22-UwcMtf Faming, Satrday, March 15, ISM
Lancaster Co. hosts beef tour
BY SHEILA MILLER
LANCASTER - Over 160
dtlemen from three
ighboring states attended
oeef cattle operation tour
Lancaster County.
Host, Max Smith, led the
ravan of buses, carrying
Iks from New York,
.(aware, and Maryland, m
swing trip around the
LEOLA—First stop on the
ur was Mike Stoltzfus’
reystone Manor Farms,
ne visiting cattlemen
marked about the level
•nd, beautiful farm
Hidings, and most of all—
»rocks or stone fencerows.
Harold Firestone and Pip
avegum, filled the visitors
on the details of their
aeration.
According to Firestone,
e farm had 600 head of
eders on their 1000 head
ipacity feedlot. He added
avegum, the farm’s buyer,
aaily brought the cattle in
600 to 700 pounds and sold
em at about 1200 pounds,
aking sure all the cattle
ere out by June each year.
Ftavegum stated they
rmally get their cattle
im out West, usually
ibraska, but this year they
light the cattle in Virginia.
i said their decision was
ised on the cost of freight to
ove the cattle to Lan
ster.
The feeding regimen for
e feeder steers at
•eystone Farms has been
veloped by the farm’s feed
mpany and yields about 2
2% pounds of weight gam
rday.
For the first 3 days after
e cattle arrive, they are
d ten pounds of com silage
us pounds of protein
pplement per head. From
iy 4 until the 115th day, the
eers are given free choice
com silage plus Vh
.Hinds of protein per head.
Over the next 9 days, the
managers decrease the com
iage fed, and at the end of
• days the cattle are con
uning five pounds per head
;r day of com silage, plus
ee choice high moisture
■m, alone with the Vh
junds of protein.
From then on until the
me they are shipped off for
aughter, the steers are
wen free choice of high
.oisture com, roughly three
Hinds per head per day,
ith five pounds of com
lage per head per day and
.e protein.
For the first 115 days, the
rm managers estimated it
»st about 42 cents per head
feed, and thereafter, 92
>nts per head.
Harold Firestone, left, and Pip Ravegum told the
50 visitors about their feedlot and cattle
-et - ‘ > >r,
county.
The first stop cm the tour,
sponsored by the Maryland
Cattlemen’s Association and
the Lancaster County Ex
tension Executive Com
mittee, was the Greystone
Manor Farms, Leola.
From there, the cattlemen
moved on, travelling the
scenic highways of the
A closer look at Greystone Manor Farms
.xt '
As the tour buses approach Greystone Manor Farms, the visiting cattlemen
were impressed by the level land, beautiful farm buildings, and most of all, no
stone fence rows.
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Greystone Manor's manure handling facility was one of the main attractions of
the stop-over. The feed-lot manure is collected in a pit under these cattlemen's
feet, and pumped out of a pipe seen in the background.
The protein, Firestone
explained is supplied for 60
to 80 days by die haylage
from the farm operation.
After that tune, the protein
is supplied through com
mercial pellets.
Along with the planned out
feeding program, Firestone
explained they add sulfur to
the water when the cattle
first amve at the farm. He
said they also worm the
county to the only purebred
Simmental operation in
Lancaster.
After a lunch and lecture
on internal parasites in
cattle (which wasn’t an
appetizer for most of the
people), the company of beef
feeders were off to Ephrata
to take a look at the Glen and
Barry Wissler operation.
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cattle with a five-day feed
additive.
Firestone pointed out they
do not use implants or mix
any feed additives for
growth. He said, “ We
couldn’t handle Rumensm in
all of the cattle, and we mix
the cattle in the lots. We
don’t separate them by size. ”
The Greystone Manor
feedlot also provided the
visitors with some housing
engineering ideas.
- -
The feedlot was partially
covered by roof, with the
remainder of the concrete lot
open. To keep the air cir
culating, a ventillation
system was designed to take
the ammoma-fiiled air out
over the cattle through a
type of air-sac.
Firestone remarked that
one of the drawbacks of the
ventillation system was the
fact that birds always
wanted to build their nests
inside the air-sacs and
caused them to clog.
The farm also featured a
manure management
system At Greystone
Manor, the manure from the
feedlot is scraped to the far
end of the lot where it is
>£U—.
Wrapping up the day, the
buses pulled into Musser
Ferry’s farm, near
Manheim, where neigh
boring states cattlemen saw
how a farmer puts his
chickens to work raising
beef cattle.
Take a gander at a “Closer
Look at Lancaster County
Beet".
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x -1a J
collected in a large pit. The
liquid manure is then
pumped out on the farms 250
acres of com land, which
(Turn to Page C 24)
A closer
BIRD-IN-HAND - The
next stop on the tour was
Beechdale Farms, which
offered a scenic back-drop
for the out-of state cat
tlemen.
Nestled back a tree-lined
farm lane, the visitors
stepped off the buses m front
of a beautiful limestone
home where they met Dr
Thomas Conrad, the owner
of Beechdale Farms
The visitors were told by
Conrad about his purebred
Simmental operation. He
boasted of having the first
purebred calved east of the
Mississippi in 1972.
His herd of 50 purebred
cows was a long-term effort
of selection of Swiss and
French foundation sires and
dams, which meant
sometimes crossing the U S.
to find the best females.
His herd building story
Glen Wissler took the loading chute and portable
mike to tell the cattlemen about his feedlot and
farming operation near Ephrata.
A closer look at Wissler Farms
EPHRATA - After a short
rest and lunch where the
cattlemen heard from a
company representative on
parasite control in feedlot
animals, the tour got back on
the road and headed north.
The next stop on their
itinerary was the farm of
Glen and Barry Wissler.
This was still another type of
cattle operation for the
visitors to evaluate.
The Wissler’s have a
father-son partnership,
where together they farm
225 acres of their own land,
plus an additional 100 rented
acres. ' *-
Their crops program in
cludes 250 acres of corn, 30
acres of wheat, and the
remainder in soybeans.
The soybeans are used as a
protein supplement for their
feed-lot operation after it is
dried and ground. The
Wisslers put up 90 to 100
acres of com silage and
about 90 acres of high
moisture com in special
silos.
Glen Wissler, the father,
told the group they feed out
about 400 head of steers
every year. Their bam
facility has a maximum
limit of 450 to 475 head.
The cattle are brought in
at 812 pounds, according to
Wissler, and are trucked to
Ephrata primarily from
Virginia.
look at Beechdale Farms
saw Beechdale Farms
buying 135 females in 22
states and in 5 Canadian
provinces.
In the early years, Conrad
admitted to a lot of calving
troubles, poor conception
rates and too much turnover
in his herd. But now, he
stated he has a closed herd,
with his replacement heifers
coming from his own cows
To help in calving,
Conrad told the group he
uses a closed circuit
television to keep an eye on
the cows This was brought
about by so many of the
calves having to be pulled in
the farm’s early years
His Simmental calves,
cows and bulls are kept on a
records management
system to help in selecting
the best animals to keep,
breed, or sell. The 205 day
adjusted weaning weight for
Their feeding program
consists of feeding free
choice silage, with 1%
pounds of protein from
October until February.
Then the cattle are given 5
pounds of gram per head
every day.
This feeding program
continues until May, when
the cattle are marketed,
weighing about 1200 pounds.
Wissler said he is a firm
believer in worming the
animals, but he only worms
after a veterinarian advises
him to based on a manure
sample.
His health program also
includes adding trisulfa to
the water when the steers
are moved into the feedlot,
and he feeds them only hay
for 10 days to lessen the risks
of shipping fever. He pointed
out he does not vaccinate or
implant the steers for fast
weight gams.
Along with their cattle, the
Wisslers raise hogs, crossing
Yorkshires, Hampshires,
and Durocs. They keep
around 100 gilts and sell their
feeder pigs to a nearby
farmer.
When asked if they ever
received any complaints
about their farming
operation from the new
homes built across from the
farm, Wissler smiled and
said “No, because we sold
them the lots.”
his calves is 660 pounds for
the bull calves and 580
pounds for the heifers.
Conrad also pointed out
that his herd is 50 percent
polled, noting that in Sim
mentals the polled animals
are considered inferior to
those that are homed.
In his breeding program,
Conrad said they breed their
heifer calves at 13 to 14
months of age These heifers
then calve when they are 22
months old.
For sires, Conrad breeds
most of his cows to the
Simmental bulls known as
Signal, Galant, and Beat,
with seven other bulls used
to service the remaining
cows in his herd
The breeding is done by
artificial insemination, he
said, in order to use the best
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