A bovine beauty pageant in Lahti

The Farmari Agricultural Fair draws nearly 20,000 visitors on its opening day

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By Elina Kervinen in Lahti
     
      “I didn’t sleep a wink last night. There’ll be time for that when the fair is over”, says Ztolt Körösi.
      Dressed top to toe in white and wearing a white hat with a number drawn on it, the man is keeping a firm grip on Ysta, a gleaming black and white Holstein-Friesian heifer, a young cow before she has had her first calf.
     
In a few moments, the duo will be walking towards a fenced-off ring.
      Inside the arena, a judge, brought in all the way from Switzerland, will determine which is the finest representative of the Holstein-Friesian breed in Finland. Ysta is competing in the competition for heifers of 15-20 months of age.
      In other words, she’s lining up in a bovine beauty pageant.
     
A total of 270 cows will be on parade at the Farmari Agricultural Fair at the Lahti Sports and Fair Centre, and on Thursday 84 of them were on display at the livestock stand.
      Ztolt Körösi came to Finland from Hungary to put five cows belonging to his friends Anna and Jussi Lappalainen through their paces for the show.
      This means not just training the animal for the contest, but also a bit of crimping and styling for the big event.
     
Körösi started working with Ysta and the others on Wednesday.
      First the animals were given a thorough wash down after their travels and then they were blow-dried and given a haircut with a special trimming tool.
      Overnight, Körösi stayed up with the animals, which were fed to make their tummies look plump and healthy, and also milked so that their udders would be shown off to good effect.
      On the morning of the competition the cows were given a further beauty makeover, with their tails neatly braided and a Mohawk hairstyle combed into their back.
      The picture was completed by a bit of hairspray and lacquer, and Köröi brought with him this time some bleaching agent that would make the white patches on Ysta’s flanks stand out and gleam.
     
Of course it is not all about how she looks on the catwalk: “In addition to a good look, we try to show the judges the best sides of the animals’ practical production characteristics”, says Körösi.
      At the show, the cow’s legs, udders, height to the shoulder, and even the presentation of the ribcage are all examined.
      In practice the animal should look large and impressive, in order that it can eat a lot of grass - and produce a lot of milk.
     
According to Anna Lappalainen, the milk production properties of Finnish cows have been refined in recent years in a positive fashion.
      Lappalainen should know a thing or two about it, as she serves as the chairman of the board of FABA Breeding, an expert organisation in animal breeding and a national developer of genetic material, owned by a co-operative of more than 10,000 Finnish farmer-members.
      She reports that the average production increases by around 200 litres of milk per cow per year. The best Holstein-Friesian dairy cows produce as much as 20,000 kilos and more of milk a year.
     
For Körösi, shows like this are nowadays more of a hobby than anything else.
      He is a breeding manager for the Hungarian national livestock programme back home. Even the Lappalainens are here largely for the fun of it.
      Not so Olavi Ahonkivi, who is brushing the tail of a heifer nearby. He talks first and foremost about business. Ahonkivi has brought his cows down from Pori with Sari and Jarkko Vanhatalo’s family.
     
Around a third of the revenue from Ahonkivi’s herd of forty cattle comes from embryo transfers, and if an animal does well in a show, then its offspring will also be in demand.
      Even the cow itself can be worth serious money for breeding. Last year, for instance, Ahonkivi sold some year-old animals for more than EUR 5,000 a head.
      “The normal price you’d expect to get is around EUR 600-700."
      Today his cow Gårdsby Lee Kerstin has already picked up three prizes, including Senior Champion and Breed Champion, and a fourth animal has taken 3rd prize in the Jersey category, so Ahonkivi is hopeful that the trip, and the expense of having a stand at the fair, will have been well worthwhile.
     
Now things are happening again in the ring.
      The Swiss judge Simon Brügger passes a careful eye over the heifers. Then they are lined up in order according to their placings.
      Ysta finishes seventh out of eight entrants in her class. Last year the Lappalainens’ cows pretty much swept the board and they went home with nearly every prize there was to be had.
      Are they feeeling a bit miffed and deflated now?
      “No, not really", says Anna. "We aren’t taking this too seriously, and quite a lot depends on the particular tastes of the judge. Besides, Ysta is a good productive cow, and on our farm that is what counts above all.”
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 1.8.2008

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ELINA KERVINEN / Helsingin Sanomat
elina.kervinen@hs.fi