82-Lmca»fr Farming, Saturday, March 17,1984
For Mervin Peifer 4-H
Has Been a Lifelong Career
BY SALLY BAIR
Staff Correspondent
Lancaster County is joining
Pennsylvania in celebrating 4-H
Week from March 18-25,
recognizing the largest volunteer
organization in the world. The
greatest strength of the program is
its volunteer leaders and the
dedication they show year after
year.
Mervin Peifer, Rl, Manheim,
completed his 29th year as a 4-H
leader, and, like many leaders, he
began his 4-H career as a 4-H’er
himself. When some neighbors
called upon him to help with the
Lititz-Manheim Club as a leader he
agreed, and his work as a 4-H
leader began. He first helped with
com and tobacco projects but has
now become a very skilled leader
of the capon project. He presently
serves as a leader with the Elm-
Penryn Club.
Mervin recalls, “Community
clubs tised to consist of mainly
agricultural things, but now they
have everything under the sun.
They are more diversified than
they had been.”
The wide diversity is fine with
Mervin as he explains, “If you
have enough leaders to take care of
it, there is nothing wrong with it. It
is not just agriculture anymore; it
is also surburban and city.” At this
point Merv’s wife Emma Ruth
chimes in, "That’s why I was
never a 4-H’er.” She laughingly
points out that she grew up in the
“city” of Manheim so being a 4-
H’er was never a consideration for
her.
Being a 4-H leader is seldom an
isolated role, and in this case
Emma Ruth is very supportive. “I
help out when needed. I do enjoy
helping,” she says. The three
Peifer children, Linda Esben
shade, Susan Hess and Mike, were
all all 4-H’ers and from having
children in the club, Merv knows
the importance of parental in
volvement.
“If a kid doesn’t have parental
aid he has to struggle. If his parent
is behind him it makes all the
difference in the world,” Merv
says. The amount of support from
parents hasn’t changed much over
the years. As Mervin puts it, “A
certain portion of them give you
’1 ■
Having sold his dairy cows about four years ago, Merv still
likes to keep some livestock on the farm. This is one of the few
lambs that he raises each year. He also raises about 700
capons annually, but wilt not be getting them until June.
support.”
What does 4-H offer the young
person? “It is the experience they
get - the training, the respon
sibility,” Merv replies. “There is a
lot of experience that is ‘free.’
There is a lot to be learned and if
you have a good instructor you can
go a long way.”
Both Peifers cited the 4-H ex
changes, the opportunity to travel
to Penn State and other op
portunities as good reasons to
remain active in 4-H.
A big change over the years has
been the increased responsibility
of the leader in the projects. Merv
says, “County agents used tc do all
the scoring. Now leaders do that.
Leaders play a bigger role in 4-H
now than they used to.”
Mervin recalls when his girls
had capon as 4-H projects and they
had 50 capons on their farm. “I
remember wondering what we
would do with all those capons,” he
laughs.
Well, they took care of those 50
birds and now the Peifers market
about 700 capons annually. At one
point they had as many as 1100, but
have decided that 700 is about
optimum.
Usually the Peifers market 80
percent of the birds dressed, but
with the arrival of the avian in
fluenza in Lancaster County, he
was required to sell them all
dressed this year. Dressing that
many birds is no problem, but it
did keep the whole family working
to fill the orders at Thanksgiving
and Christmas.
The Peifers market the capons
both wholesale and retail and have
customers who return year after
year to get the birds, which many
people prefer over other kinds of
poultry. Mervin explained that the
birds average from nine to 12
pounds at the time of dressing, and
he adds, “The advantage over
turkey meat is that it is a moister
meat and there is a lot of white
meat.”
Of course it is not surprising to
find the Peifers have several
freezers full of the capon meat, and
when asked how they like to eat it,
Merv said, “You name it and we do
it with capon meat.”
Round-up for the 4-H capon
projects has traditionally been held in
Sitting at the kitchen table, with plaques from the Farm Show hanging behind them,
are Mervin and Emma Ruth Peifer look through a 4-H file as they prepare for the 1984 4-
H year. Mervin is currently a 4-H leader for the Elm-Penryn Club.
conjunction with the Lancaster
Kiwanis Club meeting. In recent
years through the interest of
Clarence Keener the Manheim
Rotary expressed a desire to do
something for 4-H, and offered a
show and auction to members in
the Manheim area. Eventually it
expanded to include the Lititz
Rotary, and it offers a nice op
portunity for the 4-H’ers to market
some of their birds.
Mervin recalls that one man
helped bid the price of a capon up
to $2O, and although he was not the
successful bidder, he thought that
meant $2O per bird, not per pound!
Last year the winning bird brought
$l6 per pound. According to Merv,
this kind of auction “gives the kids
something to work for.”
Although some feel competition
should be de-emphasized, Mervin
says, “Competition creates in
terest. They have to try harder.”
Children who take the 4-H capon
project not only learn to raise the
birds, but also how to dress them
for market.
Since the class was initiated in
1978, Merv has displayed his ex
pertise in the “best dressed capon”
open classes at the Pennsylvania
Farm Show. Each year he enters
one bird in his name and one in his
wife’s, and each year he has come
home with a wooden plaque for
taking first place. What does it
take? “You have to spend a little
extra time. We semi-scald the
birds,” he states.
Usually the Peifers dress just
two capons to enter, although this
year they were forced to do a third
one when they found that one they
had selected has a blemish on its
wing.
Merv says it’s too soon to tell
what effect the avain influenza will
have on this year’s capon project.
"It’s a question I can’t answer,” he
says candidly. "I am hoping to go
another two months before we say
yes or no. I hope in that length of
time we can get a green light.
"There will be capons, but whether
there will be a 4-H capon project
we don’t know.”
The Peifers flock did not con
tract the ailment. He said,
"Thankfully it did not seem to
affect small flocks.” The bulk of
his capons were gone by Christmas
and he will not be getting chicks
until June.
During those years of slowly
increasing his capon flock, Mervin
was also milking cows. He said, “I
milked cows for 40 years. I had to
cut down and four years ago I sold
the cows. I miss my cows.” With a
smile, he adds, “I don’t miss the
work.”
Mervin is the fourth generation
of his family to live at their present
location at the tip of Manheim
Township. Their historic home,
built in 1792, sits over the spring
which is the beginning of the Little
Conestoga Creek. The farm,
designated a Century Farm a few
igl js 4-H files in the kitchen of
his farm home in Manheim Township. Mervin has completed
his 29th year as a leader, working primarily with capon
projects.
years ago, is in a very picturesque
setting.
In addition to being a project
leader, Merv has served four years
on the 4-H Leaders Advisory
Council, formed four years ago to
advise and assist the Extension
office in carrying out 4-H
programs. One of the Council’s big,
on-going responsibilities has been
to organize and carry out the 4-H
Fair held each August as the
culmination of the 4-H year.
Merv has severed on the food
committee, and that first year,
when the committee did the
cooking and serving he could be
found serving up’pizza and other
food from the Farm and Home
Center kitchen. Emma Ruth was
working beside him, just as hard.
Now his responsibhty is to line up
(cmcstead
tA/otes
the food stands which are operated
by 4-H clubs as fundraisers, and
assist the clubs as they arrive. He
says it goes a little more smoothly
now, and about the Fair he says,
“It takes some cooperation among
the leaders or it will not
materialize.”
What is his biggest satisfaction
over the years? Merv says, "If I
can help a child. My motto used to
be I’d rather see them with a smile
on their face than a frown.’ You
can’t please them all, but when a
child tries, your efforts are worth
it.”
Merv is modest about his ac
complishments as a 4-H leader, but
it is precisely because of people
like him that the 4-H program
throughout Pennsylvania is suc
cessful.