For this Aroostook farm family, raising steer began with a prize-winning essay

Grace McCrum spends a few moments with her baby beef steer Admiral. A fourth generation 4-H club member, McCrum has had Admiral since late fall and anticipates the bull will weigh in around 1,400 pounds when he's ready to be shown and auctioned off at the Northern Maine Fair in July. (Julia Bayly | BDN)

Mike Umphrey was a junior in high school when he entered and won a Sears & Roebuck agriculture essay contest more than 50 years ago.

First prize? A pure breed heifer calf.

“I entered that contest because I was in Future Farmers of America and 4-H,” the retired Aroostook County farmer and potato broker said. “That cow started my dairy business.”

Now, a half century later, Umphrey is watching his grandchildren raise their own bulls as part of the Aroostook Valley 4-H Baby Beef Club.

And while neither 4-H nor FFA attract the numbers of students they once did in northern Maine, Umphrey said the lessons participating in those programs teaches have remained the same.

The County is pleased to feature content from our sister company, Bangor Daily News. To read the rest of “For this Aroostook farm family, raising steer began with a prize-winning essay,” an article by contributing Bangor Daily News staff writer Julia Bayly, please follow this link to the BDN online.