Recently I attended the Butler County Holstein Club's annual meeting. The meeting, which was held in Slippery Rock, is attended by a hodgepodge of current dairy producers, retired dairy producers, 4-H Junior Dairy Club members, the Dairy Princess and Royalty Court members and other industry supporters.

Junior Dairy Club members each gave a brief overview of their dairy projects for the year. In return, the youth received free lunch compliments of the Holstein Club.

During the business meeting John Rader of Connoquenessing was elected to the board of directors. He will join the following for the 2006 board of directors: President Bill DeHart, vice president Gary Hogg, treasurer George Hartzell, secretary Bonnie DeHart, and regular directors Steve Lesney and Barb Rader.

The Holstein Club made plans for the annual picnic and twilight meeting or, maybe better stated, is looking for volunteers to host the events. Ken Raney gave comments from the Pennsylvania State Holstein Association commending the club for being one of the oldest in the state — 64 years.

Dairy princess Elaina Rader provided the group with an overview of her experiences in dairy promotion activities throughout the year. The Mainhart family of Butler provided musical entertainment prior to the committee reports. Several committee-chairs provided brief reports on behalf of their committees.

The Holstein Club was also addressed by Howard Halstead of Saxonburg who graciously thanked the club for replacing his awards won in prior years, which were destroyed in his house fire in 2004. The semi-annual cheese sale continues to be a key fundraiser for the Holstein Club with several members being recognized for top sales. Following a drawing for door prizes the meeting was adjourned with a bit of Jeff Foxworthy-type humor of "You might be a dairy farmer if ... "

• Your backyard ends in an electric fence.

• The kids drinking glasses are milk replacer cups.

• You know the price of milk per hundred weight, but not per gallon.

• Manure is a dinner topic.

• Your kids' sandbox is a tractor tire.

• You have three pair of tingley boots and two pair all goes on the same foot.

• The medicine cabinet in your house contains a container of bag balm.

• You've ever gotten an award for "fat" and were proud of it.

• Your idea of a power lunch is a sandwich on a tractor.

• Your idea of carpentry work includes a chainsaw and bent nails.

• Fence repair is second nature.

• You can fix anything with baler twine, WD-40, a piece of wire, duct tape, and a pair of vise grips.

• Your idea of a neighborhood watch is someone calling you to let you know your heifers are out.

• Your idea of mass transit is moving your cows to the crowd area, holding pen or pasture.

• Most of your good headgear advertises semen or seeds.

• You have more than a dozen cats.

• You have more pictures of your cows than your kids.

• Your idea of "overnight delivery" is pulling a calf at three in the morning.

• You can remember the name of every cow in the barn, but the names of your children elude you.

• Your idea of a vacation involves going to see someone else's cows.

Luke Fritz is executive director of the Butler County Farm Service Agency.