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| Kent County, Del., resident Lawrence McClements holds his great-grandson Dalton in the cow barn at the Delaware State Fair on Saturday. The McClements family has been showing dairy cows at the Delaware State Fair for 75 years. / GARY EMEIGH/THE NEWS JOURNAL |
When Lawrence McClements showed his first pig at the
Delaware State Fair in 1937 at the age of 13, there were no splashy, big-name
music acts on Saturday night, no corporate sponsors and no fried Oreos.
"There's a lot of changes," McClements said in the
fair's Schabinger livestock pavilion Saturday morning, the last day of the
fair. He stood with four generations of family members next to their collection
of blue-ribbon Holstein dairy cows.
"You had three pigpens, two small cow stables that you
bumped your head when you went in and two horse stables," McClements said,
recalling the way the fair was 75 years ago, when he got his start.
McClements, a lifelong Kent County, Del., resident, is 88
years old now and has raised a clan of farmers who have kept pace with the
changing nature of the Delaware State Fair.
For them and other longstanding Delaware farm families, the
fair is more than just a place to gather for 10 days each July, collect a few
ribbons and catch up with old friends.
The fair represents their hope for the future of the state's
agricultural industry and the preservation of their way of life.
Eddie McClements, Lawrence's grandson, helps run the family
farm in Kenton, Del., and care for its 80 head of dairy cows and 60 hogs.
"It's getting harder simply because of the cost of
diesel fuel to run the tractors, the price of corn seed," Eddie McClements
said. "Basically, if I wanted to start today on my own, it would be
impossible."
Several years ago, when housing subdivisions were springing
up in Kent County cornfields like ragweed, the McClements family was approached
by developers but turned them down flat.
"They came, but we're still farming," he said.
But even though there are fewer family farms in Delaware
than there used to be, Eddie and his grandfather are encouraged by the number
of young people who show animals at the state fair each year.
"It's a lot younger group of kids now, if you look
throughout the barn," he said.
Many of those young exhibitors don't even live on farms, but
participate by partnering with farms like the McClements'.
Bob Moore, who showed his first animal at the fair in 1960
and is now on the board of directors, said many young fair participants lease
animals to show.
"A 4-H'er or young person will work out an arrangement
with the farmer, and in exchange for being able to show the animal at the fair,
they'll go to the farms and clean pens or whatever," he said. "Many
of those kids would never have that experience at all. ... That gets them
interested in agriculture, and they might pursue it."
Moore also said the agricultural side of the state fair
remains popular with visitors, in spite of the big concerts and attractions
featured these days.
"We've done several surveys with our fairgoers to see
what parts of the fair they like best, and always on top is the animal
exhibits," he said. "The basis of the fair is still
agriculture."
Eddie McClements said he thinks Delaware farmers will always
be the heart of the fair.
"He's been here 75 years now," Eddie said,
referring to his grandfather.
"I'm hoping to make it to 100. I have no intention of
ever stopping."
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