Soft spoken Leah Caverly is keeping family traditions alive with her passion for the Ayrshire breed and making her own way as a leader in the next generation of dairy farmers and showmen.
The college junior and Maine Collegiate Dairy Princess is studying dairy management and has already started her own string of dairy cattle.
Leah Caverly wasn’t sure what she wanted to do after high school. Not going to college wasn’t an option in her family though. “My mom told me the same thing her mother told all her kids, ‘You’re at least going to try college,’” she said.
“I didn’t know what I wanted to do for the longest time,” she said.
Leah was always an active student and had varied interests. She was a member of the Lawrence High School marching band and political science club. She had also shown dairy animals in 4-H for several years. A senior English project – writing a college essay – made her focus in on one area.
“I sat down and thought, ‘What’s the one thing I couldn’t imagine my life without?’
“I said, ‘OK. I am doing animal science.’”
Leah is a member of the Caverly clan in Clinton. Her uncle Frank, his son Neal and another uncle’s son Brian own and operate Caverly Farms LLC. Her father Edgar or E.C. was in partnership with Frank but passed away when Leah was in first grade. She grew up just across the road from the farm, and showing cattle in 4-H “gave me a reason to come out to the barn,” Leah said. Her uncle let her use his “show barn” and leased her calves to show. “I would take care of them all summer, and then I got to go to Skowhegan Fair.” As she got a little older she added other fairs and also started going to Eastern States or the Big E in Massachusetts.
“I am super lucky to have such a supportive family that takes care of my animals while I am away,” Leah said.
An old Ayrshire sign at Caverly Farms. Now the farm signs feature a Holstein at one entrance and the beloved Ayrshire at the other.
Caverly Farms started in the 1940s and was built with the Ayrshire breed.
Her mother Donna also came from a dairy farm devoted to Ayrshires in upstate New York. She and Leah’s father met while showing cattle at Eastern States. Eventually though, the Caverlys found Holsteins to be more profitable, and the majority of their nearly 400 milkers are now black and white with a “sprinkling of Jerseys.”
“But they don’t plan on getting rid of the Ayrshires completely,” Leah said.
She is faithful to the breed and owns seven of her own, including a couple of calves. Her half-brother Richard Caverly and his wife Beverly Donovan and their Deer Hill Ayrshires are internationally-known. “Sweet-Pepper Black Francesca” was an Ayrshire superstar, and she lived right in Benton, Maine. They still have Frannie’s 17-year-old mother. They even have the world’s first Ayrshire clone!
Leah had it in her genetic make up to choose dairy cattle over all the other options. They are her passion, especially the Ayrshire breed. Her first purchase was from a farm dispersal sale nearly five years ago. Her brother Richard knew the six-day-old calf would be a promising prospect. The first cow on the dispersing Wilshore farm had been named First Lady, and Leah was buying the last calf born on the farm, so she named her Last Lady. Leah had to come up with a prefix for her string of Ayrshires (when dealing with registered cattle, especially show cattle, naming can be very important). Because Leah’s middle name is Robin, her mother suggested Robin’s Nest.
When Last Lady had her first calf, Leah wanted to name it Lady Bug, but “I was informed that it had to be First Lady.” She now has Last Lady, First Lady, Lady in Red and, just recently added, Pretty Lady (her sire was Pretty Boy). “It’s starting to get confusing,” she said.
Knowing her future goals involved dairy cattle, Leah enrolled in University of New Hampshire’s two-year program for applied animal science with a concentration in dairy management in 2012. She graduated with honors, but she wasn’t done there and transferred into the four-year program for sustainable agriculture with a concentration in dairy management and food systems. She is now in her junior year.
Leah knows she wants to work in the dairy industry. “Right now, I’m trying to learn a little of everything at school, and we’ll see where I end up,” she said. Her classes cover topics like agroecology, horticulture, biostatistics, technical writing, biology and chemistry, bovine health, forages and grassland management, and equipment and facilities management. Last year she was in the Cooperative Real Education in Agricultural Management (CREAM) program, which she says “is a fancy name for a class that plays with cows.”
She also has responsibilities on the campus’ conventional dairy farm, helping to milk the cows, taking care of calves and cleaning out maternity pens. Next year she will be working at the farm and living in an apartment upstairs. Last summer she worked at Billings Farm in Vermont. They have a herd of Jerseys, including show cattle, and Leah was able to go to the Ohio State Fair with them. The farm is educational and is open to the public. During the afternoon milking, it was Leah’s job to explain to those on a tour how a cow is milked and how a milk machine works, and she would answer their questions.
“That’s my favorite part,” she said, adding that talking with the public and educating them about dairy cows and farming is also her favorite part about showing cattle at the fair. “You sit around, watching your cows and people come along and ask questions.”
Although she was accomplished in the show ring, a good student and active in many school-related activities, Leah never thought of herself as a leader growing up.
“I didn’t think the quiet person could be the leader,” she said.
Apparently she led by example more than with words because her band director made her captain of the marching band in her junior and senior years at Lawrence High School (she played tenor saxophone).
Now 20, Leah has started accepting that she might in fact be a leader. “Somehow I keep taking on more leadership roles.”
She joined the UNH marching band her freshman year. As a sophomore, she ran for the position of UNH Dairy Club president and continues to serve in that seat. And she’s a member of the agricultural sorority on the UNH campus – Sigma Alpha, serving as the standards chair. She even started a dairy judging team at UNH. She also took home the crown as the 2014 Maine Collegiate Dairy Princess this past summer at the Clinton Lions’ Fair. “I’m not terribly outgoing as it is,” she said. “But I used to be a lot quieter. That’s why I waited until last year to run for Dairy Princess, even though it is in my own hometown.”
Source: Maine Dairy Promotion Board