S4—Lancaster Farming. Saturday, Jan. 31. 1976 Maryland farm family wins Master Award Hard work, family in- volvement and 'spec ialization are all parts of the reason that the John Kilby family of Colon MD. (Cedi county) won the first Master Fanner award given to a Marylander since 1931. Every year since 1927, the Master Fanner program recognized six ot more persons from Pennsylvania who are outstanding farmers -as -wett- as- leaders in their farm organizations and communities. But this year, the sponsors, broadened the program to indude farmers from Delaware, New Jersey, and West Virginia as well as Maryland. The six 1976 awards were presented to five Pennsylvanians in addition to Kilbys, Inc. at ceremonies in Harrisburg during the Pennsylvania Farm Show on January 6, 1976. John Herbert Kilby, Sr. and his sons William Bradley (Bill) and Richard Edward (Rick) who farm as Kilbys, Incorporated, were nominated for the award by the Cecil county Cooperative Extension Service Agent Ray Mueller. Mueller says, “They really are a team; we first nominated John, but he said award. They are a great family to work with and they are eager to leam new things that will help with their farming operation.” The family enterprize operates a dairy farm with some 290 cows and about 185 heifers of all ages being raised for replacements in the milking herd. “Bill is in charge of the herd; Richard takes care of the crops, and John fills in wherever he is needed,” is the way Editk John) Kilby explains the division of responsibility. The entire program works with a minimum of hired labor - it is mainly a family operation. In addition to the three full-time male family members, Kilbys, Inc. hires two full-time male em ployees and part-time high school boys or girls as needed. Emily Kilby, an unmarried daughter, also does relief milking, and Phyllis, Bill’s wife, raises the calves. Richard is not married. That’s the family in volvement, and it hints at the hard work that has made the corporation a success. In addition to the 270 acres in the main farm, Mt. Pleasant, another 230 or so acres of rented land grows feed for the dairy herd. That’s the specialization; every acre’s production goes toward producing milk. John Kilby bought Mt. Pleasant in 1961 when a housing development and a golf course surrounded his former farm on Wheel Road, Bel Air (Harford county) and pushed him out of far ming there. With two sons in college and two in high school, he felt he needed to —expand-the size of his far ming operation. Standing in the doorway of her newly-modernized kitchen in the antebellum brick farmhouse, Edith Kilby traced the long history of Mt. Pleasant from the time Lord Baltimore granted the land to Amos Ewing whose grandfather had come to this country from Scotland In 1725 Amos Ewing passed the (arm on to hia son, Amos Ewing, Jr, who had no children to inherit the land. He sold it to a cousin, George Steel, who left it to his widow and two daughters. It ap pears that these good ladies were not cut out for the rural life so they moved to Pmladelphia and left the farm to a long succession of tenants. • -When-tha farm belonged to. one George Coz, federal revenue agents raided “the largest still ever found in these parts” on the property. The farm then passed to the partnership of William Simpson and William Alt who made it into a pony ranch. The Kilbys had to remodel some of the existing pony bams into dairy cattle stalls and a milking parlor when they moved there. The remodeling was not such a big job at that time since the entire herd con sisted of 25 cows. When he put in his first milking parlor, John increased the herd to 40 cows. By 1970 it was becoming obvious that the family would be able to handle a much bigger operation. The oldest son, John, Jr., was employed by Southern -States-Farmer-Cooperative and the second son, Robert, after a stint in the military, had returned to the farm for a while. He is now a pilot in the Air National Guard and farms part-time on his own farm. The youngest daughter, Edith Ann Webb, is married to a farmer who farms on his own. But with Bill, Richard and Emily all still at home, the corporation was formed and the milking parlor and loose housing was planned for 300 cows. The basic AgPro system was modified by University of Maryland agricultural engineers working with the local Ex tension office and Mueller. The corporation bought several herds that were being dispersed and added individual cows and first-calf heifers as they could locate them. The Kilbys began to upgrade the herd by good management and rigorous culling until they now have a rolling herd average of 17, 163 pounds of milk with 3.5 percent and 601 pounds of butterfat per year, ac cording to Maryland Dairy Herd Improvement Cor poration records. Bill explains that the cows are fed - according to production - within limits. The cows are assigned - according to production or stage of lactation - to one of six groups. Only two groups receive hay (alfalfa) and they get on the average about six pounds per cow per day in addition to grain and Make Farm Machinery Repairs Soon Winter is an ideal time for farmers to work in their farm shops, say Extension agricultural engineers at The Pennsylvania State University. Repairs account for a large portion of the total machinery cost. Work that can be done to keep repair costs down means more profit in the farming business. It also helps reduce frustration and time lost during the busy planting, culvitating, and harvesting seasons ahead. silage. These two groups are the very high producers and the dry cows (close springers) that are about two weeks away from freshening. The other four groups receive grain - again according to production - and a mixture of com silage and grass silage. The proportion of com to grass silage varies from one-third com silage to two-thirds corn silage depending"Oft-the-graupr The herd is bred artifically the first service and again the second service when necessary. If the cow does not settle on the second service she is turned to the bull for a final chance to conceive. Bull calves are sold as “monkey” calves at a few days of age. The female calves go into the heifer bam where they are fed whole milk for four to six weeks. By that time they are also on grain and hay which they receive free choice to three months of age. They then go on limited grain and hay which they receive free choice until they are about a year old when they are turned to pasture until they begin to “udder up.” They are then brought into the milking herd and begin the routine of going through the One of John’s greatest planting trees in a state concerns about their present park, operation is that government John became a member of regulations will force a the Maryland Artificial change in' waste handling Breeding Cooperative in 1950 procedures. At present, all and has served that solid wastes are flushed organization as director; he from milking parlor and has also been a director of loafing ares-and the slatted- the Federal Land Bank. He floor calf-pens - into a was chosen Cecil County’s lagoon. This material is Outstanding Farmer for the -pumped through a separator year-1969. He-is a Deacon,in which takes most of thirsolid the West Nottingham material out of the liquid. Church. The solid manure, is. through it all he is loaded on trucks and sold to. supported bv his wife Edith an organic plant food who wrote on the Master company in nearby Oxford, Farmer worksheet, “In Pennsylvania. This waste addition to this sketch, I material alone returns would like to give John credit nearly $12,000 every month f or his patience with animals to the farm. The 20,000 gallons of water used each day to flush the floors goes back into a second lagoon for further settling before it goes into a third lagoon where it is clear enough for pumping through the irrigation system to crop land. But while all this farming was making Mr. Pleasant a going concern financially, the Kilbys were not obligations. John was a member of the Emmorton Grange since 1944 and served as president. He joined the Calvert Grange in 1962 and was elected vice president of that organization. He was also president of the local Far mers Club and a director of the Farm Bureau. Bill is continuing this interest in Farm Bureau and along with his wife Phyllis became leaders in the state Farm Bureau young farmers program. Bill is president of the Cecil County Farm Bureau and a director of the State Farm Bureau and the Cecil County fair. Richard works with youth board of Cecil Soil Con servation District and on special conservation projects such as Earth Day, and people, his directness in each one of them to g (ticking to his goals, his credit to the others in honesty and humbleness. He corporation hat helped many boys beside It it hard work ai our own to find a place in life specialization - but most and won their respect.” all family involvement tii If you visit the Kilby makes Kilby’s Inc. tl family at Colors, you wiU Matter Farmers find this same willingness in Maryland. 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