Yahoo News Fear at the fair, and the cows stay home. A story of bird flu and tradition.
DES MOINES - For nearly six decades, Lee Barber brought prize Brown Swiss dairy cows to the Iowa State Fair. Not this year. The reason: the bird flu outbreak racing through dairy herds across the country.
Barber’s son-in-law, Randy Franck, runs the operations these days at the family’s dairy farm. He didn’t want to risk a cow testing positive for the H5N1 strain of avian influenza. That could imperil the farm’s lifeblood: its ability to sell milk. “You don’t want, all of sudden, for something to happen to that milk check,” Barber, 81, said. “Then you ain’t getting a paycheck next week.”
The story of Lee Barber - the plain-spoken patriarch who still rises at 5:30 each morning to help with chores - is the story of many multigenerational dairy farms. Four generations of the family take part in the fair every year; the youngest is 5. Barber’s grandson, Ryan Franck, 37, has missed it only twice since he started coming as a 1-year-old - once, when he had covid-19; once, when his daughter was born. The fair has always been one part family vacation, one part celebration of a year’s work.
This year is different.
As hundreds of state and county fairs unfurl this summer and fall, states, including Iowa, have added testing requirements for exhibits showcasing lactating dairy cows, the cattle being infected in the growing H5N1 outbreak. Officials are worried these gatherings of animals, people and equipment could ignite transmission of the virus to humans.
Iowa’s fair, which runs through Sunday, canceled the “I Milked a Cow” booth that attracted 5,000 fairgoers last year. It dropped its demonstration of cows and milking equipment.
And it’s not just Iowa. Minnesota’s state fair, which begins next week, will not hold one of its most popular attractions - the birth of a calf. In Michigan, if a single cow on any farm tests positive, no lactating cows can participate in exhibits or fairs anywhere in the state for two months.
Dairy cattle are a staple of state fairs. This year, Iowa and several other states are requiring lactating dairy cows to test negative for H5N1 seven days before a fair starts. Some, including Iowa, also require farms to test the tanks that hold milk before it is sent to be pasteurized. Fair officials say the rules are aimed at protecting animals and the public.
Those rules have changed the fair experience for the Barber clan.
Lee and Luanne Barber, high school sweethearts, got married in 1962 and showed at the state fair for the first time in 1965. They haven’t missed a year since. Their farm, Lee-Ann’s Swiss, is in DeWitt, in east-central Iowa, a three-hour drive from Des Moines. They own Brown Swiss cows, known in the dairy community as the most stubborn breed. Their cows have captured many top prizes, including a champion breeder award and a first place honor for a 2-year-old cow last year.
The farm is small - 80 lactating, or milking, cows and another 80 heifers, animals that have not yet had a calf. In a normal year, the farm would have brought six or seven milking cows and four heifers to the fair. This year, Lee Barber drove only the heifers to Des Moines.
Unlike the crowds who throng the sprawling fairgrounds taking selfies with the fair’s famous butter cow or snacking on the latest morsel on a stick - lobster corn dog - the Barber clan stays in the cavernous cattle barn at the fair. Red wooden carts labeled “Manure Only” are positioned around the barn. Rakes, shovels, wheelbarrows, hay and bags of beet pulp - food to bulk up cattle - crowd the aisles. Stacked around the equipment are coolers, crockpots, cots, an occasional full-size refrigerator, baby swings.
“It’s like one part cow show, one part family reunion and one part statewide party,” Ryan Franck said.
Their usual space is on the opposite side of the Boulevard of Dairy Breeds, where cattle of all six breeds lounge in stalls. A few breeders walking by noticed the missing milk cows.
“That’s always been the strength of our show,” said Randy Franck, 61, in shorts, a short-sleeved shirt and ball cap with Brown Swiss Association emblazoned under a drawing of a cow. He runs the farm with his wife, Elaine, Barber’s daughter, after Lee cut back his duties. Cows score 20 points for first place - double that of heifers - in the prestigious premier exhibitor award.
“It feels different without them,” Barber said wistfully, as he watched Randy wield electric shears to trim the hairs on each heifer. Trimming highlights desirable anatomy that judges look for. Wide hips for calving. A deep rib cage means good food capacity, and therefore strong milk production.
The fair had about 120 milking cows this year, based on early data, a 30 percent drop from last year, because of the testing requirements, said Mike Eilers, the fair’s superintendent of dairy cattle.
The bird flu outbreak has infected at least a total of 192 dairy herds in Iowa and a dozen other states. While there is evidence the virus infects non-lactating cows, the federal response has focused on infected lactating cows, which are shedding high concentrations of virus in their milk.
The barn at the Iowa fair closed the communal milking parlor. Signs posted in the communal washing area ask exhibitors to refrain from dumping milk down the drains. That did not deter at least one man in a checked shirt who poured out two buckets of milk.
This strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza is deadly to domestic poultry, wiping out entire flocks in days. But it tends to cause less severe illness in cows. That’s why many dairy farmers don’t understand the public health concern.
Some dairy farms at the fair went ahead and had their animals successfully tested. That included large producers whose cows wear the equivalent of bovine Fitbits that monitor movement and food consumption. That allows owners to detect symptoms of illness well before a test. Another exhibitor said he relies on barn cats as an early warning system. Healthy cats mean cows aren’t sick. Cats on some infected farms have died in the outbreak. The bottom line, the farmers said, is that pasteurization inactivates the virus.
The 13 people nationwide infected with bird flu in this outbreak, according to the official tally, had direct contact with infected cows or poultry, had mild symptoms and recovered. But infectious-disease experts and groups representing farmworkers say the actual number is certain to be higher because of insufficient testing of people, cows and raw milk.
Figuring out how the virus is spreading in cattle and raw milk has been challenging for researchers and officials because of fears that discovering infections in herds might damage the dairy business.
“In my opinion, it’s a huge overreaction by everybody,” Randy Franck said. He is not sure what more testing of cows - or raw milk - would prove.
“Viruses are out there,” Franck said. “That’s why we pasteurize milk.”
Franck and other farmers in the barn still drink raw milk regularly even though federal officials have long warned against it, and especially now. Franck, who has been drinking raw milk his whole life, said his gut can tolerate it.
One day at the Iowa fair, a man milking a cow gave a sample to girls on a dance team touring the barn. A few minutes later, Gov. Kim Reynolds (R), who was visiting, stopped by to chat and take a photo with him. “We didn’t let the virus stop us!” the man told the governor, referring to the milking cows the farm brought to the show.
Even this year’s annual supper of the Iowa Brown Swiss Association - traditionally a pizza party - was a nod to the outbreak. “Bird Flu Elimination Party,” read the Facebook invitation and posters in the barn.
“It was one of the fun things that we did because of the bird flu,” said Luanne Barber, 80, after she helped give out more than 200 pieces of fried chicken. “Kinda like when you get lemons, you make lemonade.”
The fair, the single-largest event in Iowa, attracts more than 1 million fairgoers annually. About half of the 440-acre fairgrounds fills with 2,000 campers that stay for the 11-day duration. The fair is known for its famous butter cow. The biggest boar. A husband-calling contest.
Show day for the farm’s Brown Swiss heifers began at 9 a.m.
Genie, Sleigh, Sage and Lightning were in stalls with their names displayed on a wooden board above their heads. Opposite their stalls, a giant trifold pegboard displayed photos of the farm’s prize cows and extended family. A sign in cursive read: “Sixty Years of Milking Happiness.”
It was still dark outside when the family began to wash, dry and primp the heifers at 5:30 a.m. Their routine is the bovine equivalent of getting hair and nails done at a beauty salon.
Amanda Hunt, 32, one of Randy and Elaine’s three children, was in charge as the heifers’ stylist.
“I didn’t buy the purple oil,” Randy tells Amanda apologetically, knowing she needs it to make the animals’ coats glossy. Amanda nods, says she will pick up some aerosol spray when a nearby vendor opens. She checks a metal cabinet they brought from the farm that has 10 cans of livestock paint for the colors needed to touch up the heifers. Dark cherry. Cinnamon. Smoke gray. Jet black for the hoofs.
Fifteen minutes before show time, the loudspeaker blares: “First call for Jersey, Brown Swiss and Guernsey, spring heifer calf.” Randy gives Entry 3258, a.k.a. Lightning, a last-minute blow-dry of her “top line” - the hair along her spine - to make it stick up straight. Amanda follows with a spray to keep flies away. Then, she teases the tail hair with a brush to make it fluffy. Next, a spritz of the product to shine the coat. For the final touch, she sprays black paint on each hoof, leaving half-moon outlines on the ground.
The same routine was taking place at other stalls. The smell of hair spray perfumed the air.
To the untrained observer, the animals don’t look that different. But the judges and veterans can tell.
Exhibitors don white pants as they lead their dairy cattle into the livestock pavilion ring. White is supposed to show off the animals’ cleanliness. The Barber family exhibitors wore white jeans and navy blue tops.
The heifer competitions finished before noon. Lightning, Sleigh and Genie picked up third-place ribbons. The farm had no entries for the afternoon cow contests. But Lee Barber sat in the bleachers and watched anyway. When it was over, he agreed the judge had chosen the right cow for grand champion.
“That’s a pretty good cow,” Barber said, nodding. He thought about the cows on his farm. If the family had brought their Brown Swiss milking cows, maybe they would have gone home with the dark purple banner.
“We would have been in the hunt,” he said, before walking back to the cattle barn.
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KC McGinnis contributed to this report.
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Video: Some state fairs have introduced strict testing requirements for exhibits featuring lactating dairy cows as the bird flu races through dairy herds across the country. The Post's Lena Sun explains from the Iowa State Fair.(c) 2024 , The Washington Post
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