Lancaster County Has a Woman Milk Tester From Mountville
By Mrs. Charles G. McSparran
Farm Feature Writer
Joan A. Snyder, 105 Froelich
Ave., Mountville, has a very un
usual position of employment
She is one of the Dairy Herd
Improvement Association testers
in Lancaster County.
She tests 18 herds plus 9
owner-sampler herds a month
and does the work usually m
about 18 days. Her herds are all
Holstein herds, a couple of them
each have one Guernsey.
She tests at farms anywhere
from Rawlinsville to Elizabeth
town and the number of cows
vary from 40 to 70 head.
Getting out to dairy farms on
cold, snowy or icy winter morn
ings can be a grueling task.
Some farmers start their milking
about 4:30 a m. before the roads
are open. Joan, like the other
testers, must be there to take
milk samples and weigh the milk
from each cow.
Some farmers have their milk
tested and weighed just once a
day, one month in the morning
and the next month in the even
ing. However, several farmers
still have their milk tested twice
a day.
The head tester in each county
now trains the testers working
under him and it is not neces
sary to take a short course at
Penn State as it was formerly
when they had to test the samples
themselves.
The method now used for
DHIA testing is that the testing
is all done at Penn State Uni
versity. It is more costly, but is
supposed to be more accurate.
The tester puts a sample of
milk for each cow in a separate
little plastic bag and drops a
potassium dichromate tablet into
iff f
Garber Oil Co.
TEXACO
HEATING OIL
Burner Sales & Service
MOUNT JOY, PA.
Ph! 653-1821
Joan proudly displays some of her ceramic pieces she has made,
each one to keep it from souring,
In the case of owner-sampler,
the farmer takes the samples
and weighs the milk and the
tester just collects them. These
tests are strictly for the owner
and are not official. He can keep
records if he wishes.
The samples are numbered and
collected in wire trays and later
transferred to mailing cartons.
Some testers send them to
Penn State by United Parcel Ser-
vice delivery, but Joan finds it
more convenient and less costly
for her to mail it by parcel post.
By mailing the cartons every two
days and sending two carbons to
gether, the postage is less than
for shipping one carton.
The report sheets are returned
to the farmer to put in his DHIA
record 'book. When the tester
returns to the farm the next
month, he keeps the calf book
and individual cow records up
to date.
There are only a very few
girl testers in the state. Another
One of them is in a nearby
county.
How did Joan, a small town
girl, become interested in testing
milk? Well, she is also inter
ested in horses. Five years ago
she bought a registered half-
Arabian filly from Walter Ely
who was a milk tester in Chester
County. He has since retired
and moved to Florida, but he
kept saying to her that she
should become a milk tester. So
finally she did and she loves the
work.
Her longstanding interest in
the farm and horses began when
she was a little girl. She helped
take care of horses for Harry A.
Kessler, Mountville, who has a
plumbing business in Lancaster.
She also went on fox hunts with
his horses.
As a student in high school,
she worked part time at Saint
Anne’s Home, on the Columbia
Pike, in order to buy a second
hand Fiat automobile. She also
saved her money and bought a
horse which she had for a couple
years before she bought “Peggy”
the horse she now owns. She be
came interested in farming when
she kept this horse at different
farms.
Joan does some riding. She
bought Peggy when she was one
year old and raised and started
to train her. Andy Gilbert, Gap,
finishing training her. He also
gave Joan riding lessons for
about six or seven months
She showed Peggy a few times
She has several ribbons and tro
phies. She placed third in the
Pony Halter Class at Kutztown
two years ago. Diane Wiers,
Pinch Road, near Mount Gretna,
who is in tenth grade in high
school, is keeping Peggy this
summer and will probably keep
her until she graduates from
high school. Joan also used to
show her girl friend’s horse.
Joan belongs to Valley Lea
Riding Club. They have trail
rides two days in the spring and
two days in the fall. They have
a camp near Fishing Creek in
Drumore Township.
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 31,1971—17
A half-Arabian is a breed
which is half Arabian and half
grade horse, but is a registered
breed. It is less costly than a
thoroughbred Arabian horse.
They have an organization
known as Half Arabian Associ
ation of Pennsylvania, of which
Joan is treasurer. They have
several activities. They have
at least one horse show a year.
It is an open horse show This
year it was held at the Lancaster
Riding Club and Joan helped at
the secretary’s stand and also
collected the $3 stall fee and
saw that the horses were in the
right stall. They had around 65
horses in 26 different classes
The show was at Carlisle last
year. They try to meet at dif
ferent sections of the state for
the benefit of people who ex
hibit.
In June the association took a
tour of New Bolton Center. They
also have trail rides.
Joan is the daughter of John
A. and Mary Snyder of Mount
ville. Mr. Snyder as a Pennsyl
vania Power & Light Company
power house operator at Engle
side and his father also worked
for PP&L. Mary was born and
raised on a farm near Landis
Valley and at Millway.
Joan took a eommerical course
and graduated from Hempfield
High School in 1964. She has a
license to be a beautician, hav
ing had 10 months of training at
Emile’s Hairdressing Academy
in Lancaster after graduating
from high school. She then
worked at Hamilton Watch Co.
Joan Snyder and daughter Kay pose on the deck of her
car as she loads her milk testing equipment to go to a dairy
farm. She advertises milk with two stickers on the deck “Stay
Trim With Milk" and “Test Don’t Guess DHIA”. Loki, her
police dog, sees her off.
4% years She was on watch
work one year and on military
work 3V2 years She did piece
work on a punch press She said
this paid bettei than being a
beautician unless you had your
own shop She has been a milk
testei over a year and says, “I
like it a lot better than working
at Hamilton Watch ”
Joan does beautiful woik an
ceramics She buys the green
ware and finishes thu, pieces In
fact she and her cousin Dawn
Sourbough of Lancaster had a
stand known as “Joan and Dawn
Ceramic Gifts” at Meadowbrook
Farmers Market at Leacock
They could not keep up with the
demand, so sold their stand two
months ago to John Beiler who
sells candles and artificial
flowers
Joan has a daughter, Louvonne
Kay, better known as Kay, who
is 16 months old
The Snyders are members of
St. Paul’s United Methodist
Church Mountville
Joan and her mother have
helped with the Lancaster Cleft
Palate Clinic peach festival for
several years by soliciting cakes
for it and taking them to the
festival. It is held in August on
grounds between Pleasure Road
and Clearview Avenue in Lancas
ter.
Joan bowled regularly or. a
team at Lancaster Leisure Lanes
the past two winters and receiv
ed a trophy.
She has another animal friend,
a six year old purebred German
shepherd police dog, “Loki,” of
which she is very fond.
Even though she is the out
door type, Joan loves to bake
cakes and cookies and do other
cooking and household chores
Here’s some favorite recipes-
BLUEBERRY BUCKLE
% cup sugar
14 cup margarine or butter
1 egg
Vz cup milk
2 cups flour
Vz teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 bux frozen or 1 pint box
fresh blueberries
Cream sugar and shortening.
Add egg and milk alternately
with flour, salt and baking
powder. Add blueberries. Put
batter in pan, cover with crumbs
mixture, made with:
Vi cup butter
Vz cup sugar
Vz cup flour
Vz teaspoon cinnamon
Bake in 9”x13” pan at 375 de
grees about 30 minutes.
KAKTOFFEL KLOSSE
(Potato Dumplings)
2 pound or 6 raw potatoes
4 slices white bread
1 teaspoon salt
Vi teaspoon pepper
1 onion grated
1 teaspoon minced parsley
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