A26—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 16,1981 Dairying dream coming true for cousins BY DICK ANGLESTEIN REISTVILLE As soon as they’re old enough to toddle after their parents to their dairy bam, a lot of farm youngsters begin to shape a dream in their minds. At first, when the visits to the bam primarily open a whole new world of fun and adventure of climbing over hay bales or throwing a handful of the sweet smelling stalks to one of the herd, the dream is still a bit hazy. But, as responsibilities expand to assume a major share of feeding or milking chores, the focus of the dream begins to become sharper and sharper. That dream is to one day milk your own cows. And so it was with two cousins who are just completing their vo ag studies at Eastern Lebanon County High School. Just as the dream slowly began to take shape m their youthful minds over the years, it is now materializing in the form of con crete block, wood and metal on the former Krall farm along Ramona Drive northwest of Reistville in Lebanon County. And after the construction is completed, the cousins, John Kline, 17, and Ken Heisey, 18, should begin to realize the fmal phase of the dream of milking then own cows approximately in August. “When we were little kids, we talked about how some day we’d milk together,” Kline said. “I guess back then it was more in a way of kidding each other,” Heisey added. But that beginning of the dream survived a period when Heisey moved from the Lebanon area. His father, Paul, was formerly associated with the Heidelberg Church of the Brethren and moved on to charges in Maryland, Sun bury and most recently in Indiana. “I came back summers to work on the farms of my brothers, Walter, of Schaefferstown, and Marlin, of Annville,” Heisey said. “And we still talked about milking cows together.” Heisey also remained and completed his senior year studies atElco. “Now, we’re looking forward to getting started with what we’ve been talking about all these years,” Kline said. As the dairying venture takes shape, the cousins, despite their still very young years, are following a construction program that will provide the most modem of facilities, yet retain some of the Lebanon junty cousins, Ken Heisey, left, the trio lives is currently being converted to a and John Kline, right, flank Kline’s grand- dairy operation, which will include 61 milkers father, Harry, on bench outside large brick and about 25 replacement heifers, home that dates back to 1813. Farm on which '"Vv-i -*«QBBfca'(&, ..V“«. v j „ . .-. i-'** -cv ’?£?*-. -,A.V>? ij ’ jy - 5 ; *>? .* - -- > A/*’,- <-■' * ' V,LV*\ \ New wing to house milking hei is as an addition to one of the largest bank barns located in Lebanon County. The original 1890 barn measures 150 feet long and 55 feet wide; while the new 135-foot addition will contain 61 stalls. Also historical charm and significance that the farm contains. The single-story addition to house the milking herd mil blend well with the original 1890 stone and wood structure, which is one of the largest bank barns in the Lebanon County area. The original bam is 150 feet long and 55 feet wide. The 135-foot addition is being constructed as an L-shaped wing to the bam. It will contain 61 stalls for the milkers. A pipeline milking system will be installed. “We’ll be adding a milk house with a 1,000-gallon tank, which will have a utility room and a vestibule,” Kline, who is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Norman Kline, R 2, Myerstown, said. Other obvious additions have been made to transform the faculties of an old-time general farm into a dairy operation. There’s a new 18 X 70-foot concrete silo with a patriotic red, white and blue top that contains com silage. And a used 20 X 40-foot Harvestore was moved and re erected for high moisture com. A Slurrystore unit, which will hold 194,000 gallons, wdl be erected. The manure will be pumped underground to the unit from the ham’s gutter cleaner. “This will give us six months of storage capacity,” Heisey said. “We’ll be hauling only twice a year and plowing it right in.” An 85-foot feed bunk with mixer box is already in operation as Holstein bulls from other Kline farms are being fed out until the dairy operation is completely ready to be launched. But other renovations to the farm are not as obvious. The entire ground floor of the original bam bad earlier been gutted out and modernized. “There was no steel in the bam at all,” Kline explained. “The ground floor was just a senes of wood horse stalls.” The floor was jacked up, even though it had no sag, and concrete footers with steel support posts were erected. The ground floor now contains two heifer stalls, two rows of 22 free stalls and four box stalls. It is planned that about 25 head of heifer replacements will be housed in the area when the dairy operation gets started. The upper part of the barn will - *w t? > ..own are a new 18x70-foot siio and a used 20x40-foot Harvestore that was moved and re-erected on the farm along Ramona Drive northwest of Reistvilie. be utilized for hay and machinery storage. Kline already has six cows, four heifers and three bulls of his own and the herd will be expanded for the new facility. In addition to the large bank bam, the farm has other historical features. The large brick house, believed to date to 1813, contains both a main section and a summer area. Once containing 17 rooms, some renovation'has been done to its intenor, consolidating rooms and modernizing the living area. Massive brick arches are found m the basement, which contains a butchering area. Next to the house is likely one of the more unique historical structures for this area. It’s a wood pump house, with a steeple on which a windmill once caught the Lebanon County breezes. The pump house; still contains much of the original mechanism, which pumped the Wood pump house, which is complete with steeple that once contained a windmill, is one of the historic features of the former Krall farm in Lebanon County, on which a new dairy operation will soon be operated by cousins, John Kline and Ken Heisey. water into a tank for gravity flow into the house. Belpw the pump bouse is an 85- foot, hand-dug well. Also contained in it-are an area that appears to have been a workshop and a plaster-finished room, which may have been home for a hired hand at onetime. In addition to the two cousins, Kline’s grandfather, Harry, makes his home on the farm. He’s still quite active with gardening and other activities as raising white pigeons. Scone conservation measures have also been done on the 123-acre farm, which has six acres of pasture and 11 of woodland. A large ditch was put in the length of the farm to drain six small ponds that were scattered across the largely flat tillable area. ' Yes, the dairying dream of the two Lebanon County cousins is rapidly being realized. And, they’re learning that as the <(TurntoPageA2B)
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