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BRATTLEBORO —
Cows are supposed to lie down before it rains,
according to an old wives tale. But that didn't
happen Saturday at the fifth annual Strolling of
the Heifers parade as 100 bovines adorned with
wreaths of flowers strutted their stuff down Main
Street in the pouring rain.
The rain didn't discourage the people, either. A
full hour before the parade, crowds started lining
the street for a good view. Heads turned and
cheers rose as the heifers came up over the crest
of the hill into downtown Brattleboro.
"Cows!" a man shouted in delight.
No matter what the weather, one day a year heifers
have celebrity status.
"I like the baby ones because they're really
cute and I like the brown chocolate milk
cows," said Danny Burdick, 12, of Newfane.
Pooper-scoopers dressed in cow costumes trailed
behind the real bovines. And the rest of the
procession followed on their heels: lines of
tractors, groups of clowns, marching bands.
The parade is the highlight of a four-day
Strolling of the Heifers Festival started by
Dummerston resident Orly Munzing as a way to
celebrate and raise awareness of sustainable
agriculture in Vermont.
"The parade brought out the inner cow and
made people smile and forget about the rain,"
Munzing said.
Putney resident Reba Beery said she never misses
the event.
"I think it has encouraged people to buy more
locally," she said. "Schools in the area
are offering healthy snacks. Kids here know where
milk comes from."
The Vermont Chamber of Commerce has named the
Strolling of the Heifers one of its top 10 summer
events for the last four years.
The word got out to Marie King of Manchester,
Conn., who said she came up to stay at a bed and
breakfast in Wilmington with three other people
this weekend specifically to catch a glimpse of
the strolling heifers. In addition to tourists and
local residents, the heifer festival introduced
newcomers to farming and the quirky culture of
this corner of the state.
The Lewis family moved from Louisiana to nearby
Hinsdale, N.H., just last week and came Saturday
as a way of getting to know the area.
"We've got cows down in Louisiana, but
they're not decked in flowers," said Chris
Lewis. His 10-year-old daughter Myra wondered if
the cows would cry out, "Get those flowers
off me."
True to form, the cows placidly accepted the whole
affair, letting only a few "moos" escape
their lips. The crowd mooed back.
Leading the heifers were 4-H groups and local
schoolchildren. Most of them, including Mark
Goedewaagen, 12, and Nicholas Donaldson, 10, of
Brownsville, will show the same cows they lead in
parades at agricultural fairs throughout the
summer. Donaldson and Goedewaagen belong to Indian
Stones 4-H, and they led Brownie and Winter, two
heifers from Spring Brook Farm in Reading, in
Saturday's parade. Goedewaagen said he could tell
Brownie was starting to get nervous because she
was tossing her head.
"I just held her tighter and got real close
to her," he said.
Eric Johnson, executive director of Farms for City
Kids, a nonprofit organization based at Spring
Brook Farm, said Saturday's cool, wet weather was
actually better for his cows than the heat at last
year's parade. "The 90-degree asphalt isn't
good on their feet," he said.
Parade-goers followed the cows down to the Dairy
Festival on the lawn of the Brattleboro Retreat,
which featured live music, samples of New England
farm products and agricultural demonstrations.
Several local and state politicians, including
U.S. Rep. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., tested their
skill in the celebrity milking contest on the
Brattleboro Common. Sanders, who has entered the
contest for the last five years, lost to
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Scudder Parker,
but said it gets easier every year. He said at a
time when milk prices are very low, the event's
turnout means more to local farmers than ever
before.
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