40—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, November 3. 1973
Dairying with the Kirks of Peach Bottom .. .
A Hold on the Past, An Eye to the Future
Paying careful attention to the
needs of individual cows is one of
the best management tools
dairymen can use to coax
maximum production from each
and every cow in their herds.
Unfortunately, it’s a principle
that gets abused as herd size
increases. Not so on Cedar
Fringe Farms, owned by Francis
and Ethel Kirk, Peach Bottom,
RDI.
The Kirks stress individual
care and attention from the day a
calf is born until it leaves their
Registered Guernsey herd.
Every calf is provided with a pen
of his own, is individually bottle
fed and receives an infra-red
lamp when necessary. This kind
of individual attention is
especially evident at milking
time - the three row, 65-stall
stable is used exclusively for
milking. When the pipeline was
installed in 1963, it gave the Kirks
the efficiency of a parlor without
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c-o Nelson Weaver’s Warehouse
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sacrificing any of the advantages
of conventional housing and
milking systems.
There are approximately 40
Guernsey herds in Lancaster
County, and the Kirk herd is one
of the largest, numbering nearly
200 head with cows, heifers and
calves.
As many as 130 cows are kept
at Cedar Fringe Farms during
the winter. Francis’ wife, Ethel,
who is not from a dairy farm
oiriginally, has become
thoroughly acquainted with
every phase of a dairy
operation. For the past 14 years
she has done all the milking,
morning and evening; taking
time off only when it was time to
give birth to a child. Now, with
the children in school, she only
misses one or two milkings a
year.
In addition to her work in the
65-stanchion dairy barn, Mrs.
Kirk also keeps all the farm
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Tom Kirk, son of Francis and Ethel Kirk, herd of Registered Guernsey’s on the
checks on part of the family’s 200-head family farm at Peach Bottom, RDI.
records, feeds all the calves, does
lots of canning, keeps after a
garden, and provides as best she
can for the needs of her husband
and three children.
Bill Juzi, local fieldman for the
state Guernsey Breeders
Association, speaks highly of the
Kirk family and their dairy
operation. “I have never known
them to have a high bacteria
count,” he says, adding that
“they always ship top quality
Golden Guernsey milk to Ah-
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“■" l at a cost that’s easytohe with!
bott’s Dairies.” It is obvious that
a good sanitation program is
followed at the Kirk (fairy. The
commonly avoided practice of
checking each cow with a strip
cup is considered important, and
most cows are carefully machine
stripped to maintain good udder
quality and health.
The Kirks’ present rolling herd
average with 112.7 cows is 9249
pounds of milk and 458 pounds of
butterfat or 4.9 percent fat. Mrs.
Kirk pointed out that there are
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about 20 cows in the herd which
make 600 pounds of butterfat or
more. A first calf heifer is
predicted to go over 650 fat.
Several years ago the herd was
averaging 530 pounds of butterfat
on about 70 milking cows, 50 of
which were sired by the same
bull.
Once the cows are milked they
are returned to a concreted
feeding area, from where they
have access to either the pasture
(Continued On Page 31)
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717-464-3321