At the 1957 New York State Fair, a chance encounter between two Holstein enthusiasts sparked a bond that has traversed decades. Don Smith and Janice Perkins were two strangers at that fair but 12 days later, when the fair was over, they couldn’t stop thinking about one another, and two years later, in 1959, they married and moved to Franklin, where they forged a life in Delaware County dairy.
It was a courtship their friends watched with good-natured teasing. And it began with a cow.
Janice was raised on a 30-head dairy farm in Carthage. Her parents, like many farmers today, had multiple streams of income to offset the expenses and passion for dairy farming. Her father had a maple syrup business and was a mail carrier, her mother worked in a paper mill. Her family raised unregistered Holsteins and when her older brother Stanley won a purebred Holstein calf courtesy of the Jefferson County Rotary Club in 1947, it changed her way of thinking about cows. The calf - Parker Supreme Illustrious, “Lusty” for short, was just as much Janice’s as she was Stanley’s, she said. And by the time Lusty became an aged cow, she had won several grand champion titles. Lusty, like Janice, had Canadian heritage. Canadian Holsteins, Janice explained, “are a little wider cut - with a wider frame. Not beefier.”
Because of that cow, Janice said, her father became more interested in purebred cattle. And so did she. Her father bought her another registered Holstein and she, her father and brother began developing little herds of their own - all in the same barn.
“Though my dad still had a fair amount of unregistered animals, we kept pecking away at it,” Janice said, determined to have a herd of registered cows.
Janice continued to show cows at the Jefferson County Fair, and in those days, she said, the best animals at county fairs advanced to the state fair.
“You would get bragging rights if you won first place,” she said. She advanced to state fair competition with her Holsteins.
At the New York State Fair, Janice met Don, by virtue of a shared feed alley by Jefferson and Delaware Counties.
“Delaware County always had nice representation at the state fair,” Janice said.
That’s where the young couple got to know each other, sharing meals in the cafeteria, doing morning chores and walking though the open class barns to look more closely at developed herds.
“I was infatuated with him,” Janice said. They spent a lot of time together over those 12 days, she said - not romantically though.
“He was a great person to visit with. I never realized he was ‘quiet.’ He was just so easy for me to talk to, and he said the same.”
The two spent a lot of time during the ‘57 state fair sitting on 4-H show boxes, just talking. Their friend, Ralph “Junie” Taylor, “would tease the daylights out of Don about a little redhead he was chasing!” Janice laughed,
“I had no idea. I was pretty naive not to know it was me.” Ralph, she said, “Is a hoot and a half!”
The courtship continued over the next two years and Don traveled to Carthage to see her as often as he could afford to, by way of a Greyhound bus. The year she graduated high school, she said, they married. Don brought Janice back to Delaware County, and she brought three Holsteins with her.
A lot has changed in the dairy industry since then, Janice said. She and her family used to milk cows by hand. Don used a milking machine. Back then, milk was still being picked up in cans, and that continued through 1961. “We put a in milk tank in June 1961, the same week as our daughter Barbara was born.” Milk haulers, or processors, were offering incentives to dairy farmers to put in bulk tanks. “It was easier for the people picking up the milk,” she said, “They didn’t have to pick up all those cans.”
Their dairy barn expanded several times, first with an enlarged milk house - canned milk was kept in an “ice bank.” A bulk milk tank allowed milk to be cooled very quickly.
They added a milk pipeline in the mid 1970s, Janice said, noting that with every new thing added to the farm, the herd grew a bit too.
Back then they managed a herd of about 40 cows. Today, her son Don milks 106 cows. They’ve also put two additions on the barn - first a 50 foot addition, then a second 100 foot addition in 1983, which allowed space for larger stalls and more cow comfort.
These days, Janice said, people put a bigger emphasis on cow comfort than they used to. “And we found laying down was better for them,” she said. “We expect a lot more from our cows and I think we should pay attention to their comfort.”
She wants people to know that all milk is antibiotic free. “But it can’t be hormone free! Every living thing has hormones.”
All milk is tested and if it’s found to have antibiotics in it, she said, it’s a serious offense and comes with a heavy fine.
“Milk has been blamed for making people fat,” she said, “And it’s just not true. Whole milk is 97% fat free!”
Janice is passionate about nutrition and facts.
“I wish people would learn to enjoy whole milk and realize how good it is for you.”
Dairy farming teaches kids a work ethic, she said.
“All of our children have shown cows and they developed poise through competition. It’s important for kids to have, whether they win or lose. Though you usually learn more from losing.”
Though they haven’t shown their cows at the Delaware County Fair in many years, she still has a fondness for the fair. “I just feel like so much of my life is because of a cow. I met a wonderful person, moved to Delaware County and had a tremendous amount of fun - all because of a cow.”
*Don Smith died in 2019.
