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Thomas Kirk likes life on the dairy
By SUSAN KAUFFMAN
Staff Writer
PEACH BOTTOM - Recent
recipient of the Keystone
Degree, Thomas Kirk, will
soon be leaving his formal
education days behind to
continue his career in
agriculture.
In June, Tom will
graduate from Solanco High
School and relinquish the
office of president of the
local Chapter of Future
Farmers of America.
His intentions for the
immediate future upon
graduation are to continue
working at home with his
parents and eventually go
into partnership with them.
Tom’s parents, Francis and
Ethel Kirk, own and operate
a 375 acre dairy fanning
enterprise in Fulton
Township, Southern Lan
caster County.
The family’s dairy herd
consists of 135 registered
Guernsey cows and 106
young stock. The family
farm raises feed for the herd
in the form of hay, corn and
some small grains. They
raise their own replacement
animals and generally have
three purchased bulls on the
farm to use with heifers,
cows that have not settled
with artificial insemination,
and with other than top
cows, Tom explained.
Public presentation
training night set
FLEMINGTON, N.J. -
How to make a public
presentation will be the sub
ject of a workshop sponsored
by the 4-H Program on
February 23 at the
Cooperative Extension Ser
vice Center. Flemington.
beginning at 7:30 pjn.
Ray Nichols, County 4-H
Agent will demonstrate
various ways to speak before
a group, including il
lustrated talks and
demonstrations.
This program is designed
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While Tom is completing
his senior year at Solanco, he
is part of the work ex
perience program in wind)
he works at home the first
half of the school day, then
goes to school in the af
ternoon for formal classes.
His chores during the
morning hours include
feeding the heifers, scraping
manure, bedding and doing
“any odds and ends that
need to be done,” he added.
Tom says he enjoys
working with the dairy end
of the operation, but likes to
have a mixture of fieldwork
and dairy work. His younger
brother, Robert, a freshman
at Solanco, prefers the
fieldwork so the two seem to
have a good combination
forming. Tom’s mother does
most of the milking and
takes care of the calves until
they are six weeks old, when
Tom and Robert take over.
Although Tom has bad the
benefit of being reared on a
dairy farm all Ws life he said
his'experience as an FFA
member in school has given
him additional insight into
agriculture as a career.
“I think FFA is wor
thwhile for anyone in
terested in any area of
agriculture,” he stated. “It
gives you a chance to be
involved even in school. It is
a good opportunity for
to teach young people the
basics of public speaking.
This workshop is open to
the public, free of charge.
'dejpfcf
Sr
5S> Cm)
anyone interested in
agriculture,” he em
phasized.
This year Tom presided
over meetings of the local
chapter which includes a
membership of from 100 to
120 members. “We have less
members than in years past,
but we tried to weed out
some-who were not really
interested in ag. It has
worked out real good,
though,” he explained.
Previous to being the
chapter president, Tom
served as secretary during
his junior year. He also
worked as a part of the
parliamentary procedure
team for two years and four
years as a member of the
Solanco Dairy Club.
In addition to the local
involvement, Tom also holds
membership in the
American Guernsey Cattle
dub and the State Junior
Guernsey Breeders Club.
During his FFA in
volvement the last several
years, Tom has had projects
in dairy herd and com. As a
greenhand, he worked with
the dairy herd project which
consisted of six animals both
young and milking stock. In
his sophomore year he added
three or four young animals
to the previous project and
expanded into a second
project of two acres of com.
With five more animals
added to the dairy herd
project the next year, Tom
once again raised com as a
second project. Yields for
the two years showed a
decrease in the second year
which Tom attributes to a
change in soil preparation.
“We used a heavy disc the
second year rather than
conventional plowing. The
disc left ridges and the com'
was not covered, up as well.
My yields dropped from 175
bushels acre to 146“
bushels’ v *per acre,” he
recalled.
With a slight change in
individual animals, Tom has
a senior year project m dairy
herd with eight cows and
r *
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seven open and bred heifers.
He bred one-third of them
and the other two-thirds
were bred in the family herd.
Having shown in a number
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of local shows and fairs, Tom
has had the grand champion
and junior champion at the
FFA round-up at Kutztown.
Looking to a future in the
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farm
family dairy farm, Tom Kirk
looks back at Ms FFA ex
perience and finds it “a
worthwhile opportunity” he
chose to take.
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