The Rural Voice, 1996-06, Page 28Seven for the show
The Hallahan family and their prize herd
have spent a lot of time in the show ring
in the last few years
By Keith Roulston
For a cow, Bcssic has a lot of ham
in her. Bcssic's a prize-winning
cow at Lazy Meadows Farm, run
by Jim and Lorraine Hallahan
and their family near Blyth.
Bessie's had her share of the
limelight in ways that arc. usual for
good-looking Holstein cows as well
as in more unusual ways. A full page
ad for Lazy Meadows in last
September's Ilolstein Journal stood
out from the usual advertisements of
cows being posed as if in a show
ring. Bcssic and the Hallahan clan
were shown instead on the set of the
Blyth Festival play Ile Won't Come
in From the Barn. Bcssic, being dry
when the play was to run in 1994,
had been loaned to the theatre as one
of the cows in Aylmer Clarke's bam.
After all, Bcssic was already a
veteran of the stage. When the
Festival staged a "community play"
called Many Ilands in 1993, Bcssic
24 THE RURAL VOICE
had been part of the cast of the play
performed in the local rutabaga
factory.
"She loved it," says Jim of
Bessie's life on the stage.
But Bessie was about to top
herself when He Won't Come In
From the Barn was brought back by
popular demand for the late summer
run in 1995. As the curtain neared
during one matinee performance of
the play, it became obvious that
Bessie had gone into labour (she
delivers a calf, faithfully, each
September). When the show was
over, the theatre crew called in the
veterinarian and the Hallahan family
and, right there on stage, Bessie gave
birth to a bull calf. The evening
performance had to be delayed until
Bessie and her son could be removed
from the stage barn to the home barn.
Bessie's exhibitionist instincts
may come from her many visits to
For Jim, Lorraine and Patrick
Hallahan, showing cattle is
advertising and costs money.
the show ring. The Hallahans are
among a small group of dairy farmers
who show their cattle at shows across
the province and into the U.S. Rather
than feeling stressed from all the
travelling, Bessie is so comfortable
she immediately lies down after
being loaded into a trailer for hauling
to a show, says Patrick, the eldest of
the three Hallahan sons (they have
two older daughters). While some
cows are finicky about accepting feed
and water they're not used to at a
show, explains Lorraine, Bessie
gladly consumes it all.
Bessie won't be attending many
shows now. She's getting too
old. After all, her history in the
show ring dates way back to
1990 when she was Junior Champion
of the Huron County Show, first in
the summer yearling class at the
Western Ontario Championship
Show, All -Indiana Summer Yearling,
first in the Kentucky show, and
second in both the Tennessee show
and the North American Louisville
Show.
But her daughters have inherited
the same disposition and love of the
show ring that Bessie has, the
Hallahans say. They've gone on to