradition is showcased this week at the fair, Maine’s oldest and largest agricultural fair.

The fair, which runs through next Sunday, features dozens of farm-animal competitions.

Hardy, like many other farm families who are exhibiting their animals this week, is the second generation in his family to oversee its dairy farm, based in Farmington. And like many other farm families, Hardy has his clan in tow: wife Teresa, 16-year-old son Andrew, 14-year-old daughter Marjorie and 11-year-old daughter Ashley. To many farm families at the fair, it’s a week to meet up with friends they see only once a year while enjoying some friendly and spirited competition.

More camaraderie’

Fourteen of Hardy’s 80 dairy cows will compete in shows this week, but Hardy said the prize money is hardly the reason he returns to Fryeburg every year.

“There is more camaraderie among the breeders, and not to take away from any of Maine’s other fairs, but agriculturally, Fryeburg has a stronger angle to it,” he said.

At least 400 dairy animals are at the fair each year, as well as hundreds of beef and poultry animals, sheep, horses, rabbits, lambs, swine, llamas and alpacas, among others.

Hardy added that the facilities are top-notch for an agricultural fair.

“The lighting is excellent, as well as the hard top they put down (in the stables,”) he said. “The facilities are excellent.”

The Fryeburg Fair attracts farm families from all over New England. Ike Mitchell’s family has been exhibiting Belgian pulling horses for at least 40 years.

His great-grandfather ran the farm in Lyndonville, Vt., handing it down to his grandfather who turned it over to his father David.

Competitor from Vermont

“This is a pretty prestigious place,” Mitchell said when explaining why he makes the trip each year to Fryeburg. His Belgian horses will compete this week in pulling competitions for the 3,300- to 3,400-pound weight class.

Jeff Towle from Whitefield, N.H., appreciates seeing friends every year at the fair. His two Belgian pulling horses, King and Barney, will compete in the same weight class as Mitchell’s horses.

“It’s nice to come see all these people every year,” said Towle. “And the competition is good.”

His father Emmett and 14 year-old daughter Kelsi are with him at the fair this year. “We’ve been pulling forever,” he said. “Three or four generations.”