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
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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
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..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
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