B2—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, June 4,1983
Father and daughter do the chores at Redal Acres
By Sally Bair
Staff Correspondent
BIGLERVILLE Ten years
ago Robin Ridinger purchased her
first 4-H calf, Elva Kate.
She still has Elva Kate, along
with 20 other animals of her own
all registered Holsteins. While
Robin says she’ll never know for
sure if this developed her interest
in farming, it certainly had an
influence.
Today at age 22, Robin is far
ming full time with her father,
Jim, on their 176-acre farm, Redal
Acres, near Biglerville. Her
mother Audrey and two sisters,
Dawn 20, and Laurie, 18, also help
with the operation.
Robin graduated from Penn
State in 1982 with a degree in
general agriculture, and has been
fanning with her father since. She
says, “I had no problem coming
home. A lot of people in our
fraternity went home to farm.”
Robin is a little sister in Delta
Theta Sigma fraternity at Penn
State.
One thing that Robin is very out
spoken about is the fact that many
people, including friends and
neighbors, ask her why she
bothered going to college if she
wanted to work on the farm. She
replies, “It doesn’t hurt anybody to
gather more information. I met a
lot of people. At school (college) it
is accepted to go into fanning.
Your advisors support you if this is
what you want to do. Many people
go home. I can’t imagine not doing
this. I am proud of what I do.”
Actually Rooin laughs now as
she says, “I didn’t want to go to
college. My mom made me go. I’m
really glad she did.”
Going to college has opened
many new horizons for her, and
she says, “I didn’t know how milk
was priced. It’s not something you
sit down and talk about even
though you work with it all the
time. Economics helped me a lot. I
also learned about somatic cell
counts, and I learned a lot by
visiting the DHIA offices and dairy
breeding research center. People
don’t understand how much you
get out of college.”
Robin started, out her college
career majoring in physical
education at the Mont Alto campus
of Penn State. “I didn’t see much
of a future in it,” she says as she
wmestead %Moies
.\ooin > inger shovels silage into the trough for heifers in their heifer barn at their
Biglerville farm. Room is working full time with her family on their dairy farm after
graduating in general agriculture at Penn State last June.
talks about the switch she made to
general agriculture.
She chose general ag instead of
dairy production purposefully
because, “I wanted to study, dairy,
beef, chickens and hogs. I wanted
to get some understanding of what
other farmers go through. I took a
lot of dairy courses, but I also took
an agronomy course because I like
to work in the fields.” She took
flower arranging and vegetable
gardening because of a great
personal interest in those areas. As
a 4-H’er in Adams County she took
those projects and was a state
flower winner.
When Robin got her first calf, the
family did not live on the farm
where the milking and farming
took place. However, since she
needed to care for the calf, she
began accompanying her father.
She recalls, I tied her to a wagon
tongue to wash her and washed her
with a bar of soap. My mother is a
part-time beautician and would
come and help to bleach her. You
put so much into your first calf.”
Elva Kate also may have
become a favorite because she did
so well at her first shows. Robin
went to the District show in her
first year of showing, and placed
sixth at the state s show with her.
That accomplishment sent Robin
on her way. “I didn’t think
anything could be that great. I
wanted to continue.”
Elva Kate came from Brown
valley Farm at Littlestown.
Owners Ed and Tim Brown were
second cousins to Robin and en
couraged her in her 4-H activities.
She bought two more animals from
them, Dollie and Emily, and those
three cows became the foundation
for her present herd of 20, eight of
which are milking.
Her first animal remains such a
favorite, however, that Robin
enjoys telling about the favored
treatment she receives. For in
stance, Elva Kate did not get bred
until the ninth service last time,
and required hormones throughout
the pregnancy. “We give special
attention to our animals,” Robin
says.
Robin has worked on the farm
and in the fields since they moved
to their present location about
eight years ago. “We always
helped every summer. Dawn and I
love making hay. We help our
A 1
Elva Kate, Robin’s first 4-H animal, may be responsible for
starting Robin in a career of farming. Robin says Elva Kate is
her "favorite,” and remains very tame and cooperative
because of the favored treatment she received over the
years.
neighbors too. When we’re working
we make a game out of it and it
makes it go faster.” Dawn is a
senior in dairy production at Penn
State.
Robin adds, “I like to do physical
work. I do the DHIA records but I
don’t enjoy it.” She also says she
likes to milk listening to country
music. “It’s helpful,” she says.
Although milking is not her
favorite job on the farm, she has
taken a job milking part time for
Bob Gitt at Penn Gate Farms at
Littlestown. On the days she goes
there to milk, she rises at 3 a.m. to
be there and milks from 4 a.m. to 6
a.m. She gets home in time to help
with the milking there from 6:30
a.m. to 8:30 a.m. In the afternoon
she goes through the same routine.
It’s a job which earns her some
extra money and helps her see
another farming operation.
Robin is proud of a recent ac
complishment in successfully
breeding a Jersey on the farm. Her
sister Laurie has Jerseys for 4-H
animals and there are a few others
in the herd. She says she’s not
about to put, any A 1 organizations
out of the business and adds that
they use Atlantic Breeders bulls on
the herd with the breeding done by
Atlantic technicians.
Calves on the farm are raised in
hutches on whole milk as much as
possible. “We try to avoid milk
replacers,” Robin states. From the
hutches, the calves go to heifer
barns where they are grouped
according to age. Robin points out
that she and Dawn helped build the
barn. “We helped put in the main
trusses. It was a learning ex
perience. You leam something
new every day.”
Learning is part of what Robin
enjoys on the farm. She states,
“People sometimes think college
people know everything. You get
much more out of actually
working. Ours is a small farm, but
it keeps me busy and it is enough
forme.”
[
I
i
Robin helps with the milking on a regular basis, and part of
her job is to help prepare and clean the milking system for the
pipeline milker.
Robin is still active in 4-H, as a
gardening leader. Her mother is
organizational leader for the
Beecherstown 4-H Club. Robin also
does the planting and harvesting of
the family garden, but leaves the
preserving to someone else. She
makes it clear that cooking and
cleaning are also not her favorite
activities, much preferring to do
outside working. '
When she was involved in 4-H in
Adams County, she participated in
many projects and other activitiik
“4-H helped me a 10l
and says,
had to take a speech class, aniit
wasn’t bad because I always did
demonstrations in 4-H.”
About the future of farming,
Robin says, “I hate to see smaller
farmers going out of business.
Farmers need help. Everything
starts at the farm. They need to
meet so many standards most
people don’t realize that. ”
As for her future, Robin is more
certain. “I’ll always be farming.’’
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