‘Strolling of the Heifers’ Celebrates Dairy Farming

Tracy Sutton
Northern Editor

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. — The epicenter of heifer funkiness — or the “cow-nter culture” if you will —was on exuberant, flower-draped display last Saturday at Brattleboro, Vermont’s seventh annual “Strolling of the Heifers.” Nearly 50,000 people gathered to watch as lovely young Holsteins, Jerseys, and Brown Swiss heifers sashayed down Main Street, strutting their bovine stuff.

Cow contestants, draped in wreaths of flowers, led by 4-H’ers, local farmers, and other community ag folks, paraded past judges, Roger Allbee, Vermont secretary of agriculture, Rick LeVitre, University of Vermont Extension associate dean, and William Aubuchon III, CEO of Aubuchon Hardware, this year’s corporate sponsor of the Stroll. Heifers were judged as “Best Dressed Heifer,” “Most Congenial Heifer” and the heifer with the “Best Stroll.” The winning heifer, or “Miss VerMOOOOnt” was crowned at the awards ceremony on the Brattleboro Common.

“Joan Rivers” (impersonator Nan Mann), sheathed in a shimmering evening gown and wielding a microphone like a musket, was on hand to accost contestants on the red carpet and inflict bad cow puns upon a captive public.

“You look moo-valous,” “udderly fashionable,” etc. One Holstein owner quipped in reply: “Yes, black and white. It’s what everyone is wearing.”

And they were. From balloons, to cow cookies, to cow hats (which perched upon one’s head, lit up, and mooed), Brattleboro was awash in a cowhide leit motif. Friendly dairy propaganda, gargantuan cow effigies, and even a “Dairy Godmother” (comedienne Amelia Strothers — imagine Glinda the Good crossbred with a Holstein) rounded out the experience of a town gone cow mad.

But the stroll isn’t all festooned livestock and dairy merriment. Its purpose is to raise money for ag education and showcase the importance of family farming. The Stroll began as the very clever brain child of Orly Munzing, a local citizen (a teacher not a farmer) who was concerned with the decline of family farming in Vermont. Munzing had been to Pamplona, Spain where the famous Running of the Bulls brings in tourists from all over the world. She thought if Pamplona had its bulls, Brattleboro had the Holstein Association. The Strolling of the Heifers as publicity stunt was born.

In the last seven years, it has raised over $125,000 to fund educationally oriented agricultural programs for youth. Money raised from the parade and festival is distributed to schools and other organizations for ag education projects through the Heifer Educational Fund.

The stroll takes place in June, in conjunction with the celebration of Dairy Month. The festival has now grown to become one of the largest tourist draws in New England.

Parade watchers Felicity Bowers, sporting cow ears, and Karen Nasr drove over 1,200 miles from Chattanooga, Tennessee to witness the stroll. “We read about it and thought, wow, that would make a great vacation.”

The theme for the parade this year was “Live Green.” School kids dressed as strawberries promoted their local farm to school program and held placards praising compost. A giant puppet monster constructed out of eco-unfriendly plastic bags loomed with absurd ferocity, while little kids, dressed as plastic bags ran around pretending to be menacing. Some floats and celebrants were just happily weird for weird’s sake. (Zebras? Pogo sticks? A guy dancing around with a squid on his head?)

Helen Robb, a local dairy farmer and honoree of the stroll’s “Women in Agriculture” awards explained this year’s green theme. “When it comes to slowing down global climate change, we’ve all got to do our part. People are really beginning to understand that we all have to make lifestyle changes to save the environment for future generations.”

The parade also showcased school marching bands, veterans, farmers riding vintage tractors, a beauty queen, Miss Vermont, and a politician —Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who has marched in every stroll.

Sponsor William Aubuchon said the event was “beyond my expectations” and praised the “diverse, enthusiastic” group.

“It’s been a wonderful day,” enthused Vermont Ag Secretary Roger Allbee. “These people remind us where our food comes from. The Strolling of the Heifers is what celebrating agriculture is all about.”