Hay bale rolling, with new challenge, closes out county fair

Photos by Tom Rivers

KNOWLESVILLE – The team of Kasey Gilbert of Dansville, center, and Jacob Olver of Geneseo defended their title on Saturday as the hay bale rolling champs of the Orleans County 4-H Fair.

Teams needed to push and flip an 800-pound hay bale through a course with bumps and turns. If the teams strayed from the marked course, they received 5-second violations.

Gilbert and Olver called their the team the “Heifer Haulers.” The completed the course in 1 minute, 12 seconds.

The challenge was started in 2021 after the fair ended the grease pole competition due to concerns from the insurance provider. The grease pole was discontinued after the 2019 fair. The 2020 fair was cancelled during the Covid pandemic.

Elijah “The Bull” Starr of Lyndonville is a one-man team in the competition. He finished second overall in 1 minute 24 seconds.

Starr, 34, has been in the competition the last three years. He gets a lot of applause doing the challenge all by himself.

“In the wintertime this is how I feed my cows,” Starr said about pushing the heavy bales.

The competition added a new element this year. Participants began by throwing a smaller 50-pound block of hay over a 6-foot-high beam. When they finished the course, they had to throw the smaller bale back over the beam.

Elijah “The Bull” Starr flings the bale up high over the target.

James Scheid of Churchville and Annie Erion work together to get the hay bale through the course designed by Jeremy Neal, the hay bale chairman.

More than 200 people typically come out to watch the event, which caps the fair each night.

Clark Kendall of Candor in Tioga County and Simon Ellison of Albion try to keep the hay bale moving and on track. The two work together installing cable in the Southern Tier. Kendall drove three hours to try the hay bale rolling on Saturday. He said it’s much harder than it looks.

“It took us a minute in a half but it felt like 5 to 10 minutes,” he said.

Brilyn Rebisz of Bergen and Ruth Lang were the only all-female team to try the hay bale rolling. They completed the challenge in 6 minutes, 57 seconds. They were determined to finish, and the DJ played “Eye of Tiger” from Rocky to encourage them.

Rebisz, 19, has been an active 4-Her at the fair for several years. She said the challenge was more difficult this year, with what felt like more bumps and taller mounds.

She appreciated the support of the crowd.

“We do this for the enjoyment of the people,” she said.