—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, June 16. 1973
22
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The Graybill Family. . .
They Practice Living, Working, Playing Together
“Triple G Farm Dairy, Inc ” is
the name of a large farming
enterprise in East Cocalico
Township on Stevens Road that
represents one big happy family.
Three brothers—Arthur, Irvin
and Donald Graybill, their wives
and children all banded together
work amiably for the benefit of
all
The three brothers, sons of
Farm
Feature
Writer
Mrs. Charles
McSparran
Mrs and the late Irvin Graybill,
grew up on the farm where Mrs
Graybill lives in a new home and
the Irvin Graybill Jr family lives
m the farm house Arthur’s
family lives in a house they built
on the farm 20 years ago
Donald’s family lives on the
former George Root farm These
brothers are the third generation
to own and operate the original
farm first owned by their
grandfather Rubin Hertzog.
Their mother lived on the farm
since she was a baby.
The dairy is the big item in
their farming set-up Each
Graybill brother is in charge of
one phase of the -operation. Ar
thur does most of the field work,
the managing and has charge of
the broilers. Irvin has charge of
the cattle and Donald does the
milk processing and makes ice
cream for their dairy store.
Triple G Farm Dairy built a
dairy store six years ago which
not only contains a sales room but
a modern dairy processing plant,
ice cream making facilities, 12
offices which are used for their
offices and some office space
Mrs. Arthur Graybill made a ceramic plate like she holds
for each of her children. Other ceramic pieces are a yule log
candle holder, Christmas tree, compote and candlestick set,
jack-o’-lantern, pitcher and bowl, a matching set of ash tray,
cigarette box and vase.
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Pat Erway, Editor '-V^J'j
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which they rent. The store
handles nearly all the milk
produced from their 200
Registered and grade Holstein
milking cows Only once in a
while do they need to take any
surplus to a cheese factory. By
the same token, once in a while
they must go out and buy a half
dozen cows to produce enough
milk to run the store
Graybills sell all their products
except the broilers in their store.
They do not standardize their
milk by skimming off cream but
sell it as whole milk which
averages between 3 7 and 3.9
percent butterfat. They sell their
milk n two quart glass bottles as
whole milk, skim milk or
chocolate milk They also process
and sell cream, real orange juice,
grapefruit juice, six fruit drinks
and make 26 flavors of most
delicious ice cream. They use all
true fruit flavorings for their ice
cream They sell about 30 dozen
fresh eggs a week and, due to the
demand of their customers,
handle baked goods and such
items as cold cuts, cheese, cot
tage cheese, yogurt, butter,
soups, potato chips, pickles,
pretzels and candy.
Donald works in the store and
Monday, Wednesday and Friday
processes the milk and fruit
juices and drinks. He makes the
ice cream Tuesdays and Thur
sdays.
The store is open from 9 a.m to
9 p.m Monday through Saturday
and Sunday from 1 to 6 p.m. and
employs 15 people, including
their families.
The Graybill women and
children play a big part in
operating the store. There is
always one of the Graybill
women in the store in the
daytime. The Graybill children
and the men are in the store from
spm to 9 pm. Irvin’s wife,
Grace is m the store two days a
week, is the bookkeeper and in
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Notes
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Milk in two quart glass containers in right) Donald, Jane (Mrs. Irwin) and Mrs.
sales case to left and ice cream in con- Mary Belle (Mrs. Arthur) Graybill.
tainers in the case on the right. (Left to
the office most of the time, does
the banking and helps to milk.
She is the daughter of Mr. and
Mrs George Summy who for
merly farmed at Mastersonville.
Irvin’s son and daughter also
work in the store.
Mrs Arthur H. (Mary Belle)
Graybill, daughter of Mrs. and
the late Harry Honberger, grew
up m Salunga. She never lived on
the farm until after marriage.
She works at the store ap
proximately 25 hours a week and
Thursdays she goes for the
homemade pies, cookies and
bread which a lady makes for
their weekend business Their
four children help in the store.
Donald’s wife, Mary Jane, did
work in the store two days a week
but now has three small children
so she isn’t working at the store
Mary Jane, the daughter of Mr
and Mrs Maurice Herr of Ref ton,
was very active m 4-H She
served as president' of the 4-H
Baby Beef and Lamb Club and
showed a total of 51 steers during
the time she was in 4-H
Triple G farm employs four
men They are now farming 450
acres Of this amount 100 acres
are in alfalfa, 275 acres m corn, 35
acres m Sudan grass and 40 acres
in pasture Arthur, m charge of
the field work, also manages the
broilers They put in 30,000
broilers five times a year or a
total of 150,000 are grown, in a
year’s time They raise them on a
contract basis.
Graybills built a large free stall
dairy barn four years ago with a
milking parlor that milks nine
cows at a time. They have a
ppeline to a 2000 gallon bulk
tank. The milk, however, is
precooled before entering the
bulk tank. Graybills were the
first in the area to precool milk
before it enters the milk holding
tank. They also have a tank truck
to transport their milk from the
bulk tank to the processing plant.
Three people do the milking.
Besides the 200 milking cows
they keep about 150 heifers and
dry cows and about 65 head of
bulls which they sell for beef at
around 1300 pounds. They keep
the calves at the barn where
Donald lives. They raise most of
Mrs. Arthur Graybilt crewel embroidered
the pillow, knit the afghan and holds the
red tote bag and grey poncho with red trim
she took first prize on at Denver Jaycee
Hobby Show.
their own animals for herd
replacement but sell a few
calves. Irvin is in charge of
milking and breeding through the
Atlantic Breeders Cooperative.
They do not go in for showing
their animals. They use a liquid
manure pump system from their
stables to use on their farm land.
Arthur, Irvin and Donald
graduated from East Cocalico
High School and were in 4-H Baby
Beef Clubs two or three years.
They were active in sports. They
played ice hockey on the “Flying
Dutchman” team at Hershey
(Continued On Page 24)