For generations of one Maine family, fall means the start of 4-H baby beef season

Julia Bayly, Special to The County
7 years ago

Like most high school seniors, Grace McCrum spends her fair share of time on social media.

But these days, the 17-year-old Easton High School senior is doing more than posting selfies or updating her friend status. She’s on the hunt for the perfect match.

Grace McCrum is a fourth generation participant in the Aroostook Valley 4-H Baby Beef Club. Like her sisters, mother, grandfather and great-grandfather, she has raised calves into beef steers over the course of a year and is getting ready to do it again this year.

During this upcoming year, Grace McCrum will spend countless hours in all kinds of weather feeding, watering, tending, grooming, training and hanging out with the bull getting him ready for their ultimate goal — the show ring at the annual Northern Maine Fair in July.

It’s there that Grace McCrum, and all the members of the 4H beef club, will say goodbye to their steers when they head to the auction block for sale as part of the fair.

“It’s really a generational thing,” she said on a recent Sunday afternoon, as she checked out a likely looking young bull in Old Orchard Beach on Facebook. “It goes all the way back to my great-grandfather.”

The County is pleased to feature content from our sister company, Bangor Daily News. To read the rest of “For generations of one Maine family, fall means the start of 4-H baby beef season,” an article by contributing Bangor Daily News staff writer Julia Bayly, please follow this link to the BDN online.