CONNOQUENESSING TWP — Butler Farm Show's calm before the storm came Monday afternoon as livestock and farm exhibit judging began and organizers put the final touches on what should be the biggest farm show yet.

In its 67th year, the show has basically grown until it can't grow anymore, said board member Ken Metrick.

“Unless we make some changes we're about as big as we're going to get,” said Metrick.

The show runs through Saturday night on Route 68 west of Butler.

With more than 1,100 farm exhibits, close to 300 commercial exhibits, about 100 food stands and a carnival midway, the show has filled its Evans City Road grounds to bursting. This year more than $30,000 in prize money will be awarded.

What makes the show special, though, is a clear view of its roots in family and tradition. Metrick pointed to the Sunday worship service that kicks off the event each year as a hallmark of what the show is all about.

“It's a family-oriented fair, and we want to keep it that way,” Metrick said. “Some of our volunteers can trace their roots here back four or five generations.”

One man, Dutch Grabe, has been an integral part of the show for nearly that long. The former Saxonburg resident has been the man behind the show's mechanical crew for 60 years now — since he took a job at the former Hindman's Farm Supply after graduating from high school in 1955.

“I'm not a tractor puller, I'm not a showman,” Grabe said. “I'll make it work. The mechanical end of it is what I do.”

In 1975, Grabe found himself on the show's board of directors, where he's an advocate for the show's traditions.

“I think we're much better off to stay within,” Grabe said of the event's growth. “It's quality, not quantity, and we've done good with that.”

Like Grabe, Rachel McGinley of Karns City has been coming to the farm show since before she can remember. Her first visit came at 5 months old, said McGinley's mother, Stacy.

Stacy and her sister used to show cows and horses, but Rachel's forte is goats and rabbits. On Monday, the 17-year-old took home four best of breed awards as part of the Butler Bunni Bunch's competition.

Rachel started raising rabbits nearly a decade ago and said she enjoys the challenge

For the McGinleys, part of the fun is meeting adults and children who wouldn't normally get to interact with farm animals. Stacy said visitors are often surprised to find out they do it for fun.

“It's a hobby for us. You don't make money,” said Stacy McGinley. “It's just a thing that we do, and we like to do it.”

As easy as it is to find legacies at the farm show, its success and growth is a testament to just how appealing animal husbandry can be, even if you can't trace your farm show days back multiple generations.

Kaitlin Eichenlaub, 13, of Saxonburg is last year's grand champion from the poultry club's meat bird competition.

Eichenlaub's father, David, said the family started raising birds about five years ago and added a goat to the mix this year. Next year, he said, pigs could be the project.

Eichenlaub wants people to know you don't have to be a legacy to enjoy farm show success.

“We're not what you'd call a regular farm family,” he said, “so (chickens) was an easy place, we thought, to start.”

Kaitlin now has 25 meat birds in addition to her egg-layers and is the poultry club's vice president. She also took home top honors for showmanship last year.

She downplayed what her father said was hard work and perseverance on her part.

“It's not all that hard to get there,” Eichenlaub said of her success.

But a normally bustling portion of the farm show, the poultry exhibit, which Metrick said usually has nearly 1,000 birds, is still this year.

For the first time since 1984 the show has banned birds because of the national avian flu epidemic, which has killed millions of birds in 15 states and forced egg prices over $3 locally.

Next door, at the rabbit barn, Bunni Bunch President Shelby Woody of Saxonburg said many of her friends, who show multiple kinds of animals and belong to both clubs, were trying to remain upbeat about this year's bird ban.

“There's a lot less noise,” Woody joked.