•Meyers known as enthusiatic farmer
By JUDY MITCHELL
Berks Co. Reporter
KEMPTON, Pa. - Ask
someone in upper Berks
County to name an en
thusiastic young farmer in
the area and the chances are
good that “Don Meyers” will
be the reply. How does
Meyers come to fill the
“enthusiastic” bill in the
minds of so many people?
“I don’t know,” Don
replied to that question in a
recent interview with
Lancaster Farming, “except
that people wonder how I do
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George F Delong
Regional Manager
225 West Woods Drive
Lihtz PA 17543
Call Collect 717 626 0261
Chester Co
Southwestern Lancaster Co William Wmdle
_ Ben Greenawall RDI Atglen PA 19310
Melvin Herr RD2 Conestoga PA 17516 Phone 215 593 6143
RD2 New Holland PA 17557 Phone 717 872 5686
Ph 717 354 5977
!rn Lancaster Co
Aldus R King
Earl B Cinder RDI Box 67A
RD2 Manheim PA 17545 Atglen PA 19310
Phone 717 665*3126 Phone 215 593 5952
North Western Lancaster Co
it all.” The Meyers operation
in Kempton, R 2, consists of
210 acres of farmland (50 of
which are rented), 60
milking cows, and 50 head of
young stock. Don has single
handedly run the farm since
1968, having worked it in
partnership with his father
for approximately three
year before that time. The
Meyers’s moved to Berks
County in 1965 because the
family farm in Bucks County
was not large enough to
support the father-son
partnership and additional
farmland was becoming
difficult to find.
Don recalls that he tried
hired help for about six
months after he took over the
farm; but when that didn’t
work out, he decided “to go
to machines.”
According to Don, three
Harvestores, a feed lot, and
automatic equipment for
feeding inside the comfort
stall bam have helped him
make the conversion from a
two-man to a one-man
operation. Milking still takes
a big chunk out of the young
farmer’s day, however, and
in his wife Vernette’s
opinion, “a person really has
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Henry Delong, Jr Roger Heller Thomas Heist
RD2 Box 69 RDI Robesoma PA Mam Street
Peach Bottom PA 17563 Phone 215 693 6160 Alburtis PA 18101
Phone 717 548 3471 Phone 215 965 5124
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Mechanized feeding equipment helps Don
Meyers handle the workload on the family farm
to love cows to spend six Although Vemette admits
hours a day with them ” that she doesn’t share her
AGRI-KING
KEY TO PROFIT
Northeast Berks Co
Lebanon Co
Marvin Meyer
RD2 Box 157
Annville PA 17003
Phone 717 867 1445
t
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i
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I
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I
g
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250 Edwards Ave CL
Chambersburg PA 17201 CL
tall f Her M 7 ?5J 9321
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ih & Northami
South Central Penna
which he converted from a two-man to a one-man
operation.
husband’s passion tor cows,
she observes that “he
wouldn’t be happy doing
anything else but dairy
farming.”
The Meyers’s have three
children; Stacy, age nine;
Melissa, age six; and
Brooke, who is 15-month-old.
Although Don handles the
morning milking chores
alone, he points out that he
does get a helping hand in
the evenings from Stacy and
Melissa. The girls, according
to Dad, are a big help
“washing the udders,
sweeping up, and feeding
some of the calves.”
Although it’s much to soon to
tell where son Brooke’s
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interests will lay, it’s obvious
to the Meyers that Stacy has
inherited her father’s en
thusiasm for cows. “Stacy is
our cow girl,” Vernette
remarks. Besides her
eagerness to help around the
bam, this was Stacy’s first
year in 4-H, and Vernette
recalls that although “many
a tear was shed” while Stacy
was training her animal this
past Spring, it took just one
show to convince the nine
year-old that showing and
fitting dairy animals is going
to be her thing
Although handling the
workload on the Meyers
farm is no small feat for one
man, it seems likely that
Don’s attitude towards the
business also contributes to
his reputation for en
thusiasm.
Although he says he
doesn’t like to paint “too
rosy a picture,” Don feels
that 1976 was a good year for
the dairy farmer, and he is
optomistic about the future
of the industry. Most
significant, Don considers,
“is that the price of milk
stayed fairly stable last
year” without experiencing
the usual sharp drop during
the summer months. Of
course, farmers then started
producing more milk, Don
notes, “so milk prices are
now dropping some.” But
although milk prices are
expected to be overall
slightly lower in 1977 than
they were in 1976, Don is
confident that prices will
remain more or less stable
throughout this year.
Don is a firm believer in
milk promotion abd is happy
to report 'that “my milk
association supports the
dairy council,” because he
notes that some do not. Eton
believes advertising is
important and recalls that
“after the push in 1975,” the
dairy council’s
measurements indicated
that consumption was up
significantly even though
“the store prices were up
too”
“Marketing is really
important if you want to
support your product,” Don
remarked. Don sees
marketing as more than just
paiu media advertising
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