COLUMBIA, S.C. — Dozens of farmers packed their cows inside the South Carolina State Fair barns over the week, with some young farmers even sleeping in the stables with their animals.
Family tradition, pride, and work experience are all reasons that Eliza Pearl Terry and her sister came to the South Carolina State Fair to partake in the dairy cow showing. "They follow you around like puppy dogs and they do anything with you!"
Her dad, Zach Terry, explains they're third-generation showers, at Terry Shop Farms, a family farm spanning over 5 generations and hundreds of years. "My father started in the 50s. I started showing in the 90s, up into the 2000s, and they've been showing for 6-7 years, so third-generation showers."
It's a tradition like no other for dozens of the farms that fill the stables with their livestock.
However, for the past two nights, there's more than 'moos' in the barn. According to the farmers, for years, young handlers have been sleeping in the stables with their animals.
15-year-old Brooklyn Isely and her fellow showers have been raising these cows for months, and are now staying overnight in tents to take care of them. She says, "it's because we have two milking cows, and when we show them, they have to be on schedule for milking, so I have to wake up in the middle of the night and milk them."
Aliyah Holloway says growing a relationship with the animal is crucial, especially when taking part in a showing.
"We usually have her with her friends. But since she's new and doesn't have an emotional connection with humans yet, we're having to keep her separated in a different field so she'll cry if I'm not around," she says
Iris Barham and her brother have been dairy farmers at the Milky Way Farm for their whole lives, now with kids of her own, she explains showing is more about educating people about South Carolina's dairy industry.
She explains, "There are only 24 dairies left in the state so we are a milk deficient state. We do not produce enough milk in our borders to feed our population. We are dependent on shipping milk in from the Midwest and Texas to feed our population."